In a busy week for the FM newsroom, let's take a look back at the biggest news stories from the worlds of Fintech, Forex , and Crypto in our best of the week segment.
CySEC Publishes Policy Statement for Crypto Firms’ Registration
The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) published a long-awaited and detailed policy statement on Monday, covering the registration process and operations of the crypto-asset service providers (CASPs).
It highlighted that depending on the structure of the businesses, the crypto assets will either qualify as financial instruments under the Investment Services and Activities and Regulated Markets Law or as Electronic Money under the Electronic Money Law.
Read more on the CySEC Crypto statement here.
What Is the Optimum Price Level for XRP?
With XRP trading at little more than a dollar, there is a hefty 67% discount on the token since its 2020 peak. This week, XRP regained the 6th spot from Solana according to MarketCap and XRP is once again in the spotlight.
With massive potential use cases, Ripple-issued digital currency XRP became very popular among crypto traders. It is one of the most controversial cryptos, yet remains in high demand. But, what is the optimum value of XRP? Is it currently undervalued or overvalued?
In a Finance Magnates analysis, we analysed exactly what is the optimum price level for XRP?
Why Solana Jumped 10,000% in 2021
Not many retail and institutional investors heard about Solana (SOL) before 2021. The cryptocurrency hardly saw any substantial gains during the second half of 2020.
However, Solana’s popularity skyrocketed in 2021 as the digital asset saw immense demand from retail and institutional investors.
Read more on Why Solana Jumped 10,000% in 2021.
Solana Surpasses Weekly Institutional Inflows of Bitcoin and Ethereum
Staying with Solana. last week, the cryptocurrency attracted more institutional inflows than Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Cardano and Polkadot.
According to the recent digital asset weekly fund flows report published by CoinShares, Solana investment products saw inflows worth approximately $50 million last week, compared to minor inflows of $0.2 million in BTC investment products and outflows of nearly $6 million from ETH investment products.
Read more on Solana Institutional inflows here.
Apeiron Joins the Largest Equity Financing Round to Date Held by NAGA
The NAGA Group AG (XETRA: N4G), a copy trading-focused broker, announced on Thursday its most significant equity financing round to date by welcoming Apeiron Investment Group Ltd, a private investment company owned by Christian Angermayer, who is an entrepreneur and investor, and Igor Lychagov, the Founder of the brokerage firm, Exness.
According to the press release, Apeiron Investment Group entered into a share purchase agreement with its Elevat3 strategy, operating in partnership with Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, to purchase a block of shares from Fosun Group. As part of the deal, Hauck & Aufhäuser acted as the sole book-runner in the transaction between NAGA and Apeiron. That said, Apeiron is looking forward to allocating a stake of around 22% in NAGA, with the group raising $27 million in direct equity.
Read more on the NAGA Equity Financing Round here.
Exclusive: Swissquote Confirms European Expansion Plan, Focusing on Crypto
In a Finance Magnates exclusive, Swissquote, a publicly listed online bank and broker, recently confirmed its future expansion ambitions in Europe, revealing its plans for both CFDs and crypto markets.
Swissquote has already been offering cryptocurrency trading for years, and now it is going to expand its services with the launch of crypto staking and lending services.
As a part of the expansion plan, the Swiss group will make some structural changes in its European retail businesses.
Read more on the Swissquote expansion plans here.
IG Group Reports Strong Revenues for Q1 FY22
IG Group released a revenue update this week for the three months ended 31 August 2021 (Q1 of FY22). The Group saw a decent jump in revenue during the latest quarter.
According to the official numbers, IG’s adjusted net trading revenue touched £221.7 million in Q1 of FY22, which is 6% higher compared to the same period in FY21. The total number of active clients in the latest quarter reached 287,200.
Excluding tastytrade, active clients spiked 12% in Q1 of FY22 compared to Q1 of FY21. IG Group has seen consistent growth in the total number of active clients in the last 12 months.
Despite the overall jump in revenue, IG Group’s Core Markets+ revenue declined by nearly 4% in the latest quarter. The number reached £192.1 million in Q1 of FY22 compared to £199.9 million in Q1 of FY21.
Read more on the IG Group Revenues here.
Samtrade FX Becomes Valencia FC Sponsor
Samtrade FX, an online forex and CFDs broker, has expanded its brand presence in the sports arena with the latest sponsorship deal with Valencia Club de Futbol (Valencia FC), a popular Spanish football club.
The press release shared with Finance Magnates detailed that the partnership deal between the two has been inked for three years, which will put the logo of the broker on the back of the teams’ shirts.
Additionally, under the signed agreements, the broker will receive advertising slots on the giant screen and canvas at the Mestalla Stadium, on the official bus, the training ground in Paterna and at the other events of the club.
Read more on the Samtrade FX Valencia FC Sponsorship deal here.
Bitcoin Millionaires Purchase 50,000 BTC in the Last 4 Days
As Finance Magnates reported on Monday, large Bitcoin addresses holding between 10,000 and 100,000 coins have accumulated nearly 50,000 BTC over the previous four days.
In addition to the recent accumulation, Bitcoin whale accounts are moving their digital assets from leading crypto exchanges to unknown wallets. On Friday 10 September 2021, a leading BTC wallet moved 1,535 coins worth over $70 million from the crypto exchange, Coinbase to an unknown address.
Read more on the large BTC purchases here.
TIOMarkets UK Revenue Jumps 904% in FY2020
TIOMarkets UK Limited, the British subsidiary of the namesake broker group, published its annual financials for the fiscal year 2020, ending on December 31. It reported an increase of more than 904 percent in revenue from UK operations in just a year.
In absolute terms, the revenue of the UK company came in at $78,461, compared to $7,812 generated in the previous year. “The company’s main revenue is dependent on the trading volume of its clients and spread mark-up,” TIOMarkets UK stated in the Companies House filing.
Read more on the TIOMarkets UK revenue jump here.
GKFX UK Significantly Narrows Loss in FY20
GKFX Financial Services Limited, the UK unit of the Global Kapital Group, filed its financials for the fiscal year 2020, ending on December 31, with Companies House reporting a much narrower pre-tax loss of £2.88 million. In the previous year, this figure came in at a loss of £8.68 million.
The latest results are the first full-year financials released by the UK subsidiary, which operates the GKPro brand, after it migrated all its retail clients to its sister companies and shifted total focus on professional and wholesale clients.
In addition, the lack of retail traders hit the revenue of the brokerage hard, which slipped from £3.6 million to £2.66 million.
Read more on the GKFX UK FY20 Results here.
