KuCoin AMA With Cypher (CYPR) — Revolutionizing Global Spend Rewards and On-Chain Banking

Dear KuCoin Users,

KuCoin recently hosted an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session in the KuCoin Exchange Group, featuring Kuberan Marimuthu, CEO & Founder of Cypher.

Time: October 11, 2025, 01:00 AM - 3:00 AM (UTC)

Official Website: https://cypherhq.io/

Follow Cypher on X, Telegram & Discord

Kuberan: Hi! I am the founder of Cypher. I have spent quite a bit of my career in the last decade leading engineering for multi billion dollar payment integrations with banks at Zenefits, Amazon and Coinbase. Specifically, Coinbase did lead Risk Engineering where we built fraud systems that powers Coinbase’s fraud infra.

Throughout my journey we used to write millions of code with large engineering teams to build financial apps for a single country. The moment we saw non custodial wallets and smart contracts where only 100s of lines of code were required to build financial apps for the entire world, we knew this is a huge leverage to build a global on-chain bank account like WhatsApp. You download a single app anywhere in the world and immediately start transacting. This was not possible while we were building in the Web2 world. 

Q: Before we dig into the details, what was the single greatest pain point in the crypto/Web2 payments landscape that motivated you to start Cypher?

Kuberan: The biggest pain points in Web2 were slow speed, stops working over weekends, runs on banking infra that was built in pre-internet era, not interoperable between payment methods and countries, too many middle players taking huge fees

Q: Now, loyalty programs are something we all encounter—whether through apps or credit cards. What is the biggest pain point of traditional loyalty programs that Cypher, through its tokenized system, completely solves?

Kuberan: Traditional loyalty programs' economics are completely hidden and always depreciate over time. Most loyalty programs are not global. With Cypher the community gets full transparency on the economics and are expected to appreciate in the long run given that brands will compete for the token to gain user attention similar to ad networks. Also brands have zero entry barriers; they can just interact with the protocol without any permissions. At scale the entire protocol will become a public good and not controlled by large central entities like banks.

Q: The crypto payments space is growing. What is Cypher's true, defensible competitive edge, is it the non-custodial card, the low forex fees, the multi-chain support, or the specific structure of the rewards?

Kuberan: We have spent 3+ yrs building this technology and we have invested all the dollars back into building the necessary payments and fraud technology for scale bringing all the past experience from Coinbase. In a product like this as a user you want to be able to trust the product with your funds and you would want to trust a business where no dollars were invested in sponsoring conferences and events but in building the security technology. Building a global bank creates a lot of complexity in fraud and security challenges and Cypher has built all the necessary foundation for it in the last 3 years and that’s the only way to sustain in crypto business. History has shown us multiple times.

 

The Cypher Protocol also creates an interesting fly wheel between brands ands users where brands will compete with each other to deliver user rewards at scale.

 

Q: The  token economy relies on a "flywheel." Can you walk us through the journey of a new token holder: how do they earn, how often do they vote, and what level of  rewards ("bribes") can they realistically expect?

Kuberan: As a new token holder you can lock $CYPR tokens to get veCYPR which helps you gain voting power in the protocol. Every 2 weeks you get to vote for merchants and the total voting power from the community for each merchant determines how much rewards users earn for spending in that Merchant.

The community can form online groups together and vote for a specific merchant that they frequently spend with.

The merchants will bribe the voters with USDC and every 2 weeks veCYPR holders can vote for these merchants and earn a share of their bribe. Check in this epoch (2 weeks) to see how much bribe you can earn for voting. 

Eventually once merchants see value in bribing every 2 weeks instead few merchants will start buying and locking $CYPR tokens themselves and it will create price appreciation in the long run.

Q: Cypher offers multiple ways for users to engage and earn. To help our community understand the full potential. Could you list all the ways someone can actively earn and maximize their CYPR tokens, covering both Card spending and governance participation?

Kuberan: 1) Spend and Earn: Spend with Cypher and earn $CYPR token reward multipliers based on Merchant you spend at.

2) Earn Bribe: Lock veCYPR and earn bribes from merchants in USDC for voting.

3) Boosted Referral: Lock veCYPR vote for a merchant and refer new users to Cypher and ask them to spend in the merchant you voted for to earn $CYPR tokens. 

You can earn bribes and boost referral without even having a Cypher Card. A lot of our Boosted referral earners are internet influencers and community managers.

Q: The referral system is open to non-cardholders. Can you clarify the incentive for a non-cardholder to refer and how this feature drives network effects across the platform?

Kuberan: As more and more users spend in Cypher it makes the network more powerful with revenue accrual and will make it more attractive for brands to offer more bribes and incentives.

A big part of the emission every 2 weeks is reserved for veCYPR holders to refer new users. So a non-card holder can lock $CYPR tokens to get veCYPR NFT and use it to refer new users to Cypher and request them to spend at the merchant they have voted for using veCYPR. For eg: A veCYPR holder can vote for 711 store and refer users to signup for Cypher and spend $10 at 711 store and earn rewards for themselves and the referee as well.

Depending on how much $CYPR tokens are locked you can earn much higher referral rewards both for referrer and referee.

This is expected to create network effects and a flywheel for the protocol to grow.

Q: With Cypher Card being a key product, the community is eager to understand the next steps. To provide some context. What are the immediate plans for Cypher Card rollout? Which region is the primary focus for expansion, and what major chains (beyond Base, Solana, and Ethereum) are next on the integration roadmap?

Kuberan: Cypher has a global presence though we might focus on expanding in Asia and Latin America where we see high demand for this product. We will be integrating into more DeFI protocols and EVM L2 chains and more L1 chain ecosystems in the next few months.

Free-Ask from the KuCoin Community to Cypher

Q: You likely face competition from other crypto cards that offer cashback, rewards, or zero FX fees. What is your differentiation, why would a user choose Cypher over another crypto card?

Kuberan: I kind of touched on this topic in the first question. We have the world’s best security and fraud technology. We have patiently invested all our capital into building this technology instead of spending on conferences and marketing.

We believe this is the most important ingredient in building a crypto product. History has shown multiple instances where companies that do not invest in this fail as they scale. There is a reason why Coinbase has sustained for more than a decade. They have world class security and fraud technology. This is how Cypher has been built and users can trust Cypher with their financial transactions without any fear.

 

Q: Your business tier allows wire transfers, USDC and fiat conversion, etc. Which fiat rails (SWIFT, ACH, etc.) do you support globally, and in what jurisdictions is that available or limited?

Kuberan: Our focus business tier product is open to businesses from anywhere in the world. Our primary focus is still on the consumer product.

 

Q: How does Cypher plan to differentiate itself from other AI-driven blockchain projects, and what real-world problems is it aiming to solve in the next 12 months?

Kuberan: Most of the innovation with AI driven blockchain projects are focusing on infrastructure building. We haven’t seen much AI based applications in this space. Cypher is looking to build agents AI applications for users where users can rely on Agentic AI interfaces to do things for them. Do eg: you can request Cypher to do online grocery shopping for you and ship it to your home. We have a lot of interesting AI user experiences we will experiment with in the next 12 months.

 

Q: Cyper aims to reshape loyalty rewards through decentralization — but loyalty itself is built on long-term trust. How does Cyper plan to maintain genuine user trust and emotional connection in a system governed by code and tokens, not traditional brand relationships?

Kuberan: We will actively engage in community calls and in person meetups in our top geographies to closely engage with the user community to learn and integrate. We are known for staying close to users and listening to feedback and iterating. Also building a strong customer support and premium 24x7 support. For eg your cash got stuck in an ATM on Sunday, we will be available to support you in time sensitive situations.

Q: Could you explain in simple terms how Cypher’s technology ensures both scalability and decentralization without compromising user privacy?

Kuberan: User privacy comes from controls put in place on how user info is stored and verified in our system. Have built these technologies for scale in the past at Amazon, Coinbase. Also the underlying non custodial lawyer already completely anonymizes users with all the on chain transactions. The decentralization will progressively happen as we move the protocol parameters to a DAO voting after bootstrapping the network.


Q: Can you describe, step by step, how the card is loaded from a non-custodial wallet (type: signature, swap on-chain, liquidity router)?

Kuberan: A user can give approval to our auto load smart contract or sign the transaction every time you load the card.

When the txn is signed, it is transferred to Cypher liquidity wallet and instantly swapped using a DEX aggregator depending on the chain the user is loading funds from. At any given point Cypher maintains liquidity with Visa to instantly load the card with funds as soon as the user signs the transaction. 

We have already moved hundreds of millions of dollars through our system since the beginning.

 

Q: What is the total supply of $CYPR, and how is it distributed among the team, investors, and community? And are there any staking, burning, or reward mechanisms for $CYPR holders?

Kuberan: 1B is the total supply. The team owns 10% and Investors own 15%. Both investors and team are locked for 1 year and 3 yr release schedule after. 25% is treasury. Rest is for the community with emission over a 20 yr period.

$CYPR holders today can lock/stake their token and get veCYPR to use for voting. Soon we will also enable a burn mechanism where you can redeem your $CYPR token rewards for an airline ticket through a burn mechanism.

Q: Cypher is already active in more than 120 countries. Which regions or markets are your main focus for future expansion, and what strategies are you planning to drive mass adoption in Southeast Asia, especially in Indonesia?Kuberan: Asia is one of our largest markets and we will continue to double down in south east Asia. We are planning to work through local stablecoin issuers in each of these countries to expand into these markets. We will also continue to bribe more on South East Asian Merchants to expand in these markets.

 

Q: What is the exact total $CYPR amount allocated for the first "Epoch 1" rewards, and how is this supply factored into the long-term emission schedule?

Kuberan: Approx 700K $CYPR tokens for first epoch. The emission schedule is designed to reward early adopters. In the long run there is a decay factor and should still work fine with long term price appreciation from brand buying in. All the early supporters who hold for the long run are designed to be rewarded. Even the team allocation is designed to reap benefits only after a few years.

 

Q: Can you list 1-3 killer features of this project that makes it ahead of its competitors? What is the competitive advantage your project has that you feel most confident about?

Kuberan: 1) Fraud system 2) Best forex fee 3) Forex optimizer: In some POS machines it will ask you whether you want to pay in local currency or USD. When you pick USD, the merchant charges 5-10% forex fee. We detect such transactions and show you how you could have saved on forex fee by selecting local currency instead of USD. 4) Merchant reward system through protocol. Merchants will compete for the users.

 

Q: How does Cypher plan to ensure long-term token stability and utility beyond short-term trading hype?

Kuberan: In the long run, all the brands will buy and lock $CYPR tokens to earn voting power once they see how they can increase brand loyalty and spend by participating in protocol. I have seen this first hand in the Web2 world while working at Amazon. When all brands compete for voting power there is significant buy pressure for $CYPR tokens.

 

Q: Do you have an ambassador program for your project?

Kuberan: We do have an ambassador program where we work with influencers in different markets. You can reach out to the team. By default anybody who owns veCYPR by locking $CYPR tokens becomes an ambassador because they are reserved with $CYPR rewards in every epoch for referring new users.

 

Q: Collaborations and partnerships are some of the most important cornerstones to help improve adoption. Can you tell us about your current partners, plans for partnerships and what everybody stands to gain from these partnerships?

Kuberan: Yes we already have collaborated with DeFi protocols like HyperLiquid, Moonwell in the past. We will continue to collaborate and deeply integrate with more DeFI protocols. Additionally we will be partnering with global brands that can create loyalty through Cypher Protocol and the users will benefit from these

Q: On which network or Where can i currently buy your $CYPR token? And can you share me any other networks name ?

Kuberan: You can buy the token on Base chain via Aerodrome Finance DEX. Also our protocol runs on Base Chain. You can stake $CYPR tokens for veCYPR on-base chain. You can also buy the token on KuCoin Exchange.

 

🎁 Participate in the Cypher AMA quiz now for a chance to win 68.33 CYPR.