Kyle Hill is President and Head of Digital Assets at Troika IO. Before joining Troika, he was the founder and CEO of Redeeem, a peer-to-peer Bitcoin and NFT exchange launched in 2018 and acquired by Troika Media Group (Nasdaq: TRKA) in May 2021. Hill has over 10 years of experience building disruptive Web 2.0 companies across multiple industries such as healthcare, bar and nightclubs, point-of-sale systems, and Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. He worked as an equity analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co for 5 years before becoming an entrepreneur.
What was your journey like to get where you are?
By default, I’m an entrepreneur and a sucker for peer-to-peer marketplaces. From the moment I realized working a desk job in corporate finance wasn’t for me, I was on the hunt to improve efficiencies in customer experiences. First, it was helping bars and nightclubs build touchless ordering systems, then it was helping families better find caregivers for their elders. Now, it’s bridging the gap between the underutilized gift card industry and the burgeoning crypto and NFT space. I’ve always enjoyed adding innovation to boring and mundane industries.
In a simpler phrase, what is your company exactly doing?
Troika IO is a global media, entertainment, and brand consultancy platform that offers crypto products and services for global brands using Bitcoin, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and other digital assets. We are accelerating the adoption of Bitcoin and other digital assets to make money more equitable for everyone.
What about Metaverse are you most excited for in the future?
The Metaverse is another way for audiences to express fandom which is what we are all about at Troika. Additionally, I think that being able to use Bitcoin in more of a transactional capacity within the Metaverse has limitless potential. Seeing what the Stacks (STX) community has already built with CityCoin in Miami and New York City excites me for the future, and I’m eager to see the full potential of Bitcoin NFTs. We are already seeing how NFTs have disrupted industries such as art (Beeple), sports (NBA TopShop), music (Snoop Dogg), games (Axie Infinity), fashion (Gucci Garden), retail (Nike), real estate (Decentraland), and more, and we’re still early to the party.
Why should we be paying attention to the Metaverse?
The internet is used daily by nearly 65% of people on Earth, and the Metaverse feels like the inevitable next step. If we pay attention to how humans communicate, it’s becoming more and more digital. Our time spent in front of multiple screens only continues to increase, and making those screens more 3D and more interactive feels obligatory. Soon, there will be little reason to leave our homes, as our “realities” will be equally as real in the Metaverse as in the physical world. Whether that scares you or excites you, this is where we are headed. And if we pay attention to the money, NFT trading volume increased by a factor of 10X from Q3 to Q4, 2021. The risk to reward in NFTs is extremely low for creators, so there’s a lot of money (and talent) pouring into the space.
