Bear market allows crypto companies to ‘listen’ to users: KuCoin exec

Dorian Vincileoni, an executive at KuCoin, spoke with Cointelegraph at the Proof of Talk blockchain conference in Paris about navigating the state of the current market.

Crypto has been at the mercy of an ongoing bear market that began in the spring of 2022 after a historic bull run that had investors, developers and users piling into the Web3 space. 

Despite interest slowing down and companies needing to adjust to the current market conditions, many in the space still view this as a time to mature the industry. 

Cointelegraph spoke with Dorian Vincileoni, the Europe business development lead at KuCoin, at the Proof of Talk 2023 blockchain conference on how companies in the space can best utilize the bear market with users as the main focus.

Vincileoni told Cointelegraph that bear markets have given companies time to build, innovate and develop products and services to create more efficiency for users. He explained that during bull markets there is “so much noise on the market” making it harder to hear community needs.

“When it’s a bear market, you have much more legitimate opinions from your organic user base. We are closely listening to what our organic base is saying and what they are interested in.”

The executive continued by saying this is not the time for exchanges to be “dragged by the spiral of negative news” but rather to focus on improvement to know where to go next when favorable market conditions return. 

“We really try to look at communities. If there is an actual organic community invested in this project or interested, then it’s our objective to provide service to them.”

“One thing that we have seen is that throughout this bear market, projects still managed to create organic communities,” he said. “The level of interest in the market is down but not nonexistent at all.”

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KuCoin is not alone in its community-first approach. Cointelegraph recently spoke with Binance’s new vice president of marketing, who also stressed that the crypto space needs to “double down” on community support during both the bear market and regulatory uncertainty.

Vincileoni said when it comes to regulatory uncertainty, they have stopped trying to “assume” what’s next. Instead, when given clarity, it’s best to then react and adapt, calling the space an “adaptive race.”

“We really try to focus on what we know how to do and what we have an influence on, which is guaranteeing the safety of the assets of users at all times. [The industry] can have a real impact on this.”

In fact, he told Cointelegraph that a market survey done by KuCoin revealed a large interest from users regarding the implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) for security purposes. 

Recently, the cryptocurrency exchange’s Twitter account was subject to a compromise that resulted in users losing funds due to a fake giveaway announcement. However, KuCoin promptly refunded affected users. 

Vincileoni closed by saying despite the current conditions, he believes the market is still “filled with opportunities” and that “we are really in the beginning of an era that we barely can envision.” 

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