As February draws to a close, and the small matter of a possible WW3 is dominating the news, let's take a look back at the news stories from the worlds of Forex, Fintech and Crypto in our best of the week segment.
Ukraine Passes Bill Legalizing Cryptocurrency
With Russian tanks at the Ukrainian border, the Ukraine parliament announced that it passed a bill to legalise cryptocurrencies, thus making the use of digital assets much easier in the country.
Mykhailo Fedorov, the Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Digital Transformation, stated: “This will legalize crypto exchanges and cryptocurrencies, and Ukrainians could protect their assets from possible abuse or fraud.”
Read more on the Ukraine legalizing crypto bill here.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict: Where Are Bitcoin and Crude Oil Heading?
As events unfurled in Ukraine, Finance Magnates looked at the impact the conflict was having on two widely traded assets: Crude Oil and Bitcoin.
For example, Russia is currently the world's third-largest bitcoin mining hub. Approximately 11% of bitcoin mining takes place in Russia.
Read more on the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on Bitcoin and Oil here.
UK Sanctions 5 Russian Banks and Three High-Net Worth Individuals
As Finance Magnates reported on Tuesday, as a response to Russia sending troops to Luhansk and Donetsk in Ukraine, the UK announced sanctions against 5 Russian banks and 3 high-net-worth individuals.
The Russian banks are Rossiya, IS Bank, General Bank, promsvyazbank and the Black Sea Bank. The high-net worth individuals are Gennady Timchenko, Boris Rotenberg and Igor Rotenberg.
Read more on the UK Russian Sanctions here.
Playtech CEO Wants to Join TTB Investor Group for Takeover Bid
Playtech (LON: PTEC) announced on Monday that it released TTB Partners from the restrictions of making an acquisition offer. TTB approached the gaming technology company with its interest in making a fresh bid after Playtech shareholders rejected Aristocrat Leisure’s acquisition offer.
TTB, which is the parent of Hong Kong-based Gopher Investments, approached Playtech on behalf of an investor group for making the new offer. However, the company was restricted from making fresh bids as Gopher showed interest in acquiring Playtech earlier but later retracted.
Further, Playtech’s CEO, Mor Weizer, and former Director, Thomas Hall, also approached TTB expressing their interest in participating in the investor group that is planning to make the offer.
Read more on the latest Playtech acquisition news here.
Bitcoin Is Changing the Script
"Bitcoin is the master storyteller, or the most compelling protagonist because it has the ability to shift and reshape even as it stays the same, altering its plotline to fit with the pressing concerns of the moment. Bitcoin fixes this and runs the cliché, but what’s remarkable is that whatever the state of the world and its current malady, Bitcoin is so often held up as the best, or only, salve."
Read the latest Sam White op-ed on why Bitcoin is changing the script here.
Bitpanda Enters UK Acquiring FCA-Regulated Trustology
Austrian crypto unicorn, Bitpanda has entered the United Kingdom with the acquisition of London-based Trustology, a regulated institutional cryptocurrency custodian wallet provider. The financial terms of the deal remain unknown.
Announced on Tuesday, the new owner will rebrand FCA-regulated Trustology to Bitpanda Custody. The Austrian company will basically streamline its European and new UK operations under the same branding. According to Bitpanda, the acquisition will make it one of the largest crypto custodians on a global scale.
Read more on Bitpanda's Trustology acquisition here.
Trading 212 Sees 318% Rise in 2020 Revenue, Seeks German License
London-headquartered Trading 212 published its annual financials for 2020, reporting almost a 318 percent jump in its revenue. The group company generated £124.1 million in revenue in 2020, jumping from £29.7 million in the prior year.
Additionally, the pre-tax profits jumped 60 percent to £15.2 million. The after-tax profits came in at £10.1 million, improving from the previous year’s £8.5 million.
Read more on the Trading 212 Revenue Rise here.
CFTC Busts Golden Signals for Binary Options Fraud, Seeks $2.6M
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has busted another fraudulent trading scheme that was soliciting victims with binary options. The regulator issued an enforcement order against Golden Signals LLC and its owner Richard D. Neal for fraud but has already settled for $2.6 million.
The scheme operated between October 2016 and November 2021, when Neal and his company engaged in binary options solicitation and trading fraud.
Read more on the latest Binary Options CFTC bust here.
What Will Be the Future of Crypto Lending?
Crypto lending platforms have become very popular over the past few years. Demand for their services has soared among retail digital asset holders.
However, unlike the banking industry that is heavily regulated, these crypto lending platforms are operating in an unregulated market without any regulatory oversight.
In a Finance Magnates analysis, we looked at what's in store for crypto lending.
Read more on the future of crypto lending here.
Analysis: November Brought Second Highest FX Deposits in 2021
This week saw the release of an analysis of the FX industry by the Finance Magnates Intelligence team for the month of November.
After an unusually high number of depositors in October, what were November's numbers like? Which GEO's saw the highest depositors?
Read more on the November 2021 FX data here.
NFTs: Psychedelic Crypto
In the last year or so, NFTs have broken into the foreground of the crypto world, but how do NFTs fit into broader market movements and the overall crypto sentiment?
Sam White discusses the concept of NFTs as Psychedelic crypto.
Read more on NFTs: Psychedelic Crypto here.
To A-Book or B-Book: The Review of the Two Decades
The Finance Magnates Intelligence team takes a look at the FX/CFD industry over the last two decades.
We delved into what dealing models worked the best over time, and which model should a broker choose when entering the FX/CFD industry in 2022.
Read more on the two decades of FX/CFD industry review here.
