It's that time of the week when we take a look back at the biggest news stories from the worlds of Forex , Fintech and Crypto in our best of the week segment.
Plus500 Q3 FY21 Revenue Drops by 2% YoY
Plus500 has published its financials for the third quarter of 2021, reporting a marginal pullback in its revenue and earnings from last year as the effects of the pandemic from the retail trading market are wearing off. However, the numbers jumped significantly when compared to the pre-pandemic levels.
The revenue of the company came in at $211.4 million in the period, which is 2 percent down from the figures of the same quarter in the previous year, according to the latest trading update by the company. This was primarily driven by customer income that came in at $156.9 million.
Additionally, EBITDA for the quarter at $128.6 million declined by 4 percent, while EBITDA margin decreased by 2 percent.
Moreover, the number of newly onboarded customers in the three months slumped by 43 percent year-over-year to 26,169, while it closed the quarter with an active customer base of 166,310.
Read more on the Plus500 Revenue Drop here.
Shiba Inu Beats the Market Cap of Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin
Due to the latest spike, SHIB’s market cap has jumped above leading digital assets, including Chainlink (LINK), Litecoin (LTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Shiba Inu is now the 13th most valuable cryptocurrency asset in the world.
Shiba Inu is +26% in the past 24 hours while the rest of the crypto markets are mostly flat. The young rising asset continues pumping eerily in tandem with moments of crowd negativity and doubtful commentary.
Read more on the Shiba Inu Market Cap here.
AMC Theatres Considers Adding Shiba Inu as a Means of Payment
Staying with Shiba Inu, AMC Theatres, one of the biggest movie theatre chains globally, is reportedly considering adding Shiba Inu (SHIB) as one of its means of payment for ticket purchases.
During a poll published on Twitter, its CEO, Adam Aron, is asking people if the company should add the meme coin or not.
Read more on the AMC Theatres Shiba Inu consideration.
IC Markets Signs Sponsorship Deals with Six German Football Clubs
Sports sponsorships remain popular among the trading platforms as IC Markets becomes the latest forex and CFDs broker to ink partnership deals with six German football clubs.
The sponsored clubs are Bayer Leverkusen, Hertha Berlin, FC Augsburg, Arminia Bielefeld, Greuther Fürth and VfL Bochum, all of which are playing in the country’s top domestic league, Bundesliga.
Under the signed agreements, the broker will receive advertising rights on the LED perimeter of the field, along with logo and IP rights. However, none of the parties concerned has disclosed the financials involved in the deal.
Read more on the IC Markets German Football Sponsorships here.
NAGA Launches Stock Trading Globally and Announces Its Own NFT Marketplace
The Hamburg-based social Trading Platform , NAGA AG (XETRA: N4G) announced this week that it had launched global stock trading and its own NFT platform, allowing the creation and trading of such assets.
The company is adding trading stocks for EUR 0.99 per trade for customers globally.
Its NFT marketplace is set to launch in late Q4 of this year, which will allow users to create and trade their own works, including art, music and digital content. In addition, the NAGA NFT platform will be available via a wallet connect. Also, the social trading platform noted that NFT owners could set a ‘royalty fee’ and receive a percentage of the trade per transaction.
Read more on the NAGA expansion here.
UP Fintech Completes Acquisition of Hong Kong-Based Joy Securities
UP Fintech (Nasdaq: TIGR), the operator of Tiger Brokers, announced on Friday the completion of the acquisition of Ocean Joy Securities Limited, which holds Type 1 and Type 2 licenses from the Hong Kong securities market regulator.
The Type 1 license allows Hong Kong companies to deal in securities, whereas they can deal in futures contracts with the Type 2 license.
After the latest acquisition, UP Fintech is expected to start operating brokerage business in the Chinese autonomous administrative territory.
Read more on the UP Fintech Tiger Brokers acquisition here.
The Greatest Trade of All Time?
A wallet has conducted what is believed to be the biggest trade of all time performed by an individual: it bought $8,000 of Shiba Inu (SHIB) last August, which is now worth $5.7 billion.
According to a tweet published by Morning Brew, the investment came from $8,000 to $5.7 billion in just 400 days.
Read more on the greatest trade of all time here.
Is Ethereum (ETH) Still a Good Buy?
Ethereum may not be the most talked-about cryptocurrency in the world, but the digital asset quietly touched an all-time high of $4,400 on Friday.
In the crypto world of Bitcoin and Shiba Inu, ETH has gained its share of popularity, slowly and steadily. In 2021, Ethereum’s price jumped from $700 on 1 January to as high as $4,400 on 29 October. With a market cap of nearly $520 billion, ETH is the world’s second most dominant crypto asset.
However, with ETH at an all-time high, Finance Magnates delves into whether Ethereum is still a good buy?
Read more on if Ethereum is a good buy here.
Saxo Markets Secures Two New Licenses from Hong Kong Regulator
Saxo Capital Markets HK Limited, the Hong Kong-based subsidiary of Saxo Markets, has obtained Type 4 and Type 9 licenses from the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) in the special administrative region.
Type 4 license will allow the company to provide advice on securities, while with Type 9 license, it can launch asset management services. The acquisition of both licenses will enable the Denmark-headquartered company to expand services in asset and wealth management.
Read more on the Saxo Capital Markets HK Limited New Hong Kong Licenses here.
Memecoins Hype: Will Their Popularity Fade Soon?
The meme coin-mania, the meme coin-extravaganza, you name it. The fact is that Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (DOGE) have been the headliners in recent days due to their price action, which led to several crypto holders moving towards these kinds of assets.
In a Finance Magnates analysis, we looked at the memecoin hype and whether or not it will last.
Read more on the memecoins hype here.
XTB Reports a 40.8% Increase in Revenues in the Third Quarter of 2021
Poland-based X-Trade Brokers, better known as XTB, has released its preliminary financial and operating results for the third quarter of the year on Monday, noting a strong consolidated net profit in the period.
According to the report, it netted PLN 101.5 million compared to PLN 68.4 million in the same period last year.
Read more on the XTB Revenue Increase here.
The Philippines Arrests Alleged Mastermind of Forex Fraud Based Eastern Europe
An Israeli who was the alleged mastermind of a Forex scam scheme was arrested in the Philippines one year after fleeing Bulgaria.
According to reports, Kfir Levy operated a fraud network in Eastern Europe running forex and binary options scams, allegedly deceiving thousands of investors in the region.
The authorities in the Philippines noted that Levy is accused of having scammed ‘hundreds’ of German citizens, stealing around EUR 6.3 million, through his bogus company named ‘G&E Finances,’ where he was listed as the CEO. In fact, the individual faces charges in Germany as two arrest warrants have been issued by a court in the district of Bavaria.
Read more on the Kfir Levy arrest here.
LONDON SUMMIT AWARDS 2021 VOTING NOW OPEN
The first round of voting in the most prestigious event in the finance calendar is now open.
The eagerly awaited FMLS 21 is back and is already the talk of the town.
Since its inception in 2012, the London Summit has earned the trust of the most influential executives as the leading gathering for meeting peers, generating business and staying abreast of the cutting edge of the market.
Bringing together top-level industry executives, the London Summit is the world’s largest event for the financial services sector, hosting retail brokers, institutional buy-side, payment service providers, fintech startups and a growing crypto segment.
Read more about FMLS and cast your vote here.
