Absorbing the Complexities in Crypto through Copy Trading: An Interview with Billium's Founder

New entrants are often distracted and seduced by green figures and attractive charts in the increasingly volatile crypto industry. A new coin is doing 10X; should I risk my savings with it? My friend at FTX likes Decentraland; should I flock with them? New traders are expected to keep up with the speed, technical stack, and fluidity of crypto trading and investment. That necessitated the demand for tooling to replicate what's already working- a winning strategy used by professional investors. Billium seeks a similar goal - a new cryptocurrency trading platform connecting beginners with professional traders, allowing them to replicate the records, statistics, and strategies of their trading in real time.

Billium's founder and CTO, Iliam Angelov, shared details about their vision, his views on the future of crypto trading, and their latest funding from investors.  

It's a pleasure to meet you, Ilia. Could you tell us more about your background and what led you to Billium? Why did you decide to build Billium and, particularly, why crypto copy trading?

Ilia: Thank you. I am a 36-year-old professional trader who's always traded and managed risk all his life. Growing up, I was surrounded by nerds and risk takers, thereby building that knack for testing limits since my childhood. My desire to expand the boundaries of financial and technological possibilities led me to the field of neural networks and artificial 

intelligence. In 2012, I decided to start a financial trading school where we teach and mentor amateur and professional traders on stock trading. The school has risen to become a respected training institute, maintaining both scale and reputation by graduating more than 15,000 students. 

After building an empire that has positively affected the Middle Eastern market and spanning decades, I felt it was the right time to build something at the center stage, for the global market, of course. I spent months looking for and researching many industries for potential opportunities. Moved by the crypto gloom and boom, I turned my attention to this emerging and growing ecosystem. For someone with an economics background, I saw the need to make cryptocurrency more inclusive through crypto trading. The existing trading platforms’ hallmarks are more traders, with little attention paid to copy trading. Many cryptocurrency trading platforms, there aer a lot of retail users and hungry investors but not a simple mechanism for amateur traders to copy the trading strategies of successful traders. Not a lot of time to educate them. It felt like a challenge waiting to be solved; then, I stepped in with Billium. It's crazy, you know. I'm surprised at the speed and scale of Billium. Do you know how Netflix brought TV shows and movies to the commoner on the street? My goal is to get the benefits of blockchain and cryptocurrency to everyone.

You said you were a successful investor and professional trader. I think it's always impressive when people like you jump into the crypto space. Can you recap your time as a professional stock trader?

Ilia: There are similarities between trading cryptos and stocks. But there are differences too. Huge differences. For instance, both industries have proven that investing in digital or traditional assets isn't just for the rich. We had individuals aged 17-19 in our stock trading school, others above 70 years. Stocks and cryptos create an investment opportunity for a wide range of people, regardless of who they are or where they are. But one thing is exceptional about crypto, and that is security and transparency. Although volatile, it's a market that never sleeps. My conviction is that it will upend the conventional financial system. It is easy to buy stocks or trade crypto on your mobile phone, but we are introducing new dimensions to the 

crypto market. The use case is a big difference too. Some digital assets are tied to a specific function within a blockchain ecosystem. Blockchain also brings security and transparency. These are significant factors driving experimentation in this industry. I believe there will be many iterations and use cases. 

We did terrific things with our financial trading school, but I didn't want to constrict our limits to a small wall. The global stock trading industry is big in both scope and size, but I think crypto is bigger. It's now easier to buy and sell stocks, and so is crypto trading. I am convinced my financial expertise as a professional stock trader will add an air of legitimacy to Billium and energize the cultural foil of our team building and management - like how I operated my training school. 

The global cryptocurrency trading industry is providing new potential, accelerating crypto adoption, and offering fresh opportunities as an investment vehicle. At the same time, politicians and regulators are frustrating these efforts. What do you think is the biggest obstacle for the industry? 

There are many outstanding obstacles, but the issue of regulation tops the list. Sadly, the problem had been brewing for a long time before it eventually surfaced. Investors want to be protected in a notoriously volatile market like crypto. Unfortunately, the regulatory bodies in different countries are fragmented and often characterized by overlapping jurisdictions and conflicting market authorities. Transparency from regulatory oversight will return more security and transparency in the industry. We have seen this playing out in DeFi amidst crypto winter because of the sector's on-chain transparency. The path has not been smooth, but stringent regulatory clarity will help prevent a potential crypto meltdown in the future. 

Many people embraced cryptocurrency to benefit from its promises but found they lack the technical understanding required in the industry. Some reports also linked people's frustration to bad user interfaces. What is Billium doing to solve these problems? 

Ilia: Thanks for asking this question. I believe we need to make crypto "simpler" for new entrants in the industry. Over the past few years, a changing cast of players and founders in the crypto industry have been solving different problems. At Billium, we want to focus on what matters - I mean, the causes of crypto resistance, especially among retail investors. While other crypto trading platforms are solving different problems, Billium has emphasized the need to embrace copy trading. In the process, we will decentralize access to crypto trading and create a new asset class.

The Series of your Interviews are on copy trading in crypto. Could you tell us more about this?

Ilia: I don't think the asset trading industry has a harder job than that of crypto trader and investor. Whether in its volatility, novelty, or complexity, the crypto industry is a unique test for even the savviest traders. This means an average crypto trader must understand a swami of technical languages spread across traditional finance, modern economics (token economics), and other economic theories. They need to think quickly while surrounded by thousands of coins pitched to be the future of crypto. If even professionals mediate between conducting extensive research and studying charts to make investment decisions, do the amateurs stand any chance? This is one of my worries. How can we ease the journey for those who believe in crypto and are ready to be part of the crypto economy? This is the reason for copy trading - one of our pitches at Billium. It allows anyone to automatically copy the exact winning strategies and trades of successful crypto investors. Beginners don't have to spend unnecessary hours studying the markets. Everything is automated for them - follow proven investors, copy their top-performing trades, and replicate their trading in your portfolio. 

Are there incentives for experienced traders and investors whose trading strategies are copied on Billium?

Definitely. We have designed fantastic incentives for our professional investors. We want to help them build their online financial presence. Whenever they are copied, they will be paid. It's a great avenue to turn their trading skills into a passive income. These incentives are ranked and designed to encourage our successful traders and convince our community of a more responsible and safer investment decision. That's not all; we will launch an educational hub where our community members will be exposed to the latest trends in cryptocurrency. Overall, the goal is to continuously attract new users and extend our markets beyond the UAE.

Are there any other features on Billium?

We are rolling out a constellation of features that makes trading easier and simpler for our community. We are determined to be a pioneer in the crypto copy trading industry in the UAE and beyond, providing margins and spot trading products. We also have a liquid order book that can eliminate various slippages. Our platform is built with super-powerful and ultra-fast algorithms that can process trade orders instantly so that no copy trader misses an update from the professional they are copying trades from. In totality, we are positioned to expand our offers and these features over time. They give us great flexibility to scale and innovate from within. 

You just raised $4M from investors. What's your plan with this funding moving forward?

Ilia: At its core, Billium is focused on removing technicalities and complexities for our end-users. To simplify these financial convolutions, we need assurance from the market and support from our investors. Our recent funding shows the extent of our progress and will allow us to focus on our long-term goals while simultaneously achieving our near-term goals. Part of the funds will be used to build a diverse pool of talents and accelerate our obsessive devotion to creating standards. That we have hired people like Dauda Sulaimon Abiola, who's a respected leader in the Web3 space, demonstrates the depth of experience within the team. Also, we will use part of the funding as rocket fuel to operationalize our growth and fill the gaps in critical areas we are currently lacking.  

Do you have any last remarks for your readers?

Ilia: Crypto is the future...and the future is NOW. Join the moving train; it's not too late.

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