ESMA kills binary options
The European authority released its new leverage restrictions and decided to prohibit the marketing, distribution, and sale of binary options.
CFDs on major FX pairs will be traded at 30:1, non-major currency pairs and gold will be traded at 20:1, other commodities and non-major indices will be traded at 10:1, and Cryptocurrencies will be traded at 2:1. As expected, brokers will also need to provide negative balance protection.
Analysis of ESMA restrictions
What impact will the new restrictions have on STP brokers and market makers? Will having to clearly display the fact that 90 percent of customers lose money harm the business of brokerages?
We examined the subject here.
China moves against cryptocurrency (again)
Fan Yifei, Deputy Governor of the People's Bank of China, said in a speech that the government is committed to halting the use of cryptocurrency in the country.
People had hoped that the government would be more friendly to cryptocurrency under the new governor Yi Gang. Fan's speech nipped these hopes in the bud.
Analysis: China and cryptocurrency
The Chinese government has been trying to crush the cryptocurrency industry for a year now, but at the same time, the Blockchain industry in the country is among the most vibrant in the world.
There may be a logical explanation for this.
Interview with Amanda Johnson of Dash
We published a podcast with an exclusive interview with the spokeswoman of Dash.
She gave us her take on the subjects of blockchain anonymity and the recent cryptocurrency market crash.
MailChimp cuts off cryptocurrency
The email marketing service will stop servicing cryptocurrency-related companies by the end of April.
The company said in an email that it made the decision because cryptocurrency is “too frequently associated with scams, fraud, phishing, and potentially misleading business practices.”
Eurasian Association of Blockchain to the rescue
Cryptocurrency advocacy groups from Russia, China, and South Korea have joined to form the Eurasian Association of Blockchain.
The new organization's purpose is to sue Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Yandex over their decision to ban cryptocurrency advertising on their platforms.
Analysis: MT4 vs MT5
MetaQuotes Software launched its upgrade of the ubiquitous MT4 trading platform in 2010. Eight years on, MT5 still hasn't become popular despite the company's best efforts.
In this analysis we examine the pros and cons of the newer platform, and why MetaQuotes has become its own worst enemy.
Malta becoming cryptocurrency capital
Following Binance's recent announcement that it plans to open an office in Malta, the CEO of Tron said on Twitter that his company is also interested in setting up there. There are others too.
Joseph Muscat, Prime Minister of Malta, said: “they are not saying that they are coming to Malta because they can do what they want. They are saying they are coming because Malta is ready to regulate us, and we are bringing the consumer the peace of mind that there are people regulating this system.”
