When Kain Roomes sold his Rolex for $10,000, his goal was not to fund an ambitious startup; he simply had no other choice.

Roomes had fallen behind on his mortgage payments, was relying on his girlfriend to cover living expenses, and was working as a model to make ends meet. According to him, that luxury watch was his last valuable asset.

That decision eventually became the starting point for XRP Healthcare, an AI-driven health platform now based in Dubai that operates on the XRP Ledger.

"Initially, it wasn't a business decision; it was a matter of survival," Roomes said. "I was broke. I knew something had to change, and it had to happen fast."

The turning point in his life came during a family trip in 2017, when he saw his father reading a book about Bitcoin. A conversation between them followed that would change the course of his career.

After returning to London, Roomes began researching cryptocurrencies seriously. He eventually decided to sell his two-tone Rolex Submariner with a blue dial for $10,000 and invested the proceeds into digital assets.

The value of this investment eventually reached over $3 million during the 2021 crypto bull market, but the gains did not last.

🟣 Losing Millions of Dollars

Roomes says that as markets crashed in 2022, the value of his investment portfolio plummeted to around $30,000 to $40,000, with much of the remaining amount spent on daily living expenses.

"At the peak of the market, I had a little over $3 million, but its value dropped to about $30,000 to $40,000," he said. "The reason for this wasn't the market; it was greed. When I should have taken my profits, I didn't."

Instead of walking away from the crypto market, Roomes used his remaining capital to launch XRP Healthcare.

The company officially launched in London in 2022 and raised $500,000 in a private funding round shortly after holding its first event.

The business later moved to Dubai following legal advice, as Roomes was told the emirate offered a more supportive regulatory environment for companies operating in the digital asset space.

The move coincided with the launch of Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), one of the world's first dedicated regulators for virtual assets.

🟣 AI-Powered Health Platform

Today, XRP Healthcare describes itself as the first AI-powered health platform built on the XRP Ledger.

The company's mobile app offers a suite of AI-driven health tools, including symptom checkers, mental health exercises, and medication verification, alongside a program to reduce the cost of medical prescriptions.

Users also receive cryptocurrency tokens for participating in health-related activities under a model the company calls Proof of Health.

According to Roomes, the platform has not yet started generating revenue but is active. He said the app now has more than 11,000 monthly active users in over 65 countries, with the largest number of users in the US, UK, and Asia.

The company is now looking to raise an additional $2.5 million to expand its user base, enhance its AI capabilities, and list its token on more exchanges.

Although the use of blockchain in healthcare has often been met with skepticism, Roomes believes the technology can address practical issues related to speed, cost, and accessibility, particularly in cross-border payments and digital rewards.

"Our measure of success is simple: reaching one million users, generating real revenue, and making tangible progress toward an initial public offering or a strategic exit," he said.

However, Roomes' greatest lesson came not from making millions, but from losing them.

"After that crash, I don't regret losing my money," he said. "It made my character stronger, gave me resilience, and turned me into the person I am today. Sometimes you need those catastrophic moments to wake up."