Crypto.com

The company, which was founded as a start-up named Monaco in 2016, is a cryptocurrency exchange that also offers digital wallets and crypto-backed debit cards. It has its headquarters in Singapore but maintains addresses in Malta, the United Kingdom and Ireland. Its chief executive Kris Marszalek, who is also its majority shareholder, previously ran a failed daily deals site for Southeast Asia. The company is privately held and has raised no institutional funding. In its original incarnation as Monaco, the company offered branded Visa debit cards that could be topped up using cryptocurrencies. It raised funding by minting its own digital token and selling it to the public in 2017 in an initial coin offering, a form of crowdfunding that is similar to an initial public offering. The company’s balance sheet stood at nearly $200 million as of mid-2018. Mr. Marszalek decided to rebrand Monaco. He contacted Matt Blaze, a cryptography professor then at the University of Pennsylvania, who had owned the crypto.com domain name for 25 years. Mr. Blaze, now a professor at Georgetown University, declined to comment.