Margaux Avedisian

Margaux Avedisian

Margaux Avedisian, fondly known as the “Queen of Bitcoin,” established a niche role in the still-young and burgeoning field of cryptocurrency beginning in the early 2010s. She was more than an entreprenuer, however – aside from marketing acumen and business development skills, she also brought to bear elements of even stand-up comedy to an industry generally understood to be overly technical and mysterious. Her path of working on various pioneering Bitcoin initiatives and helping to create public perception of them establishes Margaux Avedisian as an interesting character within the industry’s formative years.

A Glimpse into Life in the Digital Economy

When Margaux Avedisian entered into the world of Bitcoin back in 2012, it was an entirely different world from today’s vast cryptocurrency universe. At that time, Bitcoin was an experimental tech known to only handfuls of people and accepted by even fewer still. How and why did this emerging digital money draw her in? Was it hopes of a revolutionary financial regime, or excitement at being at the forefront of something groundbreaking? Whichever, she seized the opportunity to put her skills to work, propelled by an energy that would become synonymous with her name.
She wasn’t merely an early bird, passively observing from afar; she leapt headfirst into investing in and advocating for Bitcoin businesses. This was an era of furious learning, swift development, and a small but devoted following struggling to realize blockchain’s potential. In this atmosphere, Avedisian started to establish herself as one to know, becoming an instantly recognizable face and voice. The “Queen of Bitcoin” title, although whimsical, also referenced her high-profile and engaged position in an otherwise male-dominated discipline of engineering.
This pioneer adoption stage involved a specific type of courage and vision. There were no scripts to follow in marketing Bitcoin or creating long-term businesses around it. Avedisian, like other pioneers, was largely creating the rules as she went, working through untested waters with a combination of instinct and entrepreneurial determination. Her skill at communicating advanced ideas and building excitement about them served her well in these formative years.
Building Foundations: Founding Ventures and Contributions
Margaux Avedisian’s CV from back in the day of early Bitcoins is like taking a tour of some of the industry’s earliest building-block projects. Her work was not at one company but rather for multiple significant enterprises that were working to get Bitcoin into more hands and into everyday use. Among them, her work at Tradehill, an early exchange, is notable. Exchanges were, and remain, absolute gateways to entry into the crypto ecosystem, and Tradehill was one of the earliest platforms to be established in America’s market.
Subsequent to her experience at Tradehill, she served key roles in other prominent companies. At AlphaPoint, a white-label software solution for cryptocurrency exchanges, her marketing acumen assisted the company in becoming an industry-leading solution for businesses to launch trading platforms of their own. This was important work, as exchange proliferation served to enhance liquidity and adoption of Bitcoin and other up-and-coming digital currencies. She also spent time at MonetaGo, an effort dedicated to blockchain solutions for financial institutions, and the digital currency platform Lazzerbee, demonstrating her interest in various sectors of the larger digital currency market.
What unifies these various roles? A clear emphasis on promoting, marketing, and driving adoption of both Bitcoin and blockchain technologies is it. Avedisian was not simply an advisor but was in the trenches, working to define companies that were building the foundation of digital finance’s future and crafting product and strategies. She learned firsthand from her in-the-trenches experience of these times about the threats and possibilities of the still-growing crypto market.
Emphasizing the Message: Transform Group and Blockchain PR
As the cryptocurrency industry started to grow and gain mainstream traction, especially with the growth of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), professional public relations and strategic advisory became increasingly necessary. This is where Margaux Avedisian’s position as Vice President of Transform Group became very significant. Transform Group, which was co-founded by Michael Terpin, became one of the top PR and advisory companies that specialize exclusively in the blockchain and cryptocurrency market.
Within her role as VP, Avedisian collaborated on dozens of blockchain initiatives, assisting them in developing their stories, acquiring their target markets, and charting through the frequently-rocky waters of media perception. There was an ICO boom from 2016-2018 that spawned dozens of new initiatives, each fighting for notice and funding. Good PR was not merely an advantage; it was sometimes critical to survival and success. Her experience and contacts within crypto made her an invaluable addition to these fledgling ventures.
At Transform Group, her role was not merely writing press releases but included strategic communications, media relations, event planning, and assisting projects to express their value proposition in an understandable and compelling fashion. With an industry full of technical jargon and sophisticated ideas, it was an important skill to be able to break these down into understandable and compelling messages. Avedisian’s work helped to get many of these blockchain innovations in front of more mainstream audiences.

Bitcoin, Banter, and the Big Stage: A Humorous Advantage

One of the most interesting features of Margaux Avedisian’s public image is her simultaneous second career as a stand-up comedian. This was not merely an avocation, but one where she actively used observations of her time working in tech and cryptocurrency, as well as of her Armenian background and politics, to craft material for her stand-up acts. She stood up at New York City’s Caroline’s, NY Comedy Club, and Broadway Comedy Club, introducing an innovative voice into the world of stand-up.
More significantly, Avedisian regularly brought her comedic skills to cryptocurrency conferences. They might be at an otherwise stiff financial tech conference and get a comedy routine that satirizes the industry you work in. In doing so, not only did it add much-needed humor but also made otherwise obtuse or even nonsensical elements of crypto accessible to her viewers. Her routine at the Consensus conference, an industry mainstay, even caught the attention of mainstream media like the Wall Street Journal, further closing the distance between crypto’s niche culture and the outside world.
Why pair comedy and Bitcoin together? Maybe it was an effort to personify a technology that is otherwise perceived as unfeeling and impersonal. Or perhaps it was just an extension of her abilities as a communicator – taking the peculiarities and intricacies of the digital money revolution and finding comedy in them. This double life surely made her stand out, making her someone to remember and perhaps making the otherwise intimidating world of Bitcoin slightly more accessible to outsiders.
In the Public Eye: Documentaries and Media Commentary
Margaux Avedisian’s availability to speak to the public also included media appearances. She was also featured in the 2014 documentary “The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin,” one of the first films to document this phenomenon of this virtual money. Her involvement in the film gave viewers an inside look, sharing what it is like to be part of this emerging culture, facing its challenges, and feeling its energy. She provided an understandable and eloquent voice to the story.
Off screen, Avedisian actively engaged in panel discussions at conferences and gave comments to various media outlets. She was also consulted for her opinions on venture capitalism within the Bitcoin sector and even commented on global affairs, like Russia’s position on Bitcoin activities. The Wall Street Journal and International Business Times, among other publications, included her opinions, acknowledging her as an informed voice within the industry.
These public appearances served an educational and advocacy role. Avedisian demystified Bitcoin and blockchain for wider audiences by sharing her experiences and knowledge, which helped to lead to an informed public discussion. In an industry plagued by perception problems, clear and assertive communicators like Avedisian were of great value.

Advisory Capabilities and Enhancing Growth

Some of her contributions to the digital money universe also entailed advisory work for companies like BitcoinShop (one of the first e-commerce companies that accepted Bitcoins) as well as for the Chamber of Digital Commerce (a blockchain industry advocacy group) and the Lifeboat Foundation (a non-profit foundation that works to protect humanity from threats to its existence, including threats posed by science and technology).
In these advisory roles, she probably gave strategic advice on marketing, community outreach, and keeping up with the shifting regulator and business environment. Her work with the International Ripple Business Association also highlights her work on other aspects of the world of digital currency aside from Bitcoin. Such roles exhibit dedication not only towards establishing individual companies but to nurturing the health and development of the industry as a whole. Her entrepreneurial roots were also exhibited in companies such as “Answer in 30,” which became recognized as an entrepreneurship contest finalist, showing her entrepreneurial zeal beyond crypto.
Education that included a BA and an MFA and involvement in her school’s fashion club suggests an imaginative and versatile personality, qualities that surely served her well within the fast-paced, non-conformist environment of pioneering cryptocurrency. Such diversity of experience may have granted her an outside-the-box way of looking at problems and communicating them to others.

Conclusion

Margaux Avedisian is one of the most recognizable and prominent names of the pioneering days of blockchain and bitcoin development. Her adoption of these technologies from an early stage, paired with her entrepreneurial passion, positioned her to help establish critical infrastructure and marketing strategies for various pioneering firms. With her media presence as Transform Group, her television appearances, and even her venture into crypto-comedy, she was one of the standards-bearers of establishing and normalizing an emerging industry’s narrative and expanding its user base. One of the sector’s pioneering women, and one also dubbed the “Queen of Bitcoin,” her contributions were both multidimensional and helped push digital currencies into more widespread acceptance and consciousness.