[DigitalToday reporter Hwang Chi-gyu] "Ethereum is not an asset for long-term saving. It can be a layer for making auxiliary products, but the only thing that can be used as a long-term saving tool is bitcoin. If you look at scarcity and the details, bitcoin and Ethereum are too different," he said.

Baek Hoon-jong (백훈종), CEO of DA Ground, which runs the bitcoin accumulation service Smashfi, said that after working in crypto for the past few years he concluded that in the end only bitcoin works as a cryptocurrency for storing value and saving.

At first, he ran a crypto finance service that also handled so-called altcoins besides bitcoin. As he worked on it, he came to judge that focusing on bitcoin was the most likely winning bet in terms of sustainability. He was not like that initially, but after experiencing the crypto market he became a so-called "bitcoin maximalist."

DA Ground introduced Sandbank, a centralized crypto finance service that allows users to deposit various cryptocurrencies including bitcoin and earn interest income, in 2021. It then introduced Smashfi in October 2023 and shifted direction to a bitcoin-centered service.

Baek said, "We started the Sandbank service with the goal of trying to play a role connecting crypto and traditional finance, but as we refined the business model there was no alternative other than bitcoin. I concluded that altcoins have a structure where early entrants pass losses on to later entrants, and they are not creating use cases. The only thing that improves a broken fiat currency system is bitcoin."

Smashfi is an installment-style accumulation service that deals only in bitcoin. It is focused on supporting power users who know how to handle crypto wallets so they can keep accumulating bitcoin cost-effectively.

The core is a smart algorithm that buys more when prices are low and buys less when they rise, and an automation function that supports keeping the bitcoin a user buys in the user's personal wallet rather than on Smashfi. Baek said, "If a user registers a personal wallet address, when a certain amount accumulates on Smashfi the assets are automatically transferred to the wallet."

Similar services exist. But Baek said Smashfi is differentiated when it comes to operational details. "It is based on our own platform that does not depend on an exchange, and it supports automation for 'self-custody,' where users manage crypto directly in their wallets," he said. "On Smashfi, you can buy bitcoin but you cannot sell it. We are focusing on optimising bitcoin accumulation," he added.

There are 2 main revenue models. Baek said one is a fee for automatically transferring assets from Smashfi to users' personal wallets, and the other is sharing profits by managing the bitcoin assets held by some customers on their behalf. "Some customers want to entrust management of the bitcoin they hold," he said. "We use this to do options trading and share the profits generated."

Smashfi targets users who know how to use wallets, but in reality there are not many people who can use wallets. Many people buy and sell coins on crypto exchanges, but those who manage crypto in wallets are still a minority. That could mean the space that DA Ground can penetrate with Smashfi is relatively narrow. Baek said that if the company expands globally, the market size is already substantial.

Baek said, "Smashfi is a global service targeting people who self-custody bitcoin. These users amount to about 200 million worldwide. We are doing business based on an overseas corporation rather than domestically. We also established a corporation in Singapore because we judged it would be better to obtain a Singapore licence. We will also establish corporations in Europe and the United States that support local regulations."

"In the global market there are many services that use algorithms to buy cheaply on exchanges and sell for you, and there are also many bitcoin wallet companies. Smashfi is a service that creates a flow. The core is supporting bitcoin enthusiasts' behavioural patterns at once. It automates a series of processes: buying, growing holdings, and storing them in a wallet," he said.

Baek said bitcoin is already establishing itself as a means of storing value, and recently its potential as a medium of exchange is also growing. He expects cases of using bitcoin for payments to increase.

Baek said, "Once the base of people who treat bitcoin as a store of value passes a threshold, cases of bitcoin being used as a medium of exchange will also increase. Square, a mobile payment platform, added a bitcoin payment function to POS systems. Even if a customer does not ask whether bitcoin payments are accepted, or a merchant does not put up a sign saying bitcoin is accepted, customers can choose to pay in bitcoin or fiat currency, and the merchant can receive bitcoin if it wants regardless of how the customer pays. It will evolve like this over time," he said.