Another week has gone by in the cryptocurrency and foreign exchange (forex) spaces. The Monex Group is going to start offering Cryptocurrencies as a benefit for its shareholders, and Revolut is planning on adding more than just US stocks. All of this and more in our latest best of the week segment.
Here’s a breakdown.
Wash trading is still hurting crypto markets
The first news item in our best of the week segment concerns wash trading. It's no secret that the cryptocurrency industry has had its fair share of drama. As Finance Magnates analyzed, the Blockchain Transparency Institute (BTI) published a report alleging that wash trading in the cryptocurrency space has decreased by roughly 35 percent on the world’s 40 largest exchanges since the beginning of the year.
While it is a good sign that wash trading is reducing, wash trading still remains within the space, and quite a bit of it too. After the report was published, the website began experiencing a Distributed Denial of Service attack, and has been inaccessible; it seems as though someone was not happy with the results of the report, and wants to hide it from the world. Who could this be? You’ll have to read our analysis to find out.
Big banks invest in Securitize
San Francisco-based startup Securitize got a big boost in investment from some of the three biggest banks in the world - Banco Santander, MUFG and Nomura Holdings. As Finance Magnates reported, the company said that it had raised $14 million in new investment.
The start-up offers a collection of services which help companies create blockchain-based security tokens. The new funding round was led by the VC arms of the three banks with participation from existing investors that include Blockchain Capital, SPiCE VC, and SeedRocket4Founders.
Interview with Revolut: we’re going to be adding a lot more
This month, London-based challenger bank Revolut launched commission-free stock trading after a limited release in July. The platform, which is built into Revolut’s existing mobile application, is being provided in conjunction with technology firm DriveWealth and – unlike Robinhood – the bank says it won’t be selling its clients’ order flow.
To find out more about this service, as well as the bank’s future plans, we spoke to Andre Mohamed, Revolut’s head of wealth and trading. You can read the interview here.
Kik Interactive shuts down its messaging platform
In a move that will save it 85 percent of the burn rate, Canadian company Kik Interactive revealed this week that it has decided to shut down its messaging platform Kik to completely focus on its digital currency Kin.
This week, Ted Livingston, the CEO of the company, said that in order to completely dive into the crypto project, the company is also cutting its workforce from over 100 employees to a mere team of 19 people.
TradeTech forms new exchange partnerships
This week, TradeTech Group announced that it had formed a new set of partnerships with 18 exchanges from across the world. The deals mean that the group can provide clients with real-time market data covering over 4,000 products.
In a statement, TradeTech said that the new partnerships could reduce market data costs for clients - an issue which can be a real headache for brokers. Read more here.
Monex to give shareholders BTC benefit
The Monex Group is further utilizing cryptocurrencies, with the Japanese financial services giant announcing this week that it would be granting Bitcoins as a mid-term shareholder benefit for the 2019 fiscal year.
As Finance Magnates reported, for shareholders who hold Coincheck accounts, Monex will grant the equivalent of ¥500 yen ($4.65) in Bitcoin. The benefit, which will be granted in conjunction with the existing benefits offered by the Group, will be given to those who hold the company’s shares as of the 30th of September 2019.
Interactive Brokers Leaves IEX for Nasdaq
Just one year since Interactive Brokers became the inaugural listing on the IEX Exchange, the company announced this week that it would be moving the listing of its shares away from IEX exchange back to Nasdaq.
The broker expects that its common stock will commence trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on the 7th of October this year. At the same time, IEX has also announced today that it will be exiting the corporate listings business and will instead focus on its exchange trading operations.
Interview: BUX is already working on ETFs
Recently, BUX launched a commission-free equities trading platform BUX Zero, and already, the company is setting its sights on a new goal - exchange-traded funds.
This week, Finance Magnates caught up with Nick Bortot, the CEO of BUX, where we covered everything from the makeup of BUX’s client base to the benefits that the firm will accrue from the Ayondo acquisition and more.
Cobalt goes live with Deutsche Bank, XTX Markets and Saxo Bank
Cobalt, which is foreign exchange (forex) infrastructure based on shared ledger and high-performance technology, announced this Monday that it is now live with Deutsche Bank, XTX Markets and Saxo Bank.
With higher volumes but smaller ticket sizes in the forex industry making many post-trade solutions unaffordable, the purpose of Cobalt is to redesign post-trade forex infrastructure and processes. To do this, the system’s automated technology matches all versions of a trade into one ‘trusted copy.’ Find out more on the new technology here.
