Managing Partner of Hacken Advisory on EU law: “We need more regulation to have trust in the markets”

Christopher Cousins, a finance professional and crypto entrepreneur with nearly two decades of experience across traditional markets and digital assets, is navigating a major evolution in his career after merging his firm Ventus with crypto company Hacken to advise businesses on Web3 opportunities. Cousins founded Ventus in 2021 to bridge finance, compliance, and Web3 innovation, and the company was partially acquired by Hacken this year. He will join the Networking Event at Tönnheim Gallery on December 3, 2025, where he will discuss Hacken, crypto, and AI, and share insights on the convergence of finance and emerging technologies

Can you tell me a bit about yourself?

I started my career in traditional finance. I worked as an options trader and later as a buy-side trader for a family office. That work took me around the world—Hong Kong, Gibraltar, New York, Boulder, and briefly Switzerland. Later I worked for a fund that launched new domain ICANN registies which gave me huge exposure to regulated technology.

How did you get into Crypto?

After the 2008–2009 financial crisis, the firm I worked for shut down, which pushed me to look for new opportunities. Around 2011, during the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York, I first heard about Bitcoin. People were handing out BTC, as a symbolic gesture against the banking system. I didn’t act on it at the time, but the idea stuck with me.

I knew someone involved in the early mining scene, and that’s when I made my first small investment in a short lived mining operation. I didn’t get properly involved until 2016, when I was living in Gibraltar. A number of us there saw crypto as an emerging industry that could help diversify the local economy during the uncertainty around Brexit. By 2017–2018, I was working in crypto full-time.

Where are you from originally, and where do you live now?

I’m from New York. These days I split my time between my headquarters in Estonia and Andalucía.

You mentioned that Occupy Wall Street was the first time you encountered Bitcoin. How did people there view it?

It was viewed as a joke or a form of economic resistance, even if they didn’t fully understand it. Many had lost jobs, savings, or homes during the financial crisis, so any alternative to traditional banks caught people’s attention. At the time, though, most still thought of Bitcoin as a fringe idea.

Chris Cousins, Managing Partner of Hacken Advisory.

Can you explain how Ventus Partners evolved into Hacken Advisory?

My background in crypto has always been at the project level. I’ve been a co-founder, investor, or board member in several projects, which exposed me to the operational, legal, and regulatory challenges teams face. I started Ventus to help projects navigate those issues more effectively.

Traditional advisory firms—lawyers, accountants, even big consultancies—often struggled because they lacked direct crypto experience. Our value was that we already understood the ecosystem, so clients came to us almost entirely through referrals. Over time, Ventus grew to serve close to a hundred clients.

One of my early team members eventually joined Hacken, and through him we began collaborating more closely. Hacken started referring significant business to us, and the partnership naturally deepened. This year, we decided to merge so we could combine our skill sets and scale more effectively.

We’ve recently seen a sharp drop in crypto prices. What do you think is driving the volatility?

Crypto goes through recurring cycles. Prices rise sharply, correct just as sharply, and then typically recover to new highs over the long term. For newcomers, those swings can be painful, but they’re part of the market’s nature.

Right now there are a few factors at play. Global markets are dealing with broader macroeconomic uncertainty, including shifting interest-rate environments and geopolitical tensions. There’s also normal profit-taking after a long run-up in prices. And many retail investors are still cautious after the failures of major platforms like FTX. Even though many creditors may ultimately be repaid in fiat terms, a lot of people lost crypto they assumed would appreciate. That experience has made retail participation more hesitant.

Christopher Cousins joins Hacken.

Institutional adoption seems to be accelerating. How is that shaping the market?

Institutions now account for a growing share of trading volume. That changes market behavior because large financial firms bring deeper liquidity, more sophisticated strategies, and generally more stability than retail traders.

On the advisory side, we’ve also seen a clear shift. A couple of years ago, most of our clients were small projects or early-stage funds. Today, the majority are established institutions—banks, large funds, and high-net-worth groups. The ecosystem is maturing and professionalizing.

How does this institutional shift compare with the early “anti-bank” ethos of crypto?

It’s almost the opposite of the early narrative. Bitcoin started as an alternative to the traditional financial system, and now some of the biggest holders and traders are traditional institutions and even governments managing seized assets. Crypto has moved from being a fringe experiment to a mainstream asset class.

What’s your view on the European Union’s new regulatory framework for crypto?

It’s a double-edged sword. Regulation is necessary—it builds trust, reduces uncertainty, and makes institutions more comfortable entering the market. But compliance can be expensive, and smaller projects may struggle to meet the requirements. That pushes many early-stage teams to launch offshore, which isn’t ideal from a consumer-protection standpoint.

That said, Europe has strong crowdfunding laws outside of crypto, which give small teams a way to raise capital legally before dealing with the cost of full regulation.

Is the US a better environment for launching early-stage crypto projects?

Not necessarily. The US can be expensive due to legal fees, and banking access is often challenging for crypto companies. However, the regulatory environment has become somewhat clearer for certain types of utility token models, which helps. In contrast, Europe offers a more structured path to compliance, but the upfront cost can be prohibitive for small teams.

Ultimately, well-funded projects can choose based on where their users are. Smaller teams often choose offshore jurisdictions simply because they’re the most affordable option.

Switching topics, what do you make of the recent surge in AI investment in the US?

AI is the biggest technological shift we’ve seen since the early internet. It dramatically increases productivity—tasks that once took a team days or weeks can now be done in minutes.

But like any emerging technology, there’s a lot of hype. Many companies calling themselves “AI companies” are really just using existing AI tools rather than building their own models or infrastructure. It’s similar to the dot-com era: a huge number of companies will launch, many won’t survive, and a small percentage will become the long-term leaders.

So would you say the sector is overhyped?

There’s definitely hype, but also enormous real value. Tools like ChatGPT are transformative, and many businesses rely on AI every day. The challenge is distinguishing genuine innovation from companies that simply use AI as a marketing label. Using AI doesn’t automatically make you an AI company—just like using Microsoft Word doesn’t make you a software company.

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To learn more about crypto, blockchain, AI and the role of technology in the economy right now, do not miss Chris Cousins’s talk in the networking event hosted by Bravo Events on Tönnheim Gallery the 3rd of December 2025. 

Tickets are available on Meetup following this link with a price of 20 euro, food and drink included.