Ballet wallets, under the brand name REAL, are actually paper wallets in a metallic format. The products will be sold at a promotional price of USD 29.
Bobby Lee, founder of China’s first cryptocurrency exchange house, returned to the market with several cryptocurrency wallets, which were conceived by the new startup Ballet.
Lee told Yahoo Finance UK that the new Ballet wallets, which are as big as a credit card, will allow normal ordinary people to gain access to cryptocurrencies.
REAL is the brand name chosen by the Chinese firm Ballet for its cryptocurrency wallets. Actually, they are paper wallets with no electronic parts, that is, they can store electronic keys, without the risk of being hacked. They act as storage media for the private keys that cryptocurrency owners must use to unlock their online wallets, something like a key to a safe deposit box.
Lee, a former Walmart executive, said that it works like cash. He explains that, once this device is loaded with Bitcoin, Litecoin, or Ethereum, it has all that is needed to access the funds.
Likewise, he noted that it can be used to be given as a gift or simply to be stored in a safe and hidden somewhere at home. He highlighted that it is completely offline, so there is no risk of piracy.
Before Ballet, Lee founded and directed BTCC, China’s first cryptocurrency exchange house. It started growing rapidly but it was forced to stop operating in China in 2017, when Beijing introduced a ban on crypto exchange houses.
Lee sold BTCC for an undisclosed sum at the beginning of 2018. He said that the business was sold for eight figures, adding that that number made them feel very happy. He added that, most of last year, he gave speeches, traveled, took vacations, and spent time with his family. In other words, he enjoyed life as he had earned some money in his last company.
Ballet has raised around USD 5 million from initial funds of Lee’s friends and family, as well as the Silicon Valley Ribbit Capital venture capital fund. It is worth noting that Ribbit was one of the first sponsors of Coinbase and other FinTech companies such as Revolut.
Las Vegas-based Ballet will begin sending REAL wallets to “beta testers” in the upcoming weeks before a larger launch to occur in October. The products will be sold at USD 35 but, initially, will be sold at a promotional price of USD 29.
When Lee was selling BTCC, Bitcoin’s price had reached a maximum of USD 20,000. Since then it has crashed, taking the rest of the cryptocurrency market. Since late July, Bitcoin has traded around the USD 10,000 mark.
Lee considers that this is one of the many cycles still remain to come. He says that any cycle will lead to increasingly high peaks. He has trust that his investment in bitcoins will very soon exceed USD 20,000 and go to USD 50,000, USD 100,000 and even USD 200,000.
To conclude, Lee clarifies that, when he says “very soon,” he does not mean within a few minutes or hours but, probably, a few months or years.
By Willmen Blanco
