Suitcases of Cash, Mt. Gox Collapse & How Bitcoin Survived the Wild West Days | Michael Moro

Michael Moro, former CEO of Genesis Trading and current Chief Strategy Officer at INX, takes us inside Bitcoin's early institutional days when anarchists showed up with suitcases full of cash and nobody trusted regulated brokers. From witnessing Bitcoin's rise from $100 to $1,300 in 2013, to surviving the Mt. Gox collapse that nearly killed crypto, Michael shares untold stories from the trenches of building the first institutional Bitcoin trading desk. In this raw conversation, we explore: • The Wild West era when cypherpunks refused KYC and brought briefcases of money • How Mt. Gox losing 850,000 Bitcoin almost ended everything • Why the 2014-2015 crypto winter was harder than any crash • The rise and fall of institutional crypto lending • How tokenized securities and RWAs will transform traditional finance • The dramatic shift from anti-crypto to pro-crypto regulation under the new administration Michael breaks down the evolution from Silk Road days to Wall Street adoption, revealing why Bitcoin's resilience after every "death" convinced early builders this technology was unstoppable. A must-watch for anyone wanting to understand how we got from basement anarchists to BlackRock Bitcoin ETFs.