In this series of interviews, we present firms listed on Finance Magnates' directory. Today, we are with Binary.com, a binary options Trading Platform . In recent years the company has been leaning towards Cryptocurrencies . Last year, Finance Magnates reported that the broker was planning to offer its initial coin offering (ICO) and list its IPO tokens on the Lykke Vanuatu Exchange.
However, due to insufficient interest from the cryptocurrency community, Binary.com cancelled its ICO. Now, the broker plans to wait for the cryptocurrency market to become more rational and mature before it reattempts to launch its ICO. This is expected to happen in 2019.
To get a deeper insight into the company's future plans, we spoke with the CEO of Binary.com, Jean-Yves Sireau.
What is your role and how did you get into the financial industry?
Jean-Yves Sireau
I am the founder and CEO of Binary.com. I got into the financial industry during my time at university, when I set up a company in France to sell a charting system that we developed.
In 1992, I moved to Hong Kong where I worked as a futures dealer for a French bank. A year later, I set up my own hedge fund, the Fortitude Group, where I invested in various over-the-counter derivatives. My experience with Fortitude eventually led me to start Binary.com, satisfying a demand from retail investors for a friendly and intuitive binary options trading platform.
What is the biggest challenge today in your field?
The binary options industry has been negatively affected in recent years by the emergence of numerous Israeli operators based in Cyprus, and who often ran their businesses in an unethical and immoral manner. This has led to the misconception that binary options and everyone who offers binary options trading services are fraudulent.
Thankfully, the authorities have been largely successful in shutting down these operations. Now, legitimate companies such as ourselves no longer have to compete with all these fraudulent brokers, and we hope to play a part in rebuilding the industry’s reputation and growing our business further.
Where in the industry can innovation and technology create the biggest impact?
We believe in the future of cryptocurrencies and that in time, they will create a new financial system that will rival and eventually surpass the legacy banking system. We are strong proponents of cryptocurrencies, and we continue to dedicate significant resources into integrating those technologies into our systems.
For starters, our clients can already deposit and withdraw their funds in selected cryptocurrencies. They can also create cryptocurrency-denominated accounts that allow them to trade on our website in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. The next area we’re looking into is the support for alternative cryptocurrency markets and smart contracts on our MT5 trading platform.
Which misconceptions do clients, peers, and competitors have about the industry?
As mentioned above, the binary options industry has been tainted in recent years by numerous unscrupulous Israeli operators and their corrupt practices. Thankfully, many of them have now closed down (or moved into ICOs, which is not good news for the cryptocurrency space).
What's the most important thing you have learned throughout your career?
The most important factor in running a successful business is the recruitment of top talent. At Binary.com, we invest significant effort into recruiting the best available talent for all roles.
