In a week dominated by the GameStop drama, let's take a look back at the biggest stories from the worlds of Forex , fintech, and crypto in our best of the week segment.
Ethereum Whales Transfer 100,000 ETH in 24 Hours
The trading week started with news that having reached an all-time high of $1,470, ETH whales were transferring a significant amount to digital exchanges and unknown wallets. A total of 5 ETH transactions involving nearly 100,000 Ethereum were highlighted in the last 24 hours.
According to the data published by Whale Alert, unknown Ethereum whales transferred more than 46,000 ETH in two separate transactions from crypto exchange Binance to unknown wallets.
Read more on the ETH Whale transfers here.
Interactive Brokers, Robinhood Move to Curb GameStop Frenzy
The GameStop drama kicked off when Interactive Brokers, Robinhood, TD Ameritrade, IG Group and Charles Schwab banned or restricted trading on GameStop. Following the actions of the now-famous Reddit group, WallStreetBets, GameStop stock ballooned more than 400% in just two days and nearly 1800% in less than three weeks.
Robinhood stated that it moved to curb the wild trading activity by restricting transactions for certain securities to position closing only, including GameStop, AMC Entertainment, BlackBerry and Koss. “We also raised margin requirements for certain securities,” Robinhood added.
Read more on the initial GameStop frenzy here.
Robinhood Users File Lawsuit over GameStop Trade Suspension
Of course, the invertible happened and a lawsuit against Robinhood was initiated.
A Robinhood trader based in Massachusetts filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of himself and other clients following restrictions imposed by the no-fee app on transactions involving GameStop, AMC and other stocks.
The zero-commission platform is accused of engaging in market manipulation when it paused GameStop trading at multiple points over the last couple of days. This breach caused plaintiffs Brendon Nelsonto and his colleagues to miss out on some of the highest stock market gains in recorded history, the lawsuit reads.
Read more on the Robinhood lawsuit here.
GameStop Frenzy Prompts 200% Surge in TradeZero New Signups
New York-based online broker-dealer, TradeZero America reported a massive spike in new account openings since the frenzied share dealing in GameStop and other firms emerged, fuelled by Reddit chat boards.
According to Dan Pipitone, Co-founder of TradeZero America, new account applications on Thursday surged by more than 200% compared with the same period in 2020.
Whereas the likes of Trading 212 stopped new accounts, TradeZero welcomed new traders with open arms.
Read more on the TradeZero surge in new accounts here.
Exclusive: Exness Receives FSCA License to Operate in South Africa
In a Finance Magnates exclusive, we revealed that Exness has acquired a regulatory license from the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) in South Africa to operate as a financial service provider in the region. The broker termed Africa as an important region for strategic expansion.
Exness received the FSCA license to provide services to partners and traders in the region under a secure regulatory environment, having already developed a strong client base in the region.
Read more on Exness in South Africa here.
Exclusive: eToro Ended 2020 with $600 Million in Revenue
In another Finance Magnates exclusive, we revealed that the leading Trading Platform , eToro ended 2020 with gross revenue of $600 million. Also, the trading volume skyrocketed to over $1.5 trillion, more than 400 percent higher than 2019.
Additionally, eToro witnessed a massive influx of traders in recent years and revealed that the number of users on the trading platform had touched 17 million at the end of 2020.
Read more on the eToro revenues here.
Ripple Reports Record Transactions in 2020, XRP Consolidates
Ripple announced this week that the company had a record-breaking 2020 with significant growth in RippleNet transactions. The technology firm also reported the signing of 15 new RippleNet customers to close out 2020 despite the SEC’s lawsuit.
According to an official announcement by Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, RippleX now reaches more than 12 million users around the world through XRP Ledger (XRPL), Interledger Protocol and Ripple’s partners.
Read more on the Ripple Record here.
Grayscale Purchases 995 Bitcoin and 10,234 Litecoin in 24 Hours
As Finance Magnates reported this week, Grayscale purchased a total of 995 Bitcoin with a value of over $31 million in 24 hours. Moreover, the company accumulated 10,234 Litecoin and 10,640 Ethereum Classic at the same time.
In addition to Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum Classic, the company bought 1,787 Bitcoin Cash in a single day. Grayscale’s total crypto asset under management now stands at around $25.5 billion.
Read more on the Grayscale crypto purchases here.
Trading Outages Strike ‘Again’ as eToro and Revolut Report Glitches
Before all the GameStop drama, eToro and Revolut suffered service outages on Wednesday, which were the latest in a series of glitches as online trading apps struggled to cope with surging demand from retail investors.
The glitches left users of both brokerages scrambling. It was not immediately clear what had caused the issues and how many users had been impacted. However, the bug was apparently minor.
Read more on the eToro and Revolut Outages here.
Cryptocurrency Dogecoin Pumps 900% in 24 Hours
As Finance Magnates reported on Friday, Dogecoin gained significant value since Thursday after a Reddit group named, SatoshiStreetBets posted optimistic views about the cryptocurrency.
SatoshiStreetBets is the crypto version of the famous Reddit group, WallStreetBets. Doge was currently trading near $0.07 with a market cap of around $9 billion.
The cryptocurrency has been on the rise since Elon Musk, the Founder of Tesla teased the crypto community with his famous tweet, “One word: Doge.”
Read more on the Dogecoin rise here.
Trading 212 Shuts Out New Accounts Amid Massive Influx of Redditors
Trading 212, a fintech company and FCA-regulated broker, has temporally halted the on-boarding of new users. Retail platforms were under pressure to keep up with the huge growth in retail investing, which is causing severe operational difficulties.
Trading 212 said new account creation would be enabled only after processing the existing applications currently in line. The London-based fintech was one of several platforms, including Robinhood and IG Group, that experienced outages as the number of retail trades soared in a wild day for the markets.
Read more on the Trading 212 New User Ban here.
