Leonardo Rubinstein, an industrial engineer with expertise in strategic consulting and monetary markets, heads Zonda Bitcoin Capital, the primary Argentine firm that seeks to checklist on the native inventory market below a mannequin of accumulating bitcoin (BTC) in treasury.
This initiative goals to determine a regulated funding automobile that facilitates entry of institutional capital to digital foreign moneyintegrating it into the capitalization construction of the nationwide inventory market.
Rubinstein’s profession is crucial to grasp the solidity of his proposal. Earlier than absolutely immersing himself within the digital asset ecosystem, he cast his profession in extremely demanding environments: he was a technique guide at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), labored at non-public fairness and traded as a futures dealer in Chicago for 3 years. His time within the know-how sector consolidated him as a benchmark after directing OLX for seven years and founding ank, a fintech backed by Itaú financial institution.
Nevertheless, his “fall down the bitcoin rabbit gap” started in 2015, spurred by an opportunity encounter on the OLX places of work. Rubinstein relates in an interview with CriptoNoticias:
We have been doing these month-to-month talks with famend and extremely impactful entrepreneurs, and Wenceslao Casares (founding father of XAPO) got here to provide his speak. I listened to it and was within the subject. First in a really speculative and exploratory means, however little by little I bought into the rabbit gap and I studied it extra.
Leonardo Rubinstein, CEO of Zonda Bitcoin Capital
This studying course of led him to query the very foundations of the normal financial system. As he explains, what impacted him probably the most was the query concerning the origin of the cash: “Discovering how damaged the fiduciary system was made me much more satisfied that I wished to take a position the remainder of my skilled profession on this.”
Bitcoin and “crypto” aren’t the identical
For Rubinstein, terminological readability is a declaration of rules. In contrast to different market gamers who group all digital belongings below one umbrella, their method is unique. Even when throughout his time at fintech Ank he tried to combine the acquisition of assorted digital belongings, the expertise helped him refine his present imaginative and prescient. “My factor is bitcoin,” he emphasizes.
This distinction lies within the technical and philosophical nature of Satoshi Nakamoto’s creation. For the CEO of Zonda, bitcoin is a technological resolution to a decades-old international downside: the accelerated devaluation of fiat cash. Its decentralized nature, its absolute shortage and its independence from intermediaries, firms and governments stand out.
«I feel that in its design, if one reads the whitepaper, though it aimed lots at transactions peer-to-peeradditionally had intrinsic the thought of defending or having an escape valve to what’s the issuance of fiduciary cash with out backing,” he factors out, reaffirming that bitcoin is the asset par excellence for the treasury mannequin that he’s constructing.
A distinct segment not but exploited in Argentina
Zonda Bitcoin Capital’s mission is obvious: to be the primary public firm in Argentina listed on the inventory market with a technique of accumulating bitcoin in treasury.
The corporate’s goal is twofold. On the one hand, offering entry to capital that’s at present “trapped” and can’t immediately enter the asset resulting from technical or regulatory obstacles. However, supply what Rubinstein defines as amplified efficiency.
The key metric for shareholders of Zonda is not going to solely be the share value, however the BTC per share.
If I’m a shareholder of Zonda Bitcoin Capital and I personal a share, our promise is that over time our crew will work to provide you extra bitcoin per share. If I’ve 1 BTC, in a 12 months I’ll have 1 BTC whatever the value. However, if I’ve 1 share of Zonda, our expectation as administration is that in a single 12 months you’ll have extra bitcoin per share.
Leonardo Rubinstein, CEO of Zonda Bitcoin Capital.
This method seeks to emulate the success of Technique (firm based by Michael Saylor, pioneer in making the bitcoin treasury its enterprise mannequin) whose inventory has outperformed BTC because it started its accumulation technique in August 2020.
Moreover, Rubinstein highlights the tax efficiencies of this automobile within the native context. Being an investor in a publicly traded inventory can exempt people from revenue or private property taxes, providing a aggressive benefit over immediately holding BTC.
For firms, it represents a solution to diversify portfolios with an asset not correlated with the macro or micro scenario of the nation, by a regulated instrument.
Why does Zonda Bitcoin Capital select ETFs for your corporation?
Regardless of being an Argentine initiative, Zonda Bitcoin Capital has designed an operational construction that seeks institutional safety and financial effectivity.
To keep away from the corporate being topic to tax on unrealized good points—a latent danger in the event that they owned the asset immediately in their very own pockets or native custody service—they’ve opted to make use of American ETFs.
«We determined to make the funding by the BlackRock ETF, iShares Bitcoin Belief (IBIT), in america. This permits us to resolve these two points and provides buyers peace of thoughts that custody is held by Coinbase or Constancy, custodians. tier one which might be audited,” explains Rubinstein.
Transparency shall be a key pillar, with the market web asset worth (MNAV) being printed on its web site in order that buyers can assess the connection between the corporate’s market capitalization and reserves.
It’s price clarifying that the corporate is now public due to the acquisition of Hulytego, one of many oldest companies on the Buenos Aires Inventory Change with greater than 80 years of historical past (and unique proprietor of the Telgopor model).
It at present operates below the ticker HULI, awaiting regulatory approval from the Nationwide Securities Fee (CNV) to hold out a capital improve (which is able to enable the entry of recent buyers), the official title change to Zonda Bitcoin Capital and the change of ticker.
An organization solely targeted on bitcoin
The paperwork introduced to the CNV might elevate some doubt concerning the asset that Zonda Bitcoin Capital will accumulate. As CriptoNoticias reported yesterday, it states:
(…) The Firm’s goal is to hold out, by itself account or in affiliation with third events (…) inside or exterior the nation, funding actions by the acquisition and sale of monetary devices and/or negotiable securities and/or digital belongings of any nature, together with with out limitation, participations in Change Traded Funds (ETFS) or another funding automobile, listed and/or quoted each on inventory exchanges and markets in Argentina and/or overseas, whose underlying asset consists wholly or partially of bitcoins (BTC) or different crypto belongings. and/or digital belongings of an analogous nature.
Presentation of Zonda Bitcoin Capital earlier than the CNV of Argentina.
What does it imply, in apply, that they are going to purchase and promote “digital belongings of any nature”? May in addition they incorporate altcoins? Rubinstein clarifies that, though within the experiences to the CNV “digital belongings” are generically talked about for procedural causes, the operational actuality is completely different:
The objective is to take a position solely in bitcoin. It’s a bitcoin firm, not a crypto firm. The treasury shall be solely bitcoin.
Leonardo Rubinstein, CEO of Zonda Bitcoin Capital.
The preliminary objective of 1,810 BTC and the imaginative and prescient of 1,000,000 {dollars}
Rubinstein’s bold plan doesn’t cease on the mere creation of the monetary automobile. He has his sights set on the highest of the Argentine company market. «We need to construct the corporate with the very best market capitalization in Argentina. If bitcoin goes to finally go to greater than 1,000,000 {dollars}, we’re going to accumulate plenty of bitcoin over time and we imagine that we’re going to be a really massive firm,” he states with conviction.
To place Rubinstein’s ambitions in perspective, at present, probably the most priceless firm in Argentina is Mercado Libre with a market capitalization of roughly $105 billion. It’s adopted by the oil firm YPF with round 16 billion {dollars}.
As the primary symbolic and quantitative milestone, Zonda Bitcoin Capital has got down to attain a treasury of 1,810 BTC, a determine that Rubinstein calls a “patriotic quantity” in reference to the 12 months of the Could Revolution.
«We not solely need to revolutionize the capital market with that quantity, however we need to proceed. The target is to build up and accumulate,” he says.
Purchases shall be made in a “disciplined” method, with out resorting to speculative buying and selling: “We don’t commerce, we don’t enter and exit, and we’re not going to invest ready for the precise second as a result of we imagine that at these value ranges any is nice.”
This imaginative and prescient is predicated on a value projection that, though private, Rubinstein bases with market information. Examine the capitalization of the digital foreign money (roughly 2 trillion {dollars}) with that of gold (15 trillion) and the worldwide actual property sector (400 trillion).
Bitcoin goes to 1,000,000 {dollars} and much more. What we do not know is when, however all of the circumstances are in place. Because the world’s capital realizes that it’s a way more environment friendly solution to protect worth, the capital that’s at present in gold or actual property goes to return to bitcoin.
Leonardo Rubinstein, CEO of Zonda Bitcoin Capital.
Bitcoin schooling: the antidote to the collapse of fiat cash
A core element of Zonda Bitcoin Capital is investor schooling. Rubinstein argues that Argentines, resulting from their historical past with the peso, have a comparative benefit in understanding the bitcoin scarcity, however warns that the issue is spreading to international reserve currencies.
“We need to educate buyers in order that they perceive that the identical factor is going on to the greenback at an accelerated price and that digital options like Bitcoin are an escape route,” he explains.
The CEO highlights that the creation of this digital asset in 2008 was a citizen response that mixed “geniuses in cryptography, distributed computing, thermodynamics and economics to guard us.”
On this sense, Zonda is already establishing hyperlinks with different regional pioneers, such because the Arkadia firm in Mexico, to strengthen the Spanish-speaking ecosystem.
With a compact crew of 5 professionals seniorRubinstein is assured that the mannequin is extremely scalable with out the necessity to considerably improve working prices because the treasury grows.
His last message is an enchantment to the statistical actuality of the final decade: whereas international financial emission is round 8% or 10% yearly, BTC has returned an annual common of 77% between 2014 and 2024.
«You do not have to return to beginning in 2009 to see that it was probably the greatest belongings to have, if not the most effective. We estimate that going ahead the expansion price will enable us to extensively overcome the devaluation of fiat cash,” concludes the supervisor, making it clear that Zonda’s path is simply starting.
