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From Healthcare to Hashes: Kelghe D’Cruz on Bridging TradFi and Web3 with PAIRS
Manage episode 496372931 series 3649539
🎙️ Guest: Kelghe D’Cruz, Founder & CEO of PAIRS
🕒 Duration: ~48 minutes
Episode Overview
In this episode, host Lindsey McConaghy chats with Kelghe D’Cruz, founder and CEO of PAIRS, a platform bringing DeFi and CeFi tools into one interface. Kelghe shares how his early experiments with Dogecoin, a healthcare startup, and a near-ICO all shaped his approach to building something more practical for crypto users today.
They cover:
- Mining Dogecoin and selling it on eBay in 2013
- Walking away from an ICO raise after legal advice
- Letting users trade across chains and settle to fiat
- Building with third-party banking partners, not replacing them
- A future profit-sharing model tied to trading activity
- Challenges of running a startup with a live token
- Why he’s prioritizing licenses early, even before it’s required
Where to Listen
🔹 Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/from-healthcare-to-hashes-kelghe-dcruz-on-bridging/id1799063494?i=1000718911639
🔹 Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/episode/0yckAYzd77ydd2BZhKlidQ?si=8d25210fb8fb4d0e
🔹 YouTube → https://youtu.be/RP6ZN785G-A
Connect with PAIRS & Kelghe D’Cruz
🌐 Website: pairs.xyz/
🐦 X (Twitter): @kelghe | @pairs_dex
🔗 LinkedIn: Kelghe D’Cruz
Stay Connected With Us
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🔔 Follow us on X: @TokenThoughts_
🌐 Visit our website: tokenforyourthoughts.com
Chapters
1. Intro & why crypto still feels fragmented (00:00:00)
2. Basement Dogecoin mining, selling on eBay, then Mt. Gox (00:01:09)
3. The ICO he didn’t do: legal warning, refunds, and bootstrapping to 30k users (00:05:29)
4. Spinning out PAIRS: taking the retail side and why (00:08:25)
5. Building PAIRS: cross-chain DEX, fiat rails, “real ownership,” profit‑sharing & the AI co‑pilot (00:12:28)
6. Licensing-first strategy, KYC-on-chain, and why CeFi x DeFi will just become “finance” (00:37:10)
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