# S01E14 · Ash Hovhannisyan — Co-Founder of Bitcoin Credit Services <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV00R0GzXcs" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img class="uv-poster" src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vV00R0GzXcs/maxresdefault.jpg" alt="Ash Hovhannisyan on The Useful Podcast Episode 14" loading="lazy" /></a> Ash Hovhannisyan is a practicing dentist and the co-founder of Bitcoin Credit Services (BCS), a Bitcoin-backed credit card. He's held Bitcoin for a decade and never used a crypto card himself, because every one he's seen sells the asset the moment you tap it. He got into crypto in 2016 while in dental school, funding his first Ethereum mining rigs with his savings and student loans, then spent years building Bitcoin mining hosting facilities for institutional investors — from a small site in Montreal to multinational operations, including hauling machinery into small towns in Paraguay — before moving into compliant crypto card infrastructure with his co-founder and BCS's CEO, Hakob. This is a good episode on go-to-market in a crowded category. There are hundreds of crypto cards on the market, and Ash's read is that almost all of them compete on cash back and almost none of them have meaningful spend volume, because they all still make you sell your Bitcoin to spend it. In this conversation, Gokul and Ash get into why BCS issues credit against Bitcoin collateral instead of converting it, why the real moat isn't the card but collapsing a fifty-step borrowing flow into one, liquidation risk and loan-to-value management, why he chose Bitcoin over Ethereum, and the credit market for people who arrive in a new country with no credit score at all. ## Listen <ul class="uv-linkrow"> <li><span class="uv-label">Watch</span><a class="uv-ico uv-yt" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV00R0GzXcs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">YouTube</a></li> <li><span class="uv-label">Show</span><a class="uv-ico uv-sp" href="https://open.spotify.com/show/033DRed1adLXd1bg8honOl" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Useful Podcast on Spotify</a> · <a class="uv-ico uv-x" href="https://x.com/theusefulpod" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@theusefulpod on X</a></li> </ul> <a class="uv-btn" href="https://useful.ventures/podcast/ash-hovhannisyan-bcs/transcript">Read the full transcript</a> ## Key facts <ul class="uv-facts"> <li><span class="uv-k">Episode</span>The Useful Podcast, Season 1, Episode 14</li> <li><span class="uv-k">Guest</span>Ash Hovhannisyan, Co-Founder of Bitcoin Credit Services (BCS); practicing dentist</li> <li><span class="uv-k">Host</span>Gokul Bala, co-founder of Useful Ventures</li> <li><span class="uv-k">Company</span>Bitcoin Credit Services (BCS), a Bitcoin-collateralized credit card, co-founded by Ash Hovhannisyan and CEO Hakob</li> <li><span class="uv-k">Topics</span>Bitcoin-backed lending, non-custodial BTCFi, crypto card go-to-market, credit access for thin-file and immigrant users, liquidation risk</li> <li><span class="uv-k">Length</span>About 39 minutes · Published August 2026</li> </ul> ## Guest <ul class="uv-linkrow"> <li><span class="uv-label">Ash</span>Co-Founder, Bitcoin Credit Services</li> <li><span class="uv-label">Host</span><a class="uv-ico uv-x" href="https://x.com/GokulsVision" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gokul Bala on X (@GokulsVision)</a> · <a class="uv-ico uv-ig" href="https://www.instagram.com/gokuls.vision/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram (@gokuls.vision)</a></li> </ul> ## Key insights **He held Bitcoin for a decade and never used a crypto card, because every one of them sells the asset the moment you tap it.** Ash's core insight is that most of the hundreds of crypto cards on the market convert crypto to stablecoin or fiat at the point of sale, forcing the user to sell the asset they were trying to hold. BCS instead issues credit against Bitcoin collateral, so the Bitcoin itself is never sold — only borrowed against. **He funded his first mining rigs with his student loans, in the middle of dental school.** In 2016, a friend at a bank told Ash about Ethereum; he spent a summer teaching himself to source GPUs and build mining rigs from Reddit tutorials his father translated from Russian, putting in his own savings and student loan money while carrying a full dental school course load. **He went from mining rigs to building Bitcoin mining facilities for institutional investors, including in Paraguay.** A later venture scaled from a small hosting facility in Montreal to multinational operations — everything from designing facility layouts to soldering memory chips on failed miners to moving hundreds of thousands of dollars of machinery into small towns most people have never heard of. **The moat isn't the card, it's collapsing fifty micro-steps into one flow.** Getting from Bitcoin collateral to card-ready spending today can mean bridging chains, swapping into a compatible stablecoin, finding a lending platform, managing a loan, and finding a card provider that accepts that specific stablecoin — over fifty steps across multiple platforms, Ash estimates. BCS's bet is that abstracting that entire flow, not offering better cash back, is the real product. **You only borrow what you spend, not a lump sum.** Most Bitcoin-backed lending gives a lump-sum loan against a fixed loan-to-value ratio, and interest starts accruing on the full amount immediately, including money never spent. BCS unlocks spending power against a user's Bitcoin but only draws — and charges interest on — the amount actually spent that week, which materially lowers liquidation risk compared to a maxed-out lump-sum loan. **Bitcoin-backed credit can serve people a credit score can't.** Immigrants and users with thin or damaged credit files but real Bitcoin holdings can unlock spending power through KYC compliance rather than a FICO score. Ash sees this, alongside Bitcoin-native startups that want to cover fiat operating expenses without selling their treasury, as two of the most underserved segments in consumer credit. ## About Bitcoin Credit Services Bitcoin Credit Services (BCS) is a Bitcoin-backed credit card, co-founded by Ash Hovhannisyan alongside CEO Hakob, a former BDO advisor who consulted on compliant crypto card products before starting BCS. Users deposit Bitcoin as collateral and unlock spending power on a credit card usable anywhere Visa or Mastercard is accepted, including through Apple Pay and Google Pay, without selling the underlying Bitcoin. Unlike lump-sum Bitcoin-backed loans, BCS only draws against — and charges interest on — the amount a user actually spends, and keeps collateral non-custodial and on-chain rather than rehypothecated by a centralized lender. BCS is in beta with an open waitlist, targeting early Bitcoin-native and BTCFi communities and businesses managing Bitcoin-denominated cash flow first, before expanding into a B2B API for other wallets and lending platforms to add Bitcoin-secured spending to their own products. ## FAQ <div class="uv-faq"> ### Who is Ash Hovhannisyan? Ash Hovhannisyan is a practicing dentist and co-founder of Bitcoin Credit Services (BCS), a Bitcoin-backed credit card. He got into crypto in 2016 while in dental school, mining Ethereum with his savings and student loans, and later built Bitcoin mining hosting facilities for institutional investors before co-founding BCS with his co-founder and the company's CEO, Hakob. ### What is Bitcoin Credit Services (BCS)? BCS is a credit card backed by Bitcoin collateral. Users deposit Bitcoin, unlock a line of spending power against it, and spend through a card that works with Apple Pay and Google Pay, without selling their underlying Bitcoin. It is currently in beta with an open waitlist. ### How is BCS different from other crypto cards? Most of the hundreds of crypto cards on the market convert crypto into stablecoin or fiat at checkout, meaning the user sells their asset every time they spend. BCS instead lets users borrow against Bitcoin collateral so the Bitcoin is never sold, and unlike lump-sum Bitcoin-backed loans elsewhere, BCS only draws against — and charges interest on — the amount a user actually spends, rather than a full lump sum up front. ### What happens if the price of Bitcoin drops after I borrow against it with BCS? If Bitcoin's value falls far enough, a borrower's collateral can be liquidated once it crosses a loan-to-value threshold set by the lender. Ash's view is that risk is highest for users who take a maximum lump-sum loan; because BCS only draws against what a user actually spends, a much smaller share of the collateral is exposed at any given time, which makes it easier to top up collateral and avoid liquidation. ### Who is Bitcoin Credit Services built for? Ash points to Bitcoin-native early adopters already using their Bitcoin to borrow or earn yield, small businesses holding meaningful Bitcoin revenue that need everyday cash-flow management without selling their treasury, and people with thin or damaged credit files — including immigrants and younger users — who hold real assets but have no credit score a bank will lend against. ### What is The Useful Podcast? The Useful Podcast is a series of founder-to-founder conversations from Useful Ventures, hosted by Gokul Bala. Each episode digs past the highlight reel into the actual work of building a company. This is Season 1, Episode 14. </div> ## Related * [[podcast]] is the full Useful Podcast index. * [[manifesto]] is how we see the world and how we work. * [[notes]] is where we write about the world we see coming. * [The Useful Podcast on Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/033DRed1adLXd1bg8honOl) · [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@TheUsefulPodcast) · [@theusefulpod on X](https://x.com/theusefulpod) Back to [[podcast]].