In a busy week for news, here are the standout stories that dominated the forex, fintech, and crypto spheres, in our best of the week segment.
SC of The Bahamas to Implement Massive Regulatory Changes
In a Finance Magnates exclusive, we revealed that The Bahamas, one of the most popular and legitimate offshore destinations for foreign exchange and CFD brokers, and it's nation's regulator, the Securities Commission of The Bahamas, is set to implement a range of new regulations, including leverage restrictions.
In a move that is set to shake up the entire online trading industry, Finance Magnates had access to a copy of the new rules – Securities Industry (Contracts For Differences) Rules, 2020.
Leverage restrictions of 200:1 and the banning of binary options altogether were just some of the highlights of this key regulatory change.
Read the full SC of The Bahamas Regulatory changes here.
Revolut Sees Huge Surge in Crypto Demand with COVID-19 Lockdown
As Finance Magnates reported, Revolut, the UK-based Payments unicorn, reported a significant jump in the number of its clients trading cryptocurrencies on its application.
The number of Revolut users trading digital currencies surged 68 percent in April, whilst the average value of each transaction jumped 57% following a 52% decline in March.
Read more on the Revolut Crypto Surge here.
Telegram Withdraws US Court Appeal for TON Launch
After wrapping up its Blockchain project, Telegram has now officially withdrawn from the court battle against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for lifting the ban on Gram tokens.
In a court filing, the encrypted messaging giant has pulled its appeal against the previous court decision favoring SEC to block Gram distribution both in the US and overseas.
Read more on the Telegram TON Appeal Withdrawal here
Facebook Rebrands Libra-Wallet Calibra to Novi
As Finance Magnates covered this week, Facebook announced a name change of its Calibra wallet subsidiary to Novi. The new name derived from the Latin word "novus," meaning "new" and "via" meaning "way."
A design change will see Novii operate as a standalone application, although it will have interoperability with Facebook's other popular social messaging apps – Messenger and WhatsApp.
Read more on the Calibra Novi change here
JPMorgan Chase Pays $2.5M to Settle Cryptocurrency Fees Lawsuit
Dominating the crypto news this week was the announcement that JP Morgan Chase had agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over its extra fees and higher interest rates it charged from cryptocurrency transactions.
The case stemmed from a lawsuit filed in a Manhattan federal court two years ago, accusing Chase of charging surprise fees when it stopped letting customers buy cryptocurrency with credit cards and, instead, treated their purchases as cash advances.
Read more on the JPMorgan Chase Cryptocurrency Settlement here.
Swiss Firm Guru Capital Buys UK CFDs Broker ETX Capital
As Finance Magnates reported, Guru Capital SA, a private equity firm based in Switzerland, has expanded its financial footprint by buying ETX Capital, a London-based financial spread-betting and contracts-for-difference provider.
Guru Capital bought ETX Capital from UK-based JRJ Group, which in 2007 established a joint venture with the Dutch BXR Group to acquire the broker that was formerly known as TradIndex.
Read more on the Guru Capital ETX Capital Acquisition here.
MetaTrader 5 Platform Updated with Negative Price Capabilities
MetaQuotes, the company that created the industry-standard MetaTrader 4 and 5 trading platforms, announced this Friday that it has rolled out a series of updates to its MT5 platform, including adding negative price capabilities.
MetaQuotes said this Friday that it had introduced negative prices into its platform as a direct response to the negative oil futures earlier this month.
Read more on the MetaTrader 5 Updates here.
How Has the BTC Futures Landscape Shifted After COVID-19 & Bitcoin Halving?
In a Finance Magnates Analysis, we looked at how Bitcoin futures trading has grown significantly on some exchanges and whether this occurred at the expense of others.
We discussed how has price volatility affected the crypto derivatives space and the crypto sphere post-COVID-19 and post Bitcoin Halving.
No stone was left unturned in this must-read analysis
Read more on the BTC Futures landscape here.
Did the 2008 Financial Crisis Hit the Market Harder Than COVID-19?
Finance Magnates Intelligence took the volatility during the last two crises - the financial crisis of 2008 and this year's COVID-19-inspired volatility under the magnifying glass, checking when price fluctuations were greatest.
In an intriguing taster of the full report, the comparison between the two periods throws up some surprising results.
Read more on the 2008 v 2020 analysis here.
Coinbase Buys Tagomi to Boost Institutional Trading
As Finance Magnates reported, Coinbase, the leading US-based crypto exchange, officially announced on Wednesday its acquisition of Tagomi, a crypto prime brokerage platform.
Details of the deal remain undisclosed. However, last November, rumors circulated in the media that Coinbase acquired Tagomi for $150 million. However, the exchange's communications head publicly denied any such claims or its interest in Tagomi.
Read more on the Coinbase Tagomi Acquisition here.
Two Canadian Banks Set Aside C$4 billion for Coronavirus Credit Losses
Royal Bank and Bank of Montreal, Canada's biggest and fourth-largest banks, respectively, have set aside an additional C$4 billion during the first quarter to cushion against loans that go bust, according to their recent financial reports.
Having missed analysts' estimates for earnings, both Toronto-based firms said the unprecedented sum underscores the magnitude of the economic shock, vast uncertainty over the shape of a recovery. It also reflects new accounting standards that require banks to project losses over the life of loans.
Read more on the Royal Bank and Bank of Montreal Losses Projection here
US Court Approves FX-Rigging Lawsuit Against 15 Big Banks
As Finance Magnates covered on Friday, A United States court has agreed on permitting institutional investors to pursue a class-action lawsuit against 15 major banks for rigging forex rates.
Per the lawsuit, the accused banks were involved in manipulating the prices of $6.6 trillion-a-day in the forex currency benchmark rates between 2003 and 2013.
The defendants include banks like Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Scotland, Societe Generale, Standard Chartered, and UBS, all of which sometimes controlled 90 percent of the forex market.
Read more on the Rigging US Forex Rates Lawsuit here.
