In a very busy week for news, let's take a look at the standout stories from the Forex , fintech, and crypto spheres in our picks of the week segment.
Will the Bitcoin Halving Kill Independent Miners?
In a Finance Magnates analysis, we looked at the impending Bitcoin Halvening and discussed its effect upon the bitcoin mining industry.
With expert input from Dr. Mark Fleury, open-source pioneer and founder of Two Prime and Jeremy Britton, the chief financial officer at Boston Trading Co, no stone was left unturned in this must-read analysis.
Read more on the Bitcoin halving and the impact on miners here.
US Oil Prices: Will History Repeat Itself in May?
After Oil Futures briefly went into negative territory, the commodity became a focus for the fx industry.
With the settlement date approaching for June WTI futures contracts, Finance Magnates asked the question - should we be preparing for more negative oil prices?.
Read more on the Oil prices and its immediate future here.
Telegram Agrees to Deliver Gram ICO Documents to SEC
The ongoing battle between Telegram and the SEC rumbled on this week after Telegram agreed to disclose financial documents and answer the SEC's questions that should shed more light on the disposition of investor funds.
As Finance Magnates reported, Telegram will reveal the details of its offers to investors as part of the sale of Gram tokens.
Read more on the latest Telegram SEC moves here
More Binary Options Fraud Charges
Despite much of the Binary Options industry being shut down in 2017, global regulators and law enforcement agencies are still hot on the heels of those involved in alleged binary options scams.
This week Finance Magnates reported on three Candian-Israeli brothers being charged by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) with defrauding over 700 Ontarian investors out of more than $1.4 million.
Joshua Cartu, Jonathan Cartu, and David Cartu allegedly operated two binary options brands, Beeoptions and Glenridge Capital, from a call center in Israel. According to the complaint, from 2014 through 2017, the two brands received about $225 million from investors worldwide. Once invested, the funds were rarely seen again.
Read more on the Cartu Brother charges here
Meanwhile, also this week, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) charged several marketing firms and their operators, mostly based out of Israel, with binary options and cryptocurrency fraud to the tune of $15 million.
The binary options defendants were named as Tal Valariola and Itay Barak, both Tel Aviv residents, who are both accused of helping dupe more than 60,000 people out of their invested funds.
Read more on the CFTC Binary Options charges here.
Retail FX Volumes Continue to Decline
It was another week of declining volumes for many brokers as the coronavirus economic impact gathers momentum.
As Finance Magnates reported, Euronext announced a 45% plunge in volumes, whilst GAIN Capital saw its volumes halved in April. For PrimeXM, issues with Gold revealed an average daily volume (ADV) of $41.40 billion, down 14 percent month-on-month from $48.22 billion reported back in March.
Read more on the PrimeXM ADV decline here.
AML in the UK: What the Update Means to Your Business
In an interesting op-ed, Daniel Berke, one of the UK's leading experts on regulatory law, breaks down the new AML update and what it means to your UK business.
A simple but comprehensive break down of a complex and important subject.
Read the AML Update explanation here
