Maximilian von Hulewicz

General Manager APAC – Onboarding the World to Web3 | Crypto Payments, Licensing & Banking Rails

Germany

About

General Manager leading Transak’s expansion & partnerships across APAC, Europe, and the Americas. I build licensed entities, banking and PSP rails, and compliant go-to-market frameworks that connect users to crypto. I’ve optimized costs in existing markets and initiated expansion into new markets (VARA, MiCA, MSO, SRO), and built settlement infrastructure & liquidity pools with partners like Cross River Bank, Banking Circle, and OpenPayd. Expanding market by market: secure license, acquire banking payment rails and optimize costs to scale growth. I’m driven by capturing market opportunities early, building products that redefine how users interact with money, and creating new crypto primitives that can scale globally.

Experience

  • General Manager, Asia Pacific & Expansion at Transak
    Oct 2023 - Present · 2 yrs 9 mos

    • Leading global expansion and licensing strategy across APAC, EU, and the US for Transak’s fiat-to-crypto platform. • Securing new market entries (AU, UAE, HK, CH) and initiated MiCA CASP application in Austria. • Building multi-bank settlement infrastructure (Cross River, Banking Circle, OpenPayd) enabling global on/off-ramp coverage. • Optimizing costs via multi-vendor KYC and risk-monitoring stack (Onfido, Hypernative, ComplyAdvantage). • Driving product-market readiness, onboarding to local liquidity providers, managing regulatory compliance, and local deals across 5 high-priority markets.

  • KuCoin Exchange (Remote)
    • Director Payments
      Jan 2023 - Oct 2023 · 10 mos

      • Secured principal membership with VISA for KuCoin-branded debit cards in the EU and APAC regions. • Designed a comprehensive expansion roadmap for local payment rails, including PIX, SEPA, FPS, Revolut Pay and UPI. • Managed relationships with multi-region banking and processors, enhancing foreign exchange and settlement efficiency.

    • Regional Director Payments
      Nov 2021 - Dec 2022 · 1 yr 2 mos

  • Costway (2 yrs 10 mos)
    • Global Director of Business Integration
      May 2021 - Oct 2021 · 6 mos

      - Managed EUR 25M budget for global market expansion, hiring key personnel in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Poland. - Secured exclusive BNPL partnership with Klarna for US and AU, and a deal with Media Markt Saturn GmbH. - Reduced fraud and chargebacks using Visa Cybersource and Riskified.

    • Business Development Manager
      2019 - May 2021 · 2 yrs 5 mos

      - Integrated Braintree and Riskified, lowering credit card fees and chargebacks. - Reduced PayPal fees by 25%, boosting sales across platforms. - Led Visa’s Post Forensic Investigation and integrated Adyen and Klarna, growing volume by 25%. - Managed Google ads (TROAS 800%, COS 15%) and increased social media followers by 800%.

  • Digital Asset Consultant at Younus Foundation
    2018 - 2019 · 1 yr

    ICO project for tokenized ride-sharing, funded by Microsoft for Startups China.

  • Director Of Operations at InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG®)
    2015 - 2018 · 3 yrs