CoinQuora Interviews Tarik Chebib, CEO of Capital.com

CoinQuora had the privilege of becoming a media partner of iFX EXPO Dubai. iFX EXPO is the largest global Fintech B2B exhibition in Dubai. It was conducted from February 22 to 24 at the Dubai World Trade Center. During the event, CoinQuora had the opportunity to interview Tarik Chebib, Chief Revenue Officer at Capital.com. We asked him about the growth of crypto platforms. Here are some questions we asked Tarik.

Q. Just for context’s sake, could you run us through the operations of Capital.com?

Capital.com has been around since 2016. The last two years have really propelled the growth of our company. In 2021, 4.2 million people  opened an account with us, 350% more than in 2020. Even after lockdowns have fallen off and lives go back to normality, our growth has not slowed down –  there is still a lot of interest in online trading and investing. Especially in this region – the Middle East –  there is a lot of interest around cryptocurrencies and commodity trading. A lot of people come to us, because we have a wide variety of tradable cryptos on the platform and because our priority has always been to educate our clients and provide them with the tools they need to become better traders.

In markets where it is permissible to do so, such as the Middle East, we enable crypto trading. So when Dogecoin and Shiba got a lot of attention last year, people could actually trade them on our platform. We offer a host of payment solutions on the platform, including Apple Pay, which a lot of other platforms don’t offer. We have seen solid progress in this region and we are excited about the year ahead as we have some incredible projects in the pipeline.

Q. Absolutely, the market has really exploded in the last two years because of the pandemic.

It is true that retail trading has gained popularity as more people were confined to lockdowns and looked for alternative means to supplement their incomes or fill the time with a new skill. But at Capital.com , we have seen people continue to trade and invest for themselves even after the pandemic. In my opinion, DIY trading is here to stay. People who took to online trading during the pandemic are unlikely to turn their back on it as they get more familiar and learn more about how to trade and invest.

There is still a large part of the population that has no experience and has never traded before, which is why choosing a platform that prioritizes education is key. I truly believe we are one of the best platforms for novices. Education is a huge focus for Capital.com. This is what differentiates us from all other players in the industry. We offer clients a free app to help them learn how to trade. The Investmate app delivers extensive financial lessons and educational content to support clients in their investment journey. It has had incredible success with over half a million downloads on Google Play and a rating of 4.8/5 based on 16,000 reviews. We also offer demo-trading on the platform, simulated in real-time to give clients a safe means of learning to trade, and over 5,000 pages of educational content on our website, which is free and easily accessible. We also have a dedicated YouTube channel providing investment insights and news to clients. In the Middle East, we offer our app in Arabic and we have a YouTube channel in Arabic.

Q. Any specific market that you’re eyeing right now?

In Q4 2021, we opened an office in Australia and received a license to operate in the country by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). We’ve been in Europe and in the UK for a while. We are also about to open in the US with a really exciting product, where it becomes very easy to buy cryptocurrencies through a Visa card or MasterCard.

Q. Finally, what do you see for the future market? I suppose for the crypto market here in the Middle East specifically?

Now there is a new wave of people that are interested in cryptos and most of them take investing in these digital assets very seriously. And now is the time when people should be interested, right? In January, most of the crypto markets were down by 50%. When you go shopping, you tend to go when everything is on sale, right? When it comes to crypto markets, everyone believes it’s too risky to jump in and they stay on the sidelines. And they get involved again when the markets are much higher. In the next bull run it will be different as a lot of people will jump in early as they have seen what happened before in 2020 and 2021. That’s why I am bullish on this whole industry and where crypto is going this year. While there’s always a crypto winter, it will most likely be followed by a crypto summer.