It’s been another busy week in the foreign exchange (Forex ) and cryptocurrency space - Saxo Bank won its Swiss franc case, and a US regulator rejected Bitwise’s Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). All this and more in our best of the week segment.
Saxo Bank wins swiss franc case
Back in 2015, when the Swiss central bank suddenly decided to unpeg the Swiss franc currency against the Euro, the Swiss stock market tanked, and it caused huge losses for hedge funds and retail brokers across the globe.
Following this, one of Saxo Bank’s clients took the multi-asset broker to court for not properly executing the stop-loss that was meant to be activated if the value of the franc to the euro dropped below 1.198.
However, as Finance Magnates reported, the Danish Supreme Court issued a landmark decision in favor of Saxo Bank this Thursday, with the court saying said that “an extraordinary market situation” meant the company was unable to execute all of the client’s trades at their desired price.
SEC rejects Bitwise ETF
Another attempt to list a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund has failed as the Securities and Exchange Commission rejected a proposal filed by Bitwise. According to the regulator, the proposal failed to meet the legal requirements to prevent market manipulation or other illicit activities.
To find out more about Bitwise’s proposal and why it failed, read the full article here.
Analysis: has PayPal put the first nail in Libra’s coffin?
Facebook’s stablecoin project Libra has not been without its controversy. This week, there was a new development to the story, with the Financial Times reporting that Paypal representatives did not show at a scheduled meeting for Libra participants.
Finally, on Friday, Bloomberg reported that Paypal was officially withdrawing from the project–a move that has sparked much discussion about the future of Libra.
Did Paypal make the right move? And what could its exodus from Libra mean for the project in the grand scheme of things? You can find out more about the issue here.
CFH Clearing founder becomes CEO of GCEX
The founder of prime broker CFH Clearing announced the launch of a new company this week. Lars Holst will act as the CEO of GCEX – a company that provides currency and cryptocurrency trading technology to professional clients and institutions.
Based in London and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, Holst set up the company in response to financial institutions’ growing demands for access to the nascent digital assets market. Find out more about the company here.
Singapore lowers Leverage to 20:1
Another regulator has jumped on the leverage cutting bandwagon, and reduced leverage for forex - the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). As Finance Magnates reported this week, traders in the small nation-state will now have their access to leverage cut by more than half.
The new rules, which were put forward by the MAS, mean retail investors now only have access to 20:1 leverage. Previously, traders only had to meet margin requirements of 2 percent – meaning they had a leverage of 50:1.
Analysis: crypto news sites and their volatile traffic
This week, Finance Magnates Editor Rachel McIntosh posted the second article in a series on crypto news. In the latest article, she examines the relationship between news media and advertising with the crypto markets.
In the article, she posed the question: It’s a sort of “chicken and the egg” situation: are cryptocurrency prices driven by increased traffic to cryptocurrency news sites, or are higher amounts of traffic on news sites a result of higher cryptocurrency prices? To find out the answer, you’ll need to read the article.
HKEX backs away from LSEG acquisition
After receiving a frosty reception to its unsolicited offer of £32 billion ($39.3 billion) for the London Stock Exchange Group plc (LSEG), the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) announced this Tuesday that it had dropped its offer.
As Finance Magnates reported, HKEX confirmed that it does not intend to make an offer for LSEG; however, the Board of the company still believes that the merger between LSEG and HKEX is “strategically compelling and would create a world-leading market infrastructure group.”
CoinFLEX to Offer Futures Contracts on Libra
Crypto futures platform CoinFlex has seen an opportunity in betting on Facebook's Libra's future, by launching a derivative based on the likelihood of the launch of Libra next year.
The derivatives will allow traders to take a bet on whether Facebook will be able to launch Libra by December 30, 2020, according to a report by Bloomberg. For more information, follow the link.
Peter Hetherington moves to Schroders Personal Wealth
Peter Hetherington, the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of IG Group, has taken on the new position as the CEO of Schroders Personal Wealth, the joint venture in wealth between Lloyds and Schroders, Finance Magnates learned this week.
Hetherington is taking the reins of the Schroders Personal Wealth joint venture as it prepares for its November launch when it will have £13 billion of assets under management and 30,000 clients.
