It’s been another busy week in the cryptocurrency and foreign exchange (Forex ) space, Coinbase had its fraud charges dropped, and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) suspended the license of AFX Markets. All this and more in our best of the week segment.
Are governments waging wars with stablecoins?
With more and more big players announcing their intention to launch stablecoins, such as Facebook and Walmart, this week our crypto Editor Rachel McIntosh asked the question - are governments waging economic battles through corporate stablecoins?
As Finance Magnates analyzed, these corporate stablecoins could hold a particularly large amount of power if a company’s users or customers were adequately incentivized to transact with them. Furthermore, this power could directly feed into the strength of a country’s national currency.
Where do we stand one year after ESMA?
It has now been twelve months since the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) implemented its product intervention measures for binary options and contracts-for-differences (CFDs).
This week, Finance Magnates Editor David Kimberley took a look at where the industry stands one year later. What did he find? You’ll have to read the article here to find out.
How to survive a crypto PR disaster
The cryptocurrency industry has faced its fair share of scandals and issues, and it has a very vocal audience which is incredibly active on Twitter, so much so that the term “Crypto Twitter” or CT has been coined.
While overly positive, the Twitter culture that governs the cryptosphere can have disastrous effects for companies when it comes to bad press. So how can companies avoid a Twitter storm? Read more here to find out.
FCA suspends the license of AFX Markets
The week, Finance Magnates broke the news that the FCA announced its decision to suspend the financial services license of the UK subsidiary of AFX, AFX Markets. As part of the suspension, the company has been mandated to publish a notice on the websites of its brands: STO Financial Services, ICEFX UK and Quantic Prime.
The FCA’s decision comes around two weeks after Cypriot regulator CySEC suspended the license of the company in Cyprus. While at the time the firm stated that the suspension is temporary and will lapse in 10 days, the Cypriot regulator has not reaffirmed that the company can restart its operations.
Robinhood receives authorization to operate as UK broker
In the same week that the FCA suspended the license of AFX Markets, it also granted authorization to Robinhood’s UK subsidiary Robinhood International, Ltd. to operate as a broker.
Leading the UK operations is Wander Rutgers, who has been appointed as the President of Robinhood International. In this role, he will oversee the company’s new London office, among other duties. Find out the rest of the details here.
Coinbase: a week of hits and misses
This week cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase received some good news, followed by some bad news. As Finance Magnates reported, fraud charges filed against US-based crypto exchange in connection with the listing of Bitcoin Cash in December 2017 were dropped by a California court.
According to the judge, the complaint didn’t sufficiently explain how the launch manipulated the market for Bitcoin Cash or Bitcoin, nor did it establish Coinbase or Armstrong’s motive to manipulate the prices.
However, the exchange didn’t have the same luck to have a lawsuit claiming the cryptocurrency exchange’s negligence during the launch of Bitcoin Cash on its platform back in 2017 dismissed, with the same judge rejecting the dismissal and denying the exchange’s motion to move the case to arbitration.
Saxo Bank completes the acquisition of BinckBank
This week, Saxo Bank and Dutch lender BinckBank released a joint statement stating that Saxo has completed the acquisition and now owns 95.14 percent of the total issued and outstanding share capital of the online broker.
As Finance Magnates reported, the two companies revealed they already started working on the integration of their technology infrastructure and plan to launch additional products and services to better compete in light of the growing competition in the online trading and investment sector.
Lee Elbaz is found guilty of binary options fraud
Lee Elbaz, the former CEO of Israel-based Yukom Communications, was found guilty for her participation in a binary options scheme to defraud investors in the United States and across the world, the Times of Israel reported.
The 38-year-old Israeli was convicted in the District of Maryland with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and three counts of wire fraud. She is scheduled to be sentenced on December 9.
Bitmain Posts $310 Million in Q1 Losses
The crypto winter might be over, but the largest manufacturer of ASIC-based Bitcoin miners, Bitmain Technologies, has incurred a net loss of $310 million in the first quarter of 2019.
As Finance Magnates reported, According to a report by Tencent’s QQ, the Chinese miner maker made a profit of $315 million in March. However, the net figure went negative due to $345 million and $280 million in losses in January and February respectively.
Who is winning the race among ECN eFX Venues?
It goes without saying that the first half of 2019 has been hard for forex trading and software providers alike. Nonetheless, while retail brokers were particularly hit hard, institutional trading venues have reported increasing volumes over the past couple of months.
In our final story featured in our best of the week segment, we took an in-depth look at which venue dominated execution in the first half and highlight some trends which are worth keeping track of. To see what we found, take a look here.
