MakeBanc founder Chris Mihos said institutional capital will not move into crypto at scale unless the market solves a simpler problem first: how to keep assets safe, reduce operational friction and give investors a structure they can trust. In his view, the convergence between institutions and crypto is already underway, but large pools of liquidity still need better rails before they can enter comfortably.
Fifth-time founder focuses on pain, not novelty
Mihos described MakeBanc as his fifth startup. He has worked across mining, energy, fashion and retail, and said one of his previous ventures reached an exit. That experience shaped the way he looks at new markets. The target, he said, has to be a real pain point rather than a minor inconvenience.
He also argued that crypto should not be treated as a single category. Instead, he broke it into 4 parts: commodities such as Bitcoin as a store of value; equity-like assets such as Ethereum, Hyperliquid and Aave with operating and earnings potential; stablecoins as currency equivalents; and the underlying technology stack. Institutions, he said, are starting to use crypto technology and stablecoins to trade equivalents of equities and commodities, which he sees as a major unlock.
Two gates still block broader institutional adoption
Mihos said 2 barriers have delayed wider institutional participation. The first is technical complexity. Crypto requires users to understand key management, staking, bridging and the basic logic behind self-sovereign asset ownership. That learning curve remains steep for both individuals and institutions.
The second barrier comes from traditional finance expectations. Once institutions arrive, the question is not how to maximize upside at any cost. It is how to avoid losses. Mihos said the industry has moved beyond the early phase where broad exposure alone could generate outsized returns. The current phase is more focused on maturity, structure and downside control.
MakeBanc’s model centers on non-custodial ownership and insured access
The company’s core premise is that professional asset managers are still the best positioned to generate returns, especially those with hedge fund backgrounds, arbitrage expertise and multi-strategy experience. The problem is reaching those managers in a secure way. Historically, that often meant using separately managed accounts on major exchanges because liquidity was concentrated there, but that setup also introduced counterparty risk.
MakeBanc’s approach is to preserve non-custodial ownership through infrastructure partners, allow professional managers to execute trades, and add 100% asset insurance covering technical risk. Mihos said the platform also aims to remove friction around on-ramps and off-ramps, letting users interact through crypto or fiat depending on preference.
Trust is built in layers, not with slogans
On the issue of credibility, Mihos said the company works from a simple principle: “Only the paranoid survive.” He described trust as a 3-layer structure. The first layer is performance credibility. Managers on the platform must have a verifiable track record, not just backtested claims.
The second layer is custody. He pointed to work with institutional-grade custody providers such as Ceffu, where assets are held in cold storage and connected to Binance for execution. The third layer is product design. MakeBanc intentionally avoids looping structures and extreme leverage. Its system uses on-chain accounting with off-chain trade execution, aiming for stability and insurance-backed protection rather than complexity for its own sake.
Active management over passive holding
Mihos said institutions looking at crypto usually face several routes, including ETFs, DeFi, hedge fund vehicles and traditional SMAs. But the hardest problem, in his view, is the emotional cost of passive buy-and-hold exposure in a highly volatile market.
That is why MakeBanc is leaning toward infrastructure for actively managed strategies. Mihos compared the idea to an actively managed ETF. The objective is to give users crypto exposure without forcing them to absorb the full psychological impact of sharp drawdowns. The platform is designed to let users allocate across multiple vaults tied to different managers and strategies, rather than concentrating everything in one approach.
Fees, target users and no token plan for now
Mihos compared MakeBanc’s business model to “Crypto’s Stripe.” The company charges a platform fee plus an automated trading processing fee. As an example, he said that if an asset manager earns a $100,000 performance fee, MakeBanc can charge for automating the capital flow and operational steps that would otherwise be handled manually.
On the user side, the company is focused on 2 profiles. One is “Recovering Degens,” people who have built meaningful wealth in crypto but no longer want to stay glued to the market around the clock. The other is “Yield Seekers,” users who want crypto exposure but do not know how to enter the space safely.
For the next 3 to 6 months, Mihos said the company will focus on 3 areas: reducing crypto complexity, including evaluating embedded wallet solutions such as Privy; improving fiat-to-crypto flexibility; and onboarding more asset managers. He also said the company has no token plan at this stage, adding that tokenomics should only be considered if they clearly fit the business itself.