With the first week of February almost over, let's take a look back at the news stories that dominated the worlds of Forex, Fintech and Crypto in our best of the week segment.
Robinhood Shares Drop to Lowest Level since IPO
This week, Robinhood featured prominently in the news. Robinhood shares plummeted and started the week more than 86% off their most recent high since its public market debut in July last year.
After a 14% plunge, the stock was down more than 34% in January standing at its lowest level since its IPO.
Read more on the Robinhood share plunge here.
Robinhood Investors to Receive Another $6.55M from SEC-Collected Fine
Just days after the share plunge, was news that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had announced that it is going to distribute another $6.55 million to Robinhood investors who suffered losses due to the platform's non-disclosure practices.
This will be the second distribution of funds by the regulator from the $65 million it collected from Robinhood as a penalty in late 2020.
Read more on the Robinhood fine distribution here.
Is Bitcoin Bouncing Back?
As Bitcoin enjoyed a few days of a rally, Finance Magnates looked at whether or not Bitcoin was indeed bouncing back.
With a detailed look at the impact of crypto regulation, bitcoin mining and the good ol' charts, we discuss the future of Bitcoin.
Read more on Bitcoin bouncing back here.
Credit Suisse to Face Class-Action Lawsuit in the US for FX Rigging
As Finance Magnates reported, Credit Suisse is going to face a class-action lawsuit brought by investors in the United States for foreign exchange (forex) rigging as a New York court judge refused the bank’s appeal for the dismissal of the case on Tuesday.
Several institutional investors accused that Credit Suisse traders have shared sensitive and non-public price information with counterparts in other banks, thus effectively rigging the currency prices in a $6.6 trillion-a-day forex market.
Read more on the Credit Suisse Class-action lawsuit here.
Manchester United Inks £20M Deal with Blockchain Platform Tezos
Manchester United has jumped into the crypto space by inking a massive sponsorship deal with the blockchain platform, Tezos, according to a report by The Atlantic.
Though not officially confirmed yet, the club will receive more than £20 million (around $27 million) every year by allowing the blockchain company to sponsor the training kit. Additionally, the report stated that the club finalized filming the promotional material for the deal.
Read more on the Manchester United Tezos deal here.
XTB Reports 69% Jump in Q4 Profits, CFDs Volume Improved
The Polish retail broker, XTB has published its preliminary financials for the fourth quarter of 2021, between October and December, reporting a 31.2 percent year-over-year jump in its operating income. Other key parameters have also improved significantly.
In absolute terms, the operating income for the quarter came in at PLN 183.6 million. Though the total operating expense increased, the broker ended the quarter with a net profit of 238.3 million, which is 68.9 percent. Moreover, EBIT improved by 47.1 percent year-over-year to 82.9 million.
However, the consolidated yearly figures turned dull when compared with the record year of 2020. The broker generated PLN 625.6 million in operating income and PLN 238.3 million in net profit, which is 21.6 percent and 40.7 percent lower, respectively.
Read more on the XTB Q4 here.
India to Tax Crypto Gains at 30%, No Exemption Is Allowed
This week saw the Indian government specify its taxation rule for cryptocurrencies. It will impose 30 percent taxation on the transfer of virtual assets from the financial year 2022-2023, Nirmala Sitaraman, the Finance Minster, confirmed in her budget speech on Tuesday.
“Any income from virtual digital assets is taxable at 30 percent,” Sitaraman said in parliament.
Further, there will be no tax deductions and exemptions for digital currency incomes available to Indian taxpayers. Also, any gifts made in digital currencies will be taxed at the hands of the recipient.
To properly track all crypto transactions within the country, the government will also levy a 1 percent tax deductible at source (TDS) for all cryptocurrency transfers. However, it is not clear how all these rules will be implemented in non-exchange wallets.
Read more on the Indian crypto tax here.
India’s 30% Crypto Tax: Good or Bad?
In a follow-up analysis to the Indian crypto tax news, Finance Magnates discussed in detail the implications of the 30% crypto tax.
Read more on India’s 30% Crypto Tax: Good or Bad? here.
Saxo Bank Sees 21% MoM Jump in January Trading Volumes
Saxo Bank has released its trading metrics for January 2022, reporting a solid monthly and yearly jump in demand. The total monthly volume on the platform in the month came in at $438 billion, with a daily average of $20.9 billion.
January saw an increase of more than 21 percent from the trading volume of December, whereas the figure jumped almost 55.5 percent year-over-year. The daily average increased by 33.1 percent and 48.2 percent on a monthly and yearly basis, respectively.
Read more on the Saxo Bank January trading volumes here.
Bitcoin (BTC) Mining: Is It Still Profitable?
Finance Magnates took a look at the Bitcoin mining industry. And, with expert input from Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Bitfinex, Maria Stankevich, Chief Business Development Officer at EXMO UK and Ilman Shazhaev, Executive Chairman of OneBoost, we delved deep into the everchanging world of Bitcoin mining.
Read more on Bitcoin Mining profitability here.
