Live from Bali at Coinfest and ZIGChain Connect, Abdul (co-founder, ZIGChain) shares how he went from Standard Chartered → early crypto investor → co-founder of Zignaly → now launching a purpose-built L1 focused on wealth generation and access for the Global South.We get into: why bootstrapping a chain (no massive grant spigot) can work, backing independent founders (10+ dApps at mainnet), and why private credit will be the next breakout RWA after stablecoins. Abdul explains DIFC fund tokenization, sustainable yields, and mixing TradFi discipline with Web3 velocity.Founders: don’t miss his notes on finance fluency, AI-first ops, and using your token as a product marketing door-opener.

Key Timestamps

[00:00:00 ] Intro — Coinfest Bali & ZIGChain Connect

[00:01:10 ] Abdul’s path: Pakistan → banking → Bitcoin → Zignaly → ZIGChain

[00:03:30 ] Access gap in emerging markets; why build rails, not just apps

[00:05:20 ] TradFi skills in Web3: how capital really moves

[00:06:15 ] Why another chain? Purpose-built for investment/yields (not generic L1)

[00:07:10 ] Bootstrapping vs grants; investing in external founders (10+ dApps at TGE)

[00:08:40 ] Culture & team: 60 ppl / 14 countries; resilience across cycles

[00:10:05 ] Founder advice: business-first decisions; know your numbers; AI for leverage

[00:12:20 ] Roadmap: testnet → public mainnet; DIFC tokenization; first tokenized fund

[00:13:40 ] Bitcoin treasury yield use case; RWA infra as a service

[00:14:30 ] Growth: token as GTM, mixing Web2 talent with Web3 speed

[00:15:40 ] Events ahead: Token2049, BNB Chain Week, ADGM/FinTech, Switzerland Summit

[00:16:40 ] RWA outlook: private credit as “next stablecoins” (12–16% in GCC)

[00:18:10 ] The ask: builders > grants; strategic capital; play with (test/main)net

Connect

https://zigchain.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/zignaly/

https://zignaly.com/

https://x.com/zigchain

https://x.com/zignaly

https://x.com/arafaygadit
Disclaimer

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