The Token-Agnostic Strategy: How Fipto Built a Blockchain Business That Survives Bear Markets

The Token-Agnostic Strategy: How Fipto Built a Blockchain Business That Survives Bear Markets

In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Patrick Mollard, CEO and Co-Founder of Fipto, a blockchain payments platform that’s raised $16 million, addressed the question that haunts every blockchain company founder: how do you survive market volatility? His answer reveals a product architecture decision that separates infrastructure businesses from speculation plays.

The Volatility Question Every Blockchain Founder Faces

Building on blockchain technology means contending with a perception problem. The market sees “blockchain company” and assumes your business lives and dies by token prices. When Bitcoin crashes, investors wonder if your revenue disappears. When crypto enters a bear market, the assumption is that your growth stalls.

Patrick’s response cuts through this assumption with clarity about what Fipto actually builds. “For us, the volatility, when it’s a bear market, we say we’re not too impacted because we’re building on the technology behind it. So the blockchain and we at Fipto are totally agnostic of the tokens that our clients want to use to perform their payments.”

That last phrase—”totally agnostic of the tokens”—represents a fundamental product architecture decision. Fipto doesn’t have a preferred token. They don’t encourage customers to use specific cryptocurrencies. They don’t build features that only work with certain tokens. The platform enables corporate clients to use whatever tokens they choose for payments.

This agnosticism isn’t just marketing positioning. It’s structural insulation from the volatility that kills token-dependent businesses.

Building on Technology, Not Tokens

The distinction Patrick draws reveals two different ways to build blockchain businesses. One approach couples your business model to specific token performance. You might take transaction fees denominated in a specific cryptocurrency, hold reserves in volatile assets, or build products that only work with particular tokens. When those tokens crash, your economics collapse.

The alternative approach—Fipto’s approach—builds on blockchain as infrastructure technology while remaining agnostic about which tokens flow through that infrastructure. “We’re building on the technology behind it,” Patrick emphasizes. The value proposition comes from blockchain’s structural advantages: speed, transparency, predictability, and cost efficiency compared to correspondent banking networks.

These advantages persist regardless of whether Bitcoin trades at $20,000 or $60,000. International payments via blockchain are faster than SWIFT whether crypto markets are booming or crashing. The transparency of blockchain-based transactions doesn’t disappear during bear markets. The cost efficiency relative to traditional correspondent banking remains intact.

By building on the technology rather than betting on token prices, Fipto’s value proposition remains constant through market cycles.

The Honest Assessment of Bull Market Benefits

Patrick doesn’t claim complete immunity from market conditions. He’s more nuanced than that. “In a bull market, I must be honest and also say that we are not that much impacted, although, and I will come back to that later. I think for us, what the critical point is adoption.”

This honesty matters. Bull markets do create favorable conditions for blockchain infrastructure companies, even token-agnostic ones. When institutional players like BlackRock invest heavily in crypto ETFs, it legitimizes blockchain technology for corporate adopters. When mainstream financial institutions announce blockchain initiatives, it reduces the perceived risk of adoption.

But notice what Patrick emphasizes: adoption, not speculation. Bull markets help because they accelerate institutional adoption of blockchain technology, not because Fipto’s economics improve when token prices rise. The value comes from reduced friction in convincing enterprise legal and compliance teams, not from appreciation in token holdings.

Why Token Agnosticism Matters for Corporate Clients

The token-agnostic architecture solves a critical problem for Fipto’s target market: corporate treasury and payment professionals. These buyers don’t want to speculate on crypto. They want to move money efficiently between geographies.

When Fipto enables a corporate client to open wallets “in the coins and tokens they want to use to make their payments,” they’re giving treasury professionals control over their own risk management. If a corporate prefers stablecoins to minimize volatility exposure, they can use stablecoins. If they want to use specific tokens for particular corridors, they can make that choice.

This flexibility matters in enterprise sales. Corporate buyers want solutions that fit their existing risk frameworks, not solutions that force them to adopt new risk exposures. Token agnosticism means Fipto can serve conservative treasurers who only want to touch stablecoins and more aggressive clients exploring multiple token options.

The Infrastructure Layer That Persists

Patrick’s framing positions Fipto at a different layer of the stack than token-dependent businesses. They’re not building on crypto—they’re building the corporate access layer to blockchain technology. The distinction is subtle but strategically crucial.

Token-dependent businesses couple their success to specific implementations of blockchain technology. Infrastructure businesses build the layer that persists regardless of which specific implementations win. As new tokens emerge, new blockchains launch, and new use cases develop, the infrastructure layer that enables corporate access remains valuable.

This is why Patrick describes Fipto’s mission as facilitating “access to the new financial services to corporates.” The financial services themselves may change—new tokens, new protocols, new applications. But corporates will continue needing infrastructure that handles wallet management, compliance, governance, and integration with existing treasury systems.

When Institutional Adoption Actually Matters

Patrick’s acknowledgment of bull market benefits reveals what actually drives blockchain infrastructure businesses: institutional legitimization, not retail speculation.

“When institutionals like Blackrock are investing heavily in ETF’s and things like that’s obviously a supporting factor for us,” Patrick notes. This isn’t about Fipto’s economics improving when ETFs attract inflows. It’s about BlackRock’s participation reducing adoption barriers for enterprise customers.

When a major asset manager invests in crypto infrastructure, it signals to enterprise legal and compliance teams that blockchain technology has crossed a legitimacy threshold. That signal makes Patrick’s sales conversations easier—not because his product improved, but because the institutional environment became more favorable to adoption.

This dynamic explains why token-agnostic infrastructure businesses can benefit from bull markets without being destroyed by bear markets. Bull markets accelerate adoption by reducing institutional resistance. Bear markets slow adoption but don’t eliminate the core value proposition. The infrastructure layer persists through cycles because corporate clients still need efficient international payments regardless of crypto market sentiment.

The Strategic Positioning for Category Maturation

Patrick’s token-agnostic strategy positions Fipto for long-term category maturation rather than short-term speculation cycles. He’s betting that blockchain-based financial services will proliferate, but he’s not betting on which specific tokens or implementations will dominate.

“We are convinced that there is a whole world of new financial services that will be used by corporate clients based on blockchain technology in the future,” Patrick explains. This conviction doesn’t require predicting which tokens appreciate. It requires believing that blockchain enables valuable financial services—and that corporates will need infrastructure to access those services.

This positioning creates optionality. As new blockchain-based financial services emerge, Fipto’s token-agnostic infrastructure can support them without requiring architectural changes. They’re not locked into supporting specific tokens that may become obsolete. They’re building the access layer that works regardless of which tokens or services ultimately prove most valuable.

The Broader Lesson for Infrastructure Founders

Patrick’s approach offers a framework for any founder building on emerging technology that comes with speculation markets attached. Don’t couple your business model to the most volatile layer of the stack. Build infrastructure that provides value regardless of which specific implementations win.

For blockchain, that means building on the technology’s structural advantages—speed, transparency, cost efficiency—rather than betting on specific token performance. For other emerging technologies, it means identifying the persistent value layer versus the implementation layer that might change.

The companies that survive volatility build infrastructure that persists through market cycles. They benefit from bull markets through accelerated adoption but maintain their value proposition through bear markets. They’re building businesses, not making leveraged bets on technology speculation.

Fipto founded in 2022—timing that seemed potentially problematic given the crypto market conditions. But by building token-agnostic infrastructure rather than token-dependent products, they created a business that could survive bear markets while positioning for the institutional adoption that eventually materialized.

That’s the difference between building on blockchain and building blockchain infrastructure. One couples your fate to token prices. The other creates persistent value regardless of market sentiment. Patrick chose the latter, and that architectural decision matters more than any go-to-market tactic could.