Futureproof is a platform that helps customers split their savings between bitcoin, gold and interest, says Goobit CEO Gustav Buder. The trading itself happens at the partners, not at Goobit.
Photo: Gustav Buder became chief executive of Goobit Group on 15 August and presented the Futureproof savings platform a month later.
Goobit presented its Futureproof savings platform on Monday evening, bringing bitcoin, gold and interest-bearing assets together in one product. The company was itself refused a MiCA licence in July and has appealed. In an interview with Kaupr, chief executive Gustav Buder explains how the product is put together, and why the launch does not depend on the outcome of the appeal.
"I would say it's the best way to start allocating to Bitcoin. The aim is to give everyone a simple way to start saving into Bitcoin," Buder tells Kaupr.
Futureproof is neither bitcoin held directly nor an exchange-traded fund. Buder describes it as a way of holding bitcoin and gold through partners.
The holding is to be backed one to one, and the customer should be able to sell out and hold bitcoin themselves if they want to. The customer picks an allocation and can adjust it over time.
His reasoning is that people do not know when to buy.
"The biggest issue we've recognised when we talk to customers is that everyone asks me when it's the right time to buy Bitcoin. And as a Bitcoiner, you always say it's the right time. But it's not that simple for the everyday person."
The point of the platform is that the customer sets a monthly amount and an allocation, and does not have to follow the market day to day.
Asked how the product is regulated, Buder breaks it down.
Bitcoin goes through Kvarn X, which he describes as a MiCA-authorised company. The gold goes through Kvarn Metals. Who provides the interest-bearing component has still not been made public, and Buder names no one.
The savings solution itself, the investment account, sits in a bank structure, he says.
Asked whether there is a single arrangement holding the whole portfolio, he says no. Goobit is a technology platform that gives the customer the tools to allocate between the three assets.
Goobit does not itself offer the crypto exposure, Buder says.
"I would say that we are not offering that. This is through our partners. That's a big difference here."
The platform does the maths and the backtesting, he says.
Asked directly by Kaupr who the customer is buying from when they buy bitcoin or gold, he says it is not Goobit.
"Exactly. We are just a platform for them to do that."
The customer relationship with Goobit concerns information and data, not transactions. All transactions, investments and money go through the Kvarn X partnership, he says.
The model is not new to the financial industry, Buder argues, pointing to the investment platform Montrose, which operated on a partner's licence for several years before obtaining its own.
Goobit still has no MiCA authorisation, and the appeal is unresolved.
"We have just been denied once, and that's the only thing that's happened. I want to have a MiCA licence, of course, and we want to be fully compliant."
He says the decision to appeal has already been taken, because they felt the process had not been handled well enough. At the same time, he leaves the door open to a fresh application later.
BTCX continues as before for the customers it has today. Goobit is a Swedish company focused on the Swedish market, Buder says.
Development is not finished. The company wants to develop the platform together with its customers, and the plan is to let beta testers in within a month. Full rollout is closer to the turn of the year.
Sources: Goobit Group, Kaupr
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