I sat down with Fastex CEO Vakhtang Abrahamyan at the Bitcoin Conference 2025, this year in Las Vegas. Mr. Abrahamyan oversees a fast-growing Web3 ecosystem that already stretches across Europe, and the UAE.

During the interview, we talked about Mr. Abrahamyan’s journey to become the CEO of Fastex, Fastex’s full-stack offering, the pressures of running a CEX amid rising hacks, and Fastex’s expansion from Lithuania to the UAE, and more.

From central bank halls to crypto rails.@Fastex CEO @VakhtangAbraham joins @_dsencil of BTCTN to discuss:

– 20+ years as a regulator
– Fastex’s expansion to the EU, UAE & US
– RWA tokenization & asset trading
– CEX security lessons

And what’s next for Web3 finance

🎙️👇 pic.twitter.com/uhsCdXN86d

— Bitcoin.com News (@BTCTN) June 4, 2025

A Regulator’s Journey Into Crypto

Right off the bat, I was surprised to learn that Mr. Abrahamyan, a CEO of a crypto business, spent more than two decades regulating financial products. “Before joining Fastex I was in central banking for 25 plus years,” he said.

His first encounter with Bitcoin was hardly enthusiastic:

We had a very negative statement related to crypto, but it was back to 2014, 15. Pretty early in 16, even. We issued a statement saying the banks needed to stay away from dealing with crypto, unless we started [some form of] regulation. Unfortunately, the regulation was postponed every time due to the higher risks, lack of knowledge, also from the regulatory perspective.

At the time it was surprising that a former regulator of two decades would become the CEO of a centralized exchange, but after thinking about it for a little bit, it makes perfect sense. A lot of crypto companies don’t have much experience dealing with regulators, or how to structure parts of their business to handle regulation. Who better to navigate these dangerous and murky waters than a regulator?

Crypto and Regulation

Having assumed both the role of regulator and business executive affords Mr. Abrahamyan a unique perspective. A perspective that I found to be less inflammatory than from many people who only have experience from one side of the relationship. Many crypto founders tend to view regulators at best as incompetent bureaucrats and at worst corrupt activists in the pocket of moneyed interests. Regulators, on the other hand, can often see crypto companies as incompetent at protecting their customers, and at worse, illegally extracting customers’ funds. It’s understandable why having either of these views would lead to inflamed rhetoric and actions.

I found Mr. Abrahamyan’s even-keeled opinion refreshing:

There isn’t a single solution for dealing with the regulators. Every regulator differs, but in general, the concept and strategy should be of cooperation. I think cooperation, because they have something to learn from us. We have something to learn from them. So it’s a joint road. We need to go together at the end of the day. On their side is customer protection, consumer protection rights. On our side, it’s customer needs that must be satisfied. So at the end of the day, we have the common sort of a target to complete

Inside the Fastex Ecosystem — And Why Tokenization Matters

Fastex positions itself as a one-stop Web3 stack: an exchange platform, blockchain, self-custodian wallet, credit card issuance, and most interesting to me, a real-world-asset tokenization platform.

I think when most people hear ‘RWA’ they think of stablecoins and yield from sovereign bonds (primarily U.S. Treasury securities).

However, Fastex is doing something different. It is tokenizing aspects of real-world businesses. Mr. Abrahamyan gave an example of “an alcohol-import company importing rare wineries” whose inventory is broken into digital lots that collectors can buy at a discount and claim six months later — or leave in custody to back new financial instruments.

Mr. Abrahamyan reminded me that, of course, there are regulatory challenges to this. He emphasizes that compliance with applicable laws is important.

Expansion and Market Dynamics

I asked Mr. Abrahamyan about difficulties expanding from one market to another. Growth, he insists, has been “organic — once you accumulate knowledge expansion is mostly quantitative rather than qualitative.” Despite regional quirks, fundamentals stay constant: “At the end of the day, people are the same, they all want to earn money and get quality service.”

Conclusion

From enforcing rules to innovating within them, Vakhtang Abrahamyan’s trajectory mirrors crypto’s own maturation. The crypto industry is growing up, with regulation and compliance front and center.

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