Interview with Nansen CEO Alex Svanevik (exclusive)

In the rapidly evolving world of blockchain and cryptocurrency, understanding on-chain metrics can be challenging. In navigating this maze, Alex Svanevik, CEO of Nansen, offers a ray of clarity. His platform, established in 2019, is dedicated to tracking on-chain movements, giving users a clearer picture of the cryptocurrency space.

In an interview with CryptoPotato that took place during Token2049 in Singapore, Nansen’s CEO discusses what Nansen is all about and what made it one of the largest on-chain data companies, if and how NFTs will ever return, and where will the next one be? Where the hype comes from (after Defi and nft), and where it all started for him, personally.

From dismissal to the establishment of Nansen

Reflecting on his journey, Svanevik amusingly recalls his initial reservations about bitcoin in 2013.

“I thought seriously about cryptocurrencies… and made the big mistake of concluding that I thought bitcoin was only going to be used by money launderers and criminals,” he laughs.

But it was ethereum, discovered by him in 2017, that really captivated him. Attracted by its potential for “permissionless innovation,” he says, “if someone is going to create that new currency, maybe they’ll build it on top of ethereum.”

From his beginnings as a data science manager in Barcelona to an unforeseen layoff in Hong Kong, Svanevik’s journey into the crypto domain has been nothing short of adventurous. These twists of fate pushed him towards crypto consulting and eventually the creation of Nansen.

Describing the unique capabilities of the platform, Svanevik points out one of its first features, “Token God Mode, which allows you to plug in a token and then you can see who the buyers of this token are.”

The standout aspect? Nansen’s ability to tag wallet addresses (EOA).

“The special thing about Nansen is that we have address labels so you can see who they represent,” Svanevik clarifies.

Web3 games that will increase in 2021-22 will be released

Basking in the glow of 2020’s DeFi boom and surfing the rising tides of the nft phenomenon, Nansen has been steadily carving out a niche for himself. Svanevik refers to the platform as “an information super app for anything on-chain.”

When asked about future on-chain trends, Svanevik’s enthusiasm is palpable. He is optimistic about the horizon for Web3 gaming and highlights platforms like Friend.tech as revolutionary. “Many Web3 game projects raised money in 2021 or 2022… So now we’ve reached the point where these games are ready to launch,” she anticipates. Additionally, tokenization of real-world assets, such as Treasury bills, is on his radar.

However, the path to mass adoption of cryptocurrencies is fraught with challenges. Svanevik identifies regulatory obstacles and user experience as dual obstacles.

“Regulation is absolutely one of them… there is not enough regulatory clarity, especially in the United States,” he says. As for the user experience, Svanevik doesn’t mince words, saying, “The user experience is still pretty bad, to put it bluntly.” Delving into the weak points, he comments: “The fact that you have to mess with seed phrases… if you’re a normal person who’s never used cryptocurrency is a huge barrier to fair use.”

nft: low but bright future

When asked about the prevailing narrative that NFTs (non-fungible tokens) could be facing a downward trend, the Nansen CEO did not shy away from the facts. “The reality is that the volume of NFTs has decreased a lot; “Market caps for different nft collections have gone down,” he said. However, he remains optimistic about their future, emphasizing that “they will come back, but they won’t necessarily come back in the same form.”

In fact, while certain nft collections have seen a decline, others are thriving by expanding beyond the Web3 ecosystem. Svanevik says the current depiction of NFTs as “JPEGs of cartoon animals” could just be the tip of the iceberg. He believes the infrastructure being developed around NFTs has broader utility, including the tokenization of real-world assets.

Expanding on this he stated:

“If you tokenize your house as an nft and want to collateralize it and borrow against it, you could use this exact same nft infrastructure.”

His point of view underscores the immense potential of nft technology, far beyond the popularized domain of digital art.

Interestingly, the use of NFTs is not limited to the conventional domains that we know. Svanevik shared: “In Singapore, the regulator, MAS, drafted a white paper on earmarked money (PBM)… money that can only be used for a specific purpose.” This is a testament to the changing dimensions of blockchain-based solutions that are capturing government interest.

Being where the party happens: Nansen’s goal

At the center of all this analysis and data is the Nansen platform. Your main focus? Be where the “party” is, identifying trends and making sure they are not fleeting “pump and dump” scenarios. The key, the CEO shared, lies in a combination of on-chain data and leveraging an expansive social network.

Discussing Nansen’s approach, Svanevik illustrated: “If you want to understand what will be hot in six months or two years, you have to talk to venture capitalists, angel investors and builders.” On-chain data reveals current behaviors, while these conversations offer insight into what’s on the horizon.

Furthermore, Nansen’s enormous tracking capacity reveals his commitment to a comprehensive analytical perspective. However, the challenge remains in distinguishing between wallets and users. As Svanevik puts it, string addresses are similar to “cookies or sessions” in web analytics and offer an approximation, but not a definitive count of users.

Ending the interesting conversation on a forward-looking note, Alex joked about “Nansen 2.0,” an upcoming product touted as 10 to 100 times faster, built with a multi-chain approach. By offering personalized experiences and leveraging more ai, he promises to further revolutionize on-chain analytics.

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