Astronaut Capital, the next-gen autopilot investment service focused on cryptocurrencies recently announced that Picolo Research, the company’s dedicated research team, will merge with Crush Crypto, an extremely trusted and popular crypto investing website.

We recently sat down with Matthew Dibb, the CEO of Picolo Research & Astronaut Capital, and Victor Lai, the co-founder of Crush Crypto, to discuss the partnership as well as their opinions on the merge and other relevant topics.

Hello there, Matt! Thanks for joining us again today. Can you give us a brief summary on what the merger with Crush Crypto is all about?

ICO and cryptocurrency research is an extremely fragmented market. In our view, there are only a handful of players that provide real insightful and transparent research in the market. We identified many months ago that Crush Crypto was one of those and believed that if we join forces under one umbrella, we can produce higher quality content, more frequently, that caters to both the retail and institutional segments of the market. At its core, this merger is about two companies with similar values that are teaming up to make the ecosystem a better and safer place for all market participants.

How did this merge happen in the first place? Did one party approach another or did you spot an opportunity for Astronaut Capital (and Crush Crypto) to benefit from this partnership?

What will happen now to both Crush Crypto and Picolo Research business-wise? Would they still be operating as their own brands or is there a new brand coming up in place of that?

Crush Crypto and Picolo Research started at a similar time in 2017. Since then, we have always looked at each others research and found many similarities in the structure and thought process behind each publication.

Early this year, Victor and I caught up for an informal chat in Hong Kong where we shared views on the industry and our outlook. One thing led to another and before we knew it, we were discussing how we could team up together to grow this segment for the benefit of both companies and the ecosystem at large.

Under the terms of the deal, Crush Crypto will be acquired by the head corporation Picolo Ventures (Singapore), the entity that owns Picolo Research and Astronaut Capital.

The businesses will continue to maintain the same branding, however, there will be some significant changes to the types of publications we distribute as well as the target market that each platform focuses on for distribution.

Let’s talk about this merge in more detail. How would it help Picolo Research and Astronaut Capital and more importantly, what are the benefits offered by this merge to investors and token holders?

Are there any new features or products that Astronaut Capital users will have access to?

In the short term, the most significant benefits relate to pooling of our operational resources so that we can streamline efficiency in what we do. This means a more strategic and aligned focus on research, access to a larger network and database as well as an increase of quality deal-flow of new initial coin offerings.

Longer term, we will be looking at different research and investment structures to give better and transparency to the retail and institutional market.

Token holders of Astronaut Capital can expect more refined and focused research with respect to their holdings as well as a flow of new and exclusive ICO deals for their participation through the token.

Speaking of services, I understand that Picolo Research will be reserved for high net-worth individuals and bigger funds while Crush Crypto will be available as a retail platform.

What is the thought process behind separating it and would current users be affected by the change?

Both companies have previously catered to a different audience which we identified very early on. Crush Crypto carries heavy weight with retail investors due to a more streamlined method of content production as well as a focus on mass-market engagement such as youtube videos.

Picolo Research, on the other hand, has historically catered to larger high-net-worth investors including family offices and alternative asset managers. As an example, our relationship with Bloomberg gives us distribution access to over 300,000 terminals globally, most being asset management firms.

Separating this and refining it even further allows us to tap both sides of the market and deliver the most relevant content to both user groups.

How has the experience of working with Victor Lai and his team been like?

The Crush Crypto team share very similar values to Picolo Research and Astronaut. Both teams come from a traditional finance and analysis background which gives us a lot of grounding and perspective in the market we are dealing with.

We have found that our methods of analysis and holistic approach to company due diligence compliment each other significantly. Victor and team are extremely hard working. We couldn’t ask for a better set of professionals to be joining us.

Are there any plans to acquire more companies in the future and could you share a few details on the deals that are currently being worked on right now?

We believe that institutional interest is starting to really pick up in the market. As a result, it’s only a matter of time before other, more traditional research houses, expand their offering and start covering digital assets.

While we don’t have any other companies in our sights, we do believe that consolidation in this segment of the market could be a great thing if it leads to bigger and better offerings. At this point in time, we haven’t found a better company than Crush Crypto to join our family.

Editors Pick: Crush Crypto Merges with Picolo Research

We did an interview with you last year on Astronaut Capital. Now that we’re in the middle of 2018, what were some of the biggest updates or achievements of Astronaut so far that you can share with us?

From a market point of view, I think most would agree that we have been sitting in the front seat of a rollercoaster for the past six months. Since our last interview, we had a fantastic Q4 in 2017 with ROI of the fund of +170%. In Q1 of this year, our portfolio dropped approximately 26% while the overall market was down closer to 57%.

We are expecting some big gains over the coming months, particularly as some of our larger investments attract some liquidity from big exchanges.

Overall, we have been pleased with 2018 so far, forming new partnerships, large distribution agreements (Bloomberg), and continuing to provide what we believe is the most transparent investment offering to the market.

Picolo Research recently published some outrageous predictions for 2018. What are your not so crazy predictions for the rest of 2018?

I will give you the Top 5.

By the end of 2018, Bitcoin will be between $13,000 and $17,000 The market will remain volatile and in a consolidation phase for the next three months as ‘weak hands’ lose interest. After this time, the market will be dominated by larger investors and new institutions entering the crypto sphere. The largest form of commercialization growth in the top 50 altcoins will come from 0x Protocol (ZRX) Adoption of cryptocurrency as a means of ‘every day payment’ will still not gain any significant traction in 2018. Cash injected or ‘contributed’ through public sales in 2018 will only be between 15%-25% as larger investors and institutions take over.

Hi there, Victor! Thanks for joining us today. Can you tell us about your thoughts and feelings regarding the merger?

I am very excited about the merger. Crush Crypto was established with the goal of providing objective, high-quality research on the cryptocurrency market. The Picolo Research team shares our values and vision regarding the cryptocurrency research process and where the blockchain industry is going. Our skill sets and business focus highly complement each other.

By teaming up with Picolo Research, we will be able to provide more and better content going forward as we strive towards being the best independent research house in the cryptocurrency market.

What was your thought process in agreeing to the merge with Picolo Research? Did you feel that this merger would give Crush Crypto the lift it needed to go the next level and did it take you some time to make the decision?

The merger will help elevate Crush Crypto in many ways. We are always thinking of ways to grow our audience and to improve our content in the cryptocurrency market.

We started with analyzing upcoming ICO projects exclusively. We then started providing weekly updates on the market and launched our “Crusher of the Month” series to cover the most promising coins in our view. Our content has already generated millions of webpage and YouTube views.

By partnering with Picolo Research, the reach of Crush Crypto will be further expanded, especially with institutional investors given their institutional style of analysis and Bloomberg distribution access.

With ongoing developments and more clarification in regards to compliance and regulation, we believe institutional money will begin to flood the cryptocurrency market later this year. The merger is the perfect timing for Crush Crypto to stay ahead and expand its reach to this large pool of investors.

What are the upcoming goals or plans now for Crush Crypto after this merger? Are there any exciting plans or announcements that the Crush Crypto community can expect soon?

Crush Crypto (including the website, YouTube channel, and the tokenized fund Crush Crypto Core) will be business as usual, and the community can expect us to continue publishing high quality and independent reviews of blockchain projects going forward.

Some of the new developments we have in mind include the following:

Our publications are only available in English at the moment. We plan to start translating our work into different languages to help expand our reach given that the cryptocurrency space is a global phenomenon.

We will be seeking to develop a range of new investment products focused on the institutional segment relating to research and participation in ICOs. More information on this will be released shortly.

With the increase in resources following the merger, we expect to publish our work on a more frequent basis.

Last question for the day for both Victor and Matthew; can you tell us what has the experience been like in running Crush Crypto and Astronaut till now? Are there any experiences or lessons that you’d like to share with us and our readers?

Matt: I think one of the necessities of being in the crypto space is your ability to be flexible and adapt with a fast-moving market. The whole ecosystem is still extremely young and changing drastically every month as new market participants gain interest as well as regulatory goalposts constantly shift.

Being able to adapt to changing market conditions is an absolute must. From both a funds management and research point of view, we have found it essential to stay ahead of the curve to always be in the best possible position for our subscribers.

This market is here to stay, and it is our goal to help everyday investors navigate it through the highs and lows.

Victor: The market changes very quickly, in terms of market cycle, regulatory environment, as well as investor appetite. We need to have an open mind and be flexible in order to stay on top of things in this space.

Any final words (shoutout, announcements, etc.) before we end this interview?

Matt: A quick word to thank our subscribers at Picolo Research and our token holders of Astronaut Capital. In such a fast-paced and turbulent market, we are humbled by the constant support we receive from everyone.

This latest merger is one of the most exciting developments to date and we believe that it is going to benefit our subscribers immensely.

We can’t wait to see what the future holds, and together with our new team from Crush Crypto, you can expect a bunch of massive new developments coming your way.

Victor: Thank you to everyone who has supported Crush Crypto so far on our journey – we could not have achieved so much without all of the support we have received. We will continue to do our best to serve the cryptocurrency community by providing high quality and independent research.

The cryptocurrency market is going through a radical change with new developments happening every day. We are excited about what the future will bring and look forward to continuing our journey with our supporters.

Stay tuned.

That concludes our Interview with the Matthew Dibb and Victor Lai. Thank you for your time.

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