Vault CEO Overo Advocates Speed Adaptability in Crypto Fintech

Jovi Overo, CEO of Vault, has shared his insights on the rapidly evolving crypto and fintech industries, emphasizing the importance of speed, adaptability, and effective leadership. Overo, with over 18 years of experience in fintech, advises young entrepreneurs to prioritize execution over strategy, urging them to build products quickly and iteratively. He believes that in the fast-paced world of crypto and fintech, being irrelevant is the greatest risk, and that solving real problems is the key to success.

Overo highlights the importance of a strong team, emphasizing hard skills such as API literacy, payments architecture, and legal/compliance expertise, as well as soft skills like hunger, ambiguity tolerance, and pain tolerance. He believes in hiring individuals who act like co-founders, bringing a sense of ownership and drive to the team. According to Overo, a great crypto leader is one who can navigate regulatory challenges, turn obstacles into opportunities, and lead with vision and clarity.

When it comes to bridging the gap between traditional finance and crypto, Overo advises fintech companies to speak the language of traditional banks but play their own game. He suggests focusing on operational risk reduction and proving revenue, rather than promising future benefits. Trust, he believes, is built by absorbing complexity and generating value for traditional banks. Overo identifies mindset as the main barrier to full integration, suggesting that traditional finance needs to see crypto as a new infrastructure layer rather than a threat.

Overo sees significant growth potential in the crypto cards segment, suggesting that the product itself is not niche but rather the positioning. He believes that crypto cards should focus on delivering real value to normal people, rather than shouting about their crypto features. He advocates for making crypto boring again, emphasizing utility over hype. Overo also believes that partnerships between traditional banks and crypto companies can greatly increase trust in crypto and change the way a broader audience perceives crypto assets.

Crypto-as-a-Service (CaaS) is seen by Overo as a key driver for mass adoption of crypto in business. He believes that most businesses want faster payouts, compliance offloaded, and new revenue channels, and that CaaS packages all that in one API, allowing them to onboard without becoming crypto-native. Overo advises institutional investors to prioritize depth over breadth, suggesting that they want confidence in custody, compliance, and counterparties. He believes that being the best at one thing they absolutely need is the key to winning institutional clients.