It’s been yet another busy week in the foreign exchange (forex) and cryptocurrency industries. In case you missed some of the top and most interesting stories of the week, here is a recap in our best of the week segment.
Fidelity to Launch Crypto Trading
A new player is set to open in the institutional cryptocurrency space - Boston-headquartered investment firm Fidelity, according to an anonymous source. Although no specific timeline has been set, the source expects the firm will facilitate the buying and selling of digital currencies in the next few weeks.
Rumors began to swirl about the upcoming launch just days after Fidelity published a survey which highlights that 22 percent of institutional investors have some form of crypto investments. You can read the full article here.
France’s AMF to Make ESMA’s Product Intervention Measures Permanent
In its annual report released this Tuesday, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) indicated that it plans to make the European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) product intervention measures, introduced last August, permanent.
As Finance Magnates reported, the French regulator had previously hinted at plans to do that back in March, when it issued a statement saying it did not want to rely on ESMA continually renewing the rules every three months.
In the annual report, the French financial watchdog said that the rules would be extended in the summer of this year by “national measures.”
Beeks Financial Cloud Acquires CNS
Another big story to come out this week was from Beeks Financial Cloud Group who told Finance Magnates that it had acquired Commercial Network Services (CNS).
As Finance Magnates highlighted, the cloud computing and connectivity provider said that it paid $1.4 million for CNS’ assets.
Bitfinex Parent Company Plans to Raise $1 Billion for IEO
iFinex, the parent company of Bitfinex, made its plans for an Initial Exchange Offering (IEO) ) public this week, revealing that it aims to raise up to $1 billion. Along with the news, the firm shared new details about what it plans to do with the proceeds from the sale and more.
Not only did the firm reveal some solid financial results for the past two years, iFinex gave details on its plans to launch a derivatives product and an EOS-based exchange project built using the EOS.IO software, with both set to be launched this summer. Read more here.
IS Prime Partners with Integral
In the FX space, Prime of Prime Liquidity provider IS Prime has partnered with forex technology company Integral, to extend its multi-asset liquidity distribution, as Finance Magnates reported.
Under the agreement, IS Prime’s FX and Index Swaps liquidity are now accessible through Integral’s Open Currency Exchange (OCX), a trading environment and liquidity network for the FX space.
FX Accounts in US Spike in Q1 of 2019
With March now well and truly behind us, financial firms are starting to release their financial and trading results for the first quarter of 2019. Even though the FX market is experiencing tougher conditions, trading accounts picked up during the quarter.
Research by Finance Magnates’ Intelligence Department found that traders opened just over 7,000 accounts in the first three months of this year. In the final quarter of 2018, 132,988 active retail FX trading accounts were operating in the US. At the end of March this year, that number had grown to 140,065, representing a solid increase in new account openings on a year-on-year comparison.
Find out more on the trading environment in the US here.
Exclusive Interview with IOTA’s Co-Founder
Data is valuable. Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal has proven as much. Now consumers want to be paid for producing and sharing their data. However, the infrastructure for user ownership of data doesn’t really exist yet.
Finance Magnates’ Rachel McIntosh spoke with Dominik Schiener, co-founder of the IOTA cryptocurrency network, about how distributed ledger technology can shift the data-ownership paradigm.
Op-ed: Is the FX Industry Destined for Destruction?
Is the FX industry destined for destruction? Nicc Lewis, the CEO of Expozive Marcom, a marketing and consulting agency examined this topic this week with Finance Magnates.
He highlights that if you look back just a few years, you would see a thriving financial trading sector for both forex and binary options. Today, however, the situation has changed dramatically. Binary options have virtually disappeared, and the FX industry is going through tougher times.
Do we have something to fear? Take a look at Lewis’ analysis here to find out.
