Swipe Founder Joselito Lizarondo on Risk, Resilience, and Reinventing the Future of Money
Oct. 6 2025, Published 2:55 a.m. ET
Some people play it safe. Joselito Lizarondo is not one of them.
The Filipino-born entrepreneur has built his career on bold decisions that many might have considered unusually risky. Starting a financial venture during a difficult crypto bear market? A significant gamble. Focusing on an untested concept like ‘stablecoin debit cards’? Few thought it would work. But for Lizarondo, these were not gambles. They were acts of conviction.
“I knew it looked crazy from the outside,” he admits. “But I also knew if we pulled it off, it would change everything.”
That “everything” turned out to be Swipe, the fintech company Lizarondo founded and eventually sold to Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. What started as a bold vision—making digital assets spendable in real time—became the foundation for a new way of thinking about money itself.
The Risk
In 2018, the crypto industry was collapsing. Prices were down, investors were running for cover, and headlines screamed “bubble burst.” Most entrepreneurs would have shelved their ideas and waited for sunnier days. Lizarondo didn’t.
He pressed forward, sinking his energy and reputation into a product that many said would never work. “You have to understand—when you launch in a bear market, everyone doubts you. Investors, partners, even friends,” he recalls. “It’s you against the world.”
The Resilience
That lonely fight became his training ground. Building Swipe meant pulling long nights, navigating endless regulatory hurdles, and facing down skeptics at every turn. But where others saw barriers, Lizarondo saw opportunity.
He refused to be shaken. Instead, he doubled down on what mattered most: solving a real problem. Crypto users had assets, but they couldn’t spend them in their daily lives. Swipe’s debit card aimed to address this by offering conversion and transactions that felt more immediate and straightforward.
It wasn’t just an idea—it was survival. And it worked.
The Reinvention
Swipe’s success didn’t just prove the critics wrong. It introduced a different way of thinking about how money could be used. By enabling real-time stablecoin spending, Lizarondo helped move crypto from a speculative bubble to something you could use at the grocery store. For many observers, that marked an important turning point—not chasing riches, but creating utility.
When Binance acquired the company, it served as confirmation that the idea had merit. The company Lizarondo developed during a market downturn later became part of the operations of one of the world’s largest exchanges.
The Man Behind the Mission
Never Miss an
Daily updates from the heart of Hollywood, right to your inbox
By entering your email and clicking Sign Up, you’re agreeing to let us send you customized marketing messages about us and our advertising partners. You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
But ask him if he’d do anything differently, and Lizarondo shakes his head. “Nothing,” he says firmly. “The struggles, the failures, the sleepless nights—they all shaped the outcome. I wouldn’t change a thing.”
Today, he speaks not just as a founder who cashed out, but as a pioneer who helped redefine what money could be in the digital age. His story is less about wealth and more about grit—the kind of grit it takes to keep going when everyone else is walking away.
Because for Joselito Lizarondo, resilience wasn’t just a trait. It was the currency that changed his life.
Investing involves risk and your investment may lose value. Past performance gives no indication of future results. These statements do not constitute and cannot replace investment advice.
