Welcome to the interview with Bartolome R Bordallo, the CEO of Zignaly. Zignaly is a social-investment pioneer that connects new investors with expert traders to make crypto investing accessible to everyone.
Join us as we discuss social investments, passive income, profit sharing, and whether the crypto winter is finally over.
Hi Bartolome! Thank you for your time. Please tell us your crypto story and how the idea for Zignaly came about.
Hi! I am Bartolome Bordallo, the co-founder and CEO of Zignaly. Thank you for having me on board. It is a pleasure talking to you.
Well! Let me begin by saying that I was always inclined toward entrepreneurship. I enjoy the process of ideating and building businesses that make a difference in our world. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of the founding team of several startups like Traction-Board and Quickstart Ventures.
I’ve also co-founded “Jooicer”, a tool that helps creators grow their Twitter accounts. But then, the growing blockchain and crypto industries caught my attention. I was excited about the sheer number of possibilities with this space and started exploring it. But, I soon realized there is a steep learning curve involved with investing in cryptocurrencies. I found that this deterred new investors from entering this space and capitalizing on this opportunity.
This is why my team and I came up with the idea of Zignaly back in 2018. We wanted to create a social investment and profit-sharing platform that made investing in cryptocurrencies easy for everyone across the globe.
Can you elaborate a little on social investment and profit-sharing? Do you think these are key to attracting the new wave of crypto investors?
You know, Warren Buffett famously said that we should never invest in something we don’t understand. It is always ideal that investors thoroughly research and understand what they’re investing in. But in this fast-paced world, not everyone can spare the time to learn. So, the next best alternative is to trust those who understand that industry – which is precisely what profit sharing is. New and amateur crypto investors allocate their funds to expert traders who use their experience to invest and grow these funds. Those profits are then shared between traders and allocators, a win-win for all players involved.
New investors can avoid the hassle of mastering trade strategies, while experts can scale their profits using the strategies they’ve mastered. I definitely believe this is the key to bringing the next wave of retail investors into the crypto market.
The technical illiteracy and volatile market conditions deterring investors from entering this space will no longer be an issue. Investors can allocate funds to the right experts and passively participate in the crypto market.
Walk us through Zignaly’s operations and how it implements the profit-sharing model.
As mentioned before, our aim at Zignaly is to make crypto investing accessible to everyone. So, the first step to that is making it affordable. We do not take any fees from new investors upfront or even monthly. Investors only pay when they make a profit. Moreover, we do not have a minimum investment requirement. People can invest as much or as little as they please.
Then, the next step is to provide access to expert traders across the globe. We already have over 300 expert traders who are carefully vetted for their market performance & most importantly, risk management. Investors have the option of allocating their funds with multiple traders simultaneously to diversify their risk exposure.
Lastly, Zignaly is a blockchain-powered platform, and we’ve recently announced the Zignaly DAO, which allows the community to run and manage the platform. So, the bottom line is that we reduce the technical and financial entry barriers to the crypto market, making crypto investing accessible to everyone.
Well! This sounds exciting. But what do you think of the present scenario in the crypto market and the claim that everything is a bubble?
All the major industries in the world go through rising and falling market conditions. I don’t look at it like a bubble. In fact, I believe everything is a cycle. When stability is disturbed by factors like inflation, excess demand, or supply deficit, the market tends to fluctuate. It could achieve new highs or go to new lows before inevitably picking itself back up again.
Right now, we’re in the low phase of the crypto market, and I believe the market will bounce back again. But in the meantime, this low-phase is an excellent filter that removes crypto projects with little to no utility. Only the projects with long-term utilities survive the bear market, and when the market returns to normal, people can get a clear picture of projects worth investing in.
That’s an interesting way to look at it. Do you think the crypto winter is now coming to an end?
The last big crypto winter began in early 2018 and lasted till the end of 2020. So, we cannot know for sure if the crypto winter is coming to an end. That being said, we’ve recently witnessed an industry-wide price rally and can hope for the upward trend to continue.
We also now have more investors adding to positions in the market. In the industry, we’re all cautiously optimistic.
Okay! We’re all aware of the risks associated with crypto investing. But in the future, do you imagine a future where cryptocurrencies, or at least the blue-chip ones, are decoupled from risk-on assets?
I believe cryptocurrencies will always be risk-on assets because of their inherent volatility. However, as their worldwide adoption grows, we can expect lesser volatility. In fact, Bloomberg once believed Bitcoin was evolving to become a risk-off asset because of how it proved to be an excellent store of value in troubled economic conditions.
However, the subsequent price fluctuations show that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies will always come with an associated risk factor. So, like stocks and commodities, cryptocurrencies will always be risk-on assets.
Finally, before we go, what advice would you like to give new investors eyeing this space?
Well, the crypto industry is still in its early stages of development. So, investors have a lot of opportunities to capitalize on its future growth. Yes, there is risk and uncertainty, and this is why I always advise investors to research before investing. But thankfully, because of platforms like Zignaly, investors have the opportunity to participate in the market and grow their funds using expert knowledge.
I advise investors to carefully vet all their options and approach the crypto industry with an open mind, but also with caution.