BIC Interview with Marios Chailis from Libertex

BeInCrypto interviewed Libertex Group’s Chief Marketing Officer Marios Chailis about the crypto industry, his opinion on various market influences, and the role Libertex plays in mass adoption.

BeInCrypto (BIC): Following a rough start to 2022 for the crypto market and this kicked up a lot of fear and panic among the global crypto community. What advice or words of wisdom would you give future entrants to the market who experience a crash/ correction for the first time? 

Marios Chailis (MC): First things first, I would remind anybody who is new to trading or investing that you simply cannot expect to time the market with any sort of accuracy. It can, of course, be stressful to see your initial investment loses 10, 20 or even 50% of its value in a matter of weeks or months, but this is why dollar-cost averaging is so important.

Say you have $12,000 to invest each year. Don’t try and pick the best day to invest it all. Instead, invest $1,000 each month.

That way, not only are you protected from huge drawdowns but might be able to benefit from the reduced prices that corrections offer.

It’s important to never give up. Yes, what goes up must come down, but what goes down must also come back up again (usually)!

As long as you learn from your mistakes and adopt smarter risk mitigation strategies going forward, the crypto market could still prove profitable for you.

BIC: The past year saw huge growth and major developments in the crypto industry. Innovations like NFTs are fast becoming a major talking point and meme tokens are taking the world by storm. Do you think that hype plays an important role in the crypto market? 

MC: NFTs and meme tokens have certainly garnered a lot of media attention of late and I do believe there is some degree of utility in both instruments although I think it’s important to separate these two phenomena.

Of course, by their very nature, there are many meme tokens that will ultimately disappear. That said, it’s hard to ignore some of the gains we have seen in the likes of Dogecoin and Shiba Inu this past year.

NFTs are a whole other animal and their many applications in the metaverse and beyond make them an extremely interesting asset class indeed.

To answer your question directly, however, yes, I do believe hype plays an important role in the crypto market. 

Popular sentiment is a key driver of most markets, but cryptocurrencies are especially vulnerable given their low level of regulation and institutional involvement. 

Digital assets are dominated by retail players who typically lack the same technical analysis tools as the whales of the stock, forex, or commodities markets.

Crypto’s relative youth also means there is less longitudinal data to plug into any technical models that might be applicable. The end result is a market that is far more susceptible to hype and groupthink than any other.

But this is now changing, and, as adoption and regulation increase, digital currencies will start to behave much more like other commodities and currencies.

BIC: The crypto market is far more accessible today than it was in its infancy. For example, people can invest in crypto by buying directly with debit or credit cards on certain exchanges. Some people believe that there is more money to be made in trading but that it is quite an intimidating point of entry into the crypto market. In what ways does Libertex facilitate newbie traders in expanding their knowledge and skills?

MC: The accessibility of the cryptocurrency market is increasing with each passing day.

Of course, trading done right can enable much larger potential profits in a much shorter period of time, but the risks are also many times higher, and so people are right not to take this lightly. 

There are tactics such as the use of pending orders, position hedging, and complex trading strategies that could minimize losses while also possibly maximizing potential gains.

Here at Libertex, we offer free training via our Website to help new clients educate themselves on all these tools, providing detailed video tutorials and written guides that can give newbies a leg up on their competition. 

We also give them access to a free demo account to put these new techniques into practice before risking their own capital.

BIC: Mass adoption of cryptocurrency is undoubtedly the overall goal for crypto investors. Traders are given the opportunity to trade free from commissions and other fees through Libertex. Can you elaborate more on these offerings and the impact you think they will have in facilitating mass adoption? 

MC: Sure, it would be my pleasure. As you say, mass adoption is definitely the hope of most crypto 

investors since the more people there are using/investing in these currencies, the greater their 

the actual utility is, and the more likely they are to increase in value. 

The main barriers for more traditional retail investors and the institutions that cater to them have been cryptocurrencies’ inaccessibility and huge volatility. But these two factors are, in fact, inextricably linked.

As long as the digital assets market is dominated by crypto aficionados and meme investors — both of whom are traditionally younger, less experienced, and thus more risk-tolerant — the potential for large price swings remains.

However, now that making trades with digital currencies is available on trusted, user-friendly platforms like Libertex and free of commission and transaction fees to boot, it means older, more conservative traders are able to enter the space. 

Previously, dedicated crypto exchanges had an advantage in that some of them were commission-free, but what has always been associated with these exchanges is what some consider a hassle or risk and that’s the wallet (which can be hot or cold). 

But now that Libertex, a non-dedicated crypto exchange but a CFD broker as everyone knows, has leveled the playing field, there’s no reason for people to expose themselves to such hassles and risks. 

As the retail market grows more diverse, this will drive regulatory action, which will then attract even more institutional players. 

Then, before we know it, crypto will be just another asset class like stocks, commodities, or forex.

BIC: Libertex is well-known for its trustworthiness and its diverse offering of trading instruments. What other differentiating factors draw traders to Libertex over competing trading platforms? 

MC: As you mention, we are, indeed, known as a broker you can trust, and this is a huge draw for many, particularly in the context of CFDs on cryptocurrencies. 

But our competitive advantage goes far beyond mere honesty and choice of underlying assets. One of the key positives we constantly hear from clients is the quality of our platform.

It’s no surprise, then, that it has won multiple awards (most recently Best Trading Platform 2021 from Forex Report). 

Combined with our extensive offering of underlying assets, this enables our clients to keep their CFD account with their Invest account in one place that’s accessible from any device. 

Our other value-added services, such as the Trading Academy, also set us apart from other major CFD platforms that appear less interested in maximizing their clients’ performance and more interested in getting their commission.

This brings us to the major advantage that Libertex has over its competitors: we offer some of the lowest commissions and fees in the business. For instance, CFDs on crypto are now completely commission-free and so are stocks purchased with a Libertex Invest account.

BIC: While one can never accurately predict what the future of crypto will look like, what does Libertex have in store for 2022? Are there any new and exciting developments that can be disclosed? 

MC: We had such a massive year in 2021, especially with respect to crypto trading. We launched several new crypto CFDs — including the year’s highflyers, Axie Infinity, Dogecoin, and Shiba Inu — showing that we are always ready to move quickly to provide our traders with access to the underlying assets they want. 

As I already mentioned, we also gave a clear sign of intent with the introduction of commission-free crypto trading to ensure our retail Libertex clients do not pay commission fees. 

Heading into 2022, although I can’t reveal much, I would say you should expect to see similar offerings from us: additional CFDs on digital underlying assets, better terms and conditions for crypto traders, and a general focus on trading on cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. 

Something else I can mention without getting into too much detail is the rapid growth of the DeFi and NFT marketplaces, which hasn’t gone unnoticed by us, and we will be directing a lot of thought towards these areas over the next 12 months.

70.8% of retail investor accounts lose money. Zero commission fees on crypto CFDs are available for retail clients on the Libertex trading platform. Cryptocurrency instruments are not available to retail clients in the UK.