Yoni Assia, Founder & CEO of eToro: From the Army to an Award Winning Crypto Platform

— Yoni Assia's early career as a trader starting at age 13, military service in Israeli intelligence, and eventual founding of eToro in 2007 as a social trading platform with gamified UI.

— eToro's evolution from FX and commodities trading to a multi-asset platform now serving 10 million users who traded approximately $1 trillion in annual volume, with 120+ country operations.

— Early crypto involvement: Bitcoin purchases at Mt. Gox (~$50K at $5 per coin), creation of the Colored Coins protocol (2012–13), and collaboration with 19-year-old Vitalik Buterin on tokenization before he built Ethereum.

— Bitcoin launch on eToro in late 2013, followed by three years of minimal adoption until Ethereum's 2017 surge (launched at $6, reached $400 in four months), driving explosive user growth and crypto becoming 90% of platform revenue temporarily.

— Chinese crypto market dominance pre-ban, the 2017 crash, and eToro's multi-asset resilience: crypto revenues eventually stabilized at ~10% as users diversified into stocks and commodities.

— eToro's planned U.S. expansion driven by three-part vision: blockchain infrastructure disruption of traditional finance, tokenization of the $150 trillion asset management industry, and de-pegging money creation from government control.

— Bitcoin purchased by eToro at Mt. Gox at ~$5 per coin (early 2011).

— Ethereum launched on eToro at $6; reached $400 within four months (2017).

— XRP peak driving day saw ~20,000 newly funded accounts on eToro in a single day (December 2017).

— Bitcoin declined from $7,000–$8,000 to $3,500 following China's 2017 ban; Assia notes this as the testing point that proved Bitcoin's resilience and signaled institutional entry into the bull run through $20,000.

— Crypto volume/revenue on eToro: peaked at ~90% of platform in 2017–18, currently normalized at ~10%.

— Retail participation in crypto and traditional asset trading remains suppressed by friction: money transfer difficulty, psychological resistance, and platform accessibility barriers. Multi-asset platforms that reduce friction drive long-term user retention beyond any single asset class boom or bust cycle.

— The convergence of finance and technology is a once-in-a-lifetime industry transformation. Companies positioned to enable tokenization, blockchain infrastructure, and frictionless global asset settlement will likely manage trillions of dollars in the next decade—a structural opportunity comparable to or exceeding the internet's disruption of advertising.

— Bitcoin's network resilience (surviving the China ban) and brand awareness (Coca-Cola–level recognition among children) position it as the foundational asset of digital finance; however, Ethereum and smart contract platforms enable the broader tokenization and automation infrastructure that underpins future financial systems.