As the last week of an interesting July was capped off with a deluge of FX results, 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.
Bitcoin Inches Closer to $40K after Reports of Amazon’s Crypto Plan
The trading week kicked off with Bitcoin approaching the key $40k mark on the back of reports eCommerce behemoth Amazon about to start accepting Bitcoin.
According to a London business newspaper, City A.M. in a report published late Sunday, the global e-commerce giant, Amazon is preparing to accept Bitcoin as payment by the end of 2021. Additionally, the company is investing in the development of its own token.
The revelation (which was quickly rowed back) followed a job posting by Amazon in which the company is seeking a cryptocurrency and Blockchain
Blockchain
Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned). In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data, making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tamp
Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned). In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data, making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tamp
Read this Term lead.
Read more on the Amazon Bitcoin talk here.
Bitcoin Whales Transfer over $1 Billion Worth of BTC from Coinbase
Staying with Bitcoin. As the granddaddy of digital currencies touched $40,800 on Wednesday, which is its highest level in more than six weeks, crypto whales started moving their digital assets from leading exchanges to unknown wallets.
Whale Alert, a leading blockchain tracking platform, highlighted the movement of 30,640 BTC from a cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase to digital wallets. In three separate transactions, Bitcoin whales moved over $1 billion worth of cryptocurrency.
Read more on the Bitcoin Whales here.
Grayscale Now Has $33 Billion Worth of Cryptocurrency AUM
As Finance Magnates reported this week, Grayscale, the world’s largest cryptocurrency asset manager, released an update regarding the company’s digital assets under management (AUM).
According to the latest numbers, the New York-based crypto asset management company now has $33.6 billion worth of digital assets under management.
Bitcoin (BTC) is the most valuable holding of Grayscale as the company has more than 650,000 BTC with a total worth of over $24 billion.
Read more on Grayscale's Bitcoin holdings here.
Eurotrader Gains South African License to Boost Global Expansion
Eurotrader Group announced that it has gained a license from the South African regulator for its locally formed entity, Eurotrade SA (Pty) Ltd, as the brokerage is pushing for expansion.
Services under the new entity will be offered from the newly acquired eurotrader.com domain. The gain of the new license and acquisition of the domain came with the brokerage’s rebranding efforts.
“Eurotrader’s focus is to accommodate the needs of individual traders as well as those looking to explore copy trading or account management systems,” Sergei Grigoriev, Executive Director at Eurotrader, said in a statement.
Read more on Eurotrader South African license here.
ATFX UK Continues to Post Higher Revenue with 35% Surge in FY20
AT Global Markets UK Limited, better known as ATFX UK, has published its financial results for the year ended on October 31, 2020, reporting a solid jump in trading volume and revenue.
As per the latest Companies House filing, the broker generated a turnover of more than £3 million, which is a significant increase from the previous year’s £2.23 million. That was a year-over-year increase of 35 percent. But, it ended the year at a loss of £766,416 due to an increase in administrative expenses.
Read more on the ATFX UK Results here.
LandFX UK Almost Broke Even in 2020 with 63% Revenue Jump
FCA-regulated LandFX UK Ltd, which is a subsidiary of the LandFX group, disclosed its annual financials for the year 2020, ending on December 31.
The revenue of the UK arm for the period came in at £766,199, compared to the previous year’s £469,689. That was a year-over-year gain of more than 63 percent. Its primary source of revenue is obtained from the commissions charged on forex and CFDs trading and depends heavily on the trading volume.
Read more on the LandFX results here.
The Bull, the Bear and the Honey Badger: Miko Matsumura on Crypto in 2021
In a must-read/hear interview, Finance Magnates sat down to talk with Miko Matsumura about Bitcoin, the rise of DeFi, and how the cryptocurrency space has evolved over the past year. Oh yes, and honey badgers.
Miko Matsumura is the Founder of the Evercoin cryptocurrency exchange and a General Partner with Gumi Cryptos Capital. He is also a prolific advisor and investor across the cryptocurrency space.
Read/hear more of Miko Matsumura here.
Euronext Posts Drop in Q2 FX Trading, Overall Revenue Skyrockets
As Finance Magnates covered, Euronext (EPA: ENX) published its financial results for the second quarter of 2021, ending on June 30, reporting a solid jump in the overall revenue and income but a yearly dip in forex trading demand.
According to the official figures, revenue coming from spot forex trading went down to €5.7 million, which is a decline of 13.5 percent from the previous year’s €6.6 million. On an adjusted basis, this figure was down by 5.3 percent year-over-year.
The revenue was pushed down by the sluggish demand for forex trading as the average trading volume for the period dropped to $18.6 billion from Q2 of 2020 with $20.6 billion.
Read more on the Euronext revenues here.
Rakuten Securities Posts Revenue Gain, Q2 Profit Drops
Rakuten Securities Inc, one of the largest foreign exchange brokers in Japan, has published its quarterly financial results for three months ending on June 30, 2021. The numbers show a significant rise in revenue, but the net income went down.
The Tokyo-headquartered company reported operating revenue of more than ¥20.5 billion in the quarterly period, which is 21.3 percent higher than ¥16.9 billion generated in the same quarter in the previous year. In addition, net operating revenue remained in line with ¥19.35 billion, compared to Q2 of 2020’s ¥16.35 billion.
Read more on the Rakuten Securities Inc results here.
Binance Faces Money-Laundering Probe in India; Malaysia Orders Closure
The Binance woes continue.
Two more Asian regulators are taking action against Binance as it continues to face backlash. On Friday, the Securities Commission Malaysia officially announced enforcement actions against the crypto exchange for illegally operating in the country.
The Malaysian regulator provided a 14-day deadline to Binance to wind up its businesses in the county by closing down its primary exchange Binance.com and also the mobile application. Additionally, it ordered the exchange to immediately cease all marketing efforts and restrict Malaysian investors from accessing its Telegram group.
Furthermore, the Indian Enforcement Directorate has initiated a probe against Binance Holdings Ltd. over concerns of money laundering using the exchange and betting apps, local daily The Economic Times reported.
Read more on the Binance India and Malaysia troubles here.
XRP Jumps 17% after Ripple’s ODL Announcement
XRP, the world’s 6th most valuable cryptocurrency, saw immense demand on Wednesday after Ripple, the US-based blockchain firm, announced the launch of RippleNet’s first live On-Demand Liquidity
Liquidity
The term liquidity refers to the process, speed, and ease of which a given asset or security can be converted into cash. Notably, liquidity surmises a retention in market price, with the most liquid assets representing cash.The most liquid asset of all is cash itself.· In economics, liquidity is defined by how efficiently and quickly an asset can be converted into usable cash without materially affecting its market price. · Nothing is more liquid than cash, while other assets represent
The term liquidity refers to the process, speed, and ease of which a given asset or security can be converted into cash. Notably, liquidity surmises a retention in market price, with the most liquid assets representing cash.The most liquid asset of all is cash itself.· In economics, liquidity is defined by how efficiently and quickly an asset can be converted into usable cash without materially affecting its market price. · Nothing is more liquid than cash, while other assets represent
Read this Term (ODL) service implementation in Japan.
One of the major reasons behind XRP’s recent bullish move is Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) announcement. Despite the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple, the company has formed several partnerships since the start of 2021. Ripple announced a collaboration with Japan’s SBI Remit and the Philippines-based Coins.ph for the launch of RippleNet’s first live On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service implementation in Japan.
Read more on the XRP surge and Ripple ODL Announcement here.
Cboe Global Markets Posts Net Revenue of $351 Million in Q2 2021
Cboe Global Markets released this week its financial results for Q2 of 2021. The operator saw net revenues of $351 million in the second quarter, which is up by approximately 18% compared to the same period in 2020.
According to the results, adjusted diluted EPS for the second quarter of 2021 stood at $1.38, compared to $1.31 in Q2 of 2020. Operating income for the latest quarter reached $190 million, compared to $161.7 million in Q2 of 2020.
Read more on the Cboe Global Markets Revenues here.
Global Cryptocurrency Users Reached 221 Million in June 2021
Global cryptocurrency users jumped by more than 100% in the first half of 2021 amid a spike in the adoption of digital currencies.
According to the latest research report published by Crypto.com, the total number of crypto users around the world reached 221 million in June 2021.
The international crypto user base nearly doubled between February and May 2021. Overall, the cryptocurrency users jumped from 106 million in January 2021 to 221 million in June 2021. Crypto.com highlighted that the cryptocurrency adoption in January and February was mainly driven by Bitcoin. However, the number of altcoin users surged substantially in May 2021.
Read more on the global cryptocurrency user growth here.
As the last week of an interesting July was capped off with a deluge of FX results, 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.
Bitcoin Inches Closer to $40K after Reports of Amazon’s Crypto Plan
The trading week kicked off with Bitcoin approaching the key $40k mark on the back of reports eCommerce behemoth Amazon about to start accepting Bitcoin.
According to a London business newspaper, City A.M. in a report published late Sunday, the global e-commerce giant, Amazon is preparing to accept Bitcoin as payment by the end of 2021. Additionally, the company is investing in the development of its own token.
The revelation (which was quickly rowed back) followed a job posting by Amazon in which the company is seeking a cryptocurrency and Blockchain
Blockchain
Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned). In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data, making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tamp
Blockchain comprises a digital network of blocks with a comprehensive ledger of transactions made in a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin or other altcoins.One of the signature features of blockchain is that it is maintained across more than one computer. The ledger can be public or private (permissioned). In this sense, blockchain is immune to the manipulation of data, making it not only open but verifiable. Because a blockchain is stored across a network of computers, it is very difficult to tamp
Read this Term lead.
Read more on the Amazon Bitcoin talk here.
Bitcoin Whales Transfer over $1 Billion Worth of BTC from Coinbase
Staying with Bitcoin. As the granddaddy of digital currencies touched $40,800 on Wednesday, which is its highest level in more than six weeks, crypto whales started moving their digital assets from leading exchanges to unknown wallets.
Whale Alert, a leading blockchain tracking platform, highlighted the movement of 30,640 BTC from a cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase to digital wallets. In three separate transactions, Bitcoin whales moved over $1 billion worth of cryptocurrency.
Read more on the Bitcoin Whales here.
Grayscale Now Has $33 Billion Worth of Cryptocurrency AUM
As Finance Magnates reported this week, Grayscale, the world’s largest cryptocurrency asset manager, released an update regarding the company’s digital assets under management (AUM).
According to the latest numbers, the New York-based crypto asset management company now has $33.6 billion worth of digital assets under management.
Bitcoin (BTC) is the most valuable holding of Grayscale as the company has more than 650,000 BTC with a total worth of over $24 billion.
Read more on Grayscale's Bitcoin holdings here.
Eurotrader Gains South African License to Boost Global Expansion
Eurotrader Group announced that it has gained a license from the South African regulator for its locally formed entity, Eurotrade SA (Pty) Ltd, as the brokerage is pushing for expansion.
Services under the new entity will be offered from the newly acquired eurotrader.com domain. The gain of the new license and acquisition of the domain came with the brokerage’s rebranding efforts.
“Eurotrader’s focus is to accommodate the needs of individual traders as well as those looking to explore copy trading or account management systems,” Sergei Grigoriev, Executive Director at Eurotrader, said in a statement.
Read more on Eurotrader South African license here.
ATFX UK Continues to Post Higher Revenue with 35% Surge in FY20
AT Global Markets UK Limited, better known as ATFX UK, has published its financial results for the year ended on October 31, 2020, reporting a solid jump in trading volume and revenue.
As per the latest Companies House filing, the broker generated a turnover of more than £3 million, which is a significant increase from the previous year’s £2.23 million. That was a year-over-year increase of 35 percent. But, it ended the year at a loss of £766,416 due to an increase in administrative expenses.
Read more on the ATFX UK Results here.
LandFX UK Almost Broke Even in 2020 with 63% Revenue Jump
FCA-regulated LandFX UK Ltd, which is a subsidiary of the LandFX group, disclosed its annual financials for the year 2020, ending on December 31.
The revenue of the UK arm for the period came in at £766,199, compared to the previous year’s £469,689. That was a year-over-year gain of more than 63 percent. Its primary source of revenue is obtained from the commissions charged on forex and CFDs trading and depends heavily on the trading volume.
Read more on the LandFX results here.
The Bull, the Bear and the Honey Badger: Miko Matsumura on Crypto in 2021
In a must-read/hear interview, Finance Magnates sat down to talk with Miko Matsumura about Bitcoin, the rise of DeFi, and how the cryptocurrency space has evolved over the past year. Oh yes, and honey badgers.
Miko Matsumura is the Founder of the Evercoin cryptocurrency exchange and a General Partner with Gumi Cryptos Capital. He is also a prolific advisor and investor across the cryptocurrency space.
Read/hear more of Miko Matsumura here.
Euronext Posts Drop in Q2 FX Trading, Overall Revenue Skyrockets
As Finance Magnates covered, Euronext (EPA: ENX) published its financial results for the second quarter of 2021, ending on June 30, reporting a solid jump in the overall revenue and income but a yearly dip in forex trading demand.
According to the official figures, revenue coming from spot forex trading went down to €5.7 million, which is a decline of 13.5 percent from the previous year’s €6.6 million. On an adjusted basis, this figure was down by 5.3 percent year-over-year.
The revenue was pushed down by the sluggish demand for forex trading as the average trading volume for the period dropped to $18.6 billion from Q2 of 2020 with $20.6 billion.
Read more on the Euronext revenues here.
Rakuten Securities Posts Revenue Gain, Q2 Profit Drops
Rakuten Securities Inc, one of the largest foreign exchange brokers in Japan, has published its quarterly financial results for three months ending on June 30, 2021. The numbers show a significant rise in revenue, but the net income went down.
The Tokyo-headquartered company reported operating revenue of more than ¥20.5 billion in the quarterly period, which is 21.3 percent higher than ¥16.9 billion generated in the same quarter in the previous year. In addition, net operating revenue remained in line with ¥19.35 billion, compared to Q2 of 2020’s ¥16.35 billion.
Read more on the Rakuten Securities Inc results here.
Binance Faces Money-Laundering Probe in India; Malaysia Orders Closure
The Binance woes continue.
Two more Asian regulators are taking action against Binance as it continues to face backlash. On Friday, the Securities Commission Malaysia officially announced enforcement actions against the crypto exchange for illegally operating in the country.
The Malaysian regulator provided a 14-day deadline to Binance to wind up its businesses in the county by closing down its primary exchange Binance.com and also the mobile application. Additionally, it ordered the exchange to immediately cease all marketing efforts and restrict Malaysian investors from accessing its Telegram group.
Furthermore, the Indian Enforcement Directorate has initiated a probe against Binance Holdings Ltd. over concerns of money laundering using the exchange and betting apps, local daily The Economic Times reported.
Read more on the Binance India and Malaysia troubles here.
XRP Jumps 17% after Ripple’s ODL Announcement
XRP, the world’s 6th most valuable cryptocurrency, saw immense demand on Wednesday after Ripple, the US-based blockchain firm, announced the launch of RippleNet’s first live On-Demand Liquidity
Liquidity
The term liquidity refers to the process, speed, and ease of which a given asset or security can be converted into cash. Notably, liquidity surmises a retention in market price, with the most liquid assets representing cash.The most liquid asset of all is cash itself.· In economics, liquidity is defined by how efficiently and quickly an asset can be converted into usable cash without materially affecting its market price. · Nothing is more liquid than cash, while other assets represent
The term liquidity refers to the process, speed, and ease of which a given asset or security can be converted into cash. Notably, liquidity surmises a retention in market price, with the most liquid assets representing cash.The most liquid asset of all is cash itself.· In economics, liquidity is defined by how efficiently and quickly an asset can be converted into usable cash without materially affecting its market price. · Nothing is more liquid than cash, while other assets represent
Read this Term (ODL) service implementation in Japan.
One of the major reasons behind XRP’s recent bullish move is Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) announcement. Despite the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple, the company has formed several partnerships since the start of 2021. Ripple announced a collaboration with Japan’s SBI Remit and the Philippines-based Coins.ph for the launch of RippleNet’s first live On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service implementation in Japan.
Read more on the XRP surge and Ripple ODL Announcement here.
Cboe Global Markets Posts Net Revenue of $351 Million in Q2 2021
Cboe Global Markets released this week its financial results for Q2 of 2021. The operator saw net revenues of $351 million in the second quarter, which is up by approximately 18% compared to the same period in 2020.
According to the results, adjusted diluted EPS for the second quarter of 2021 stood at $1.38, compared to $1.31 in Q2 of 2020. Operating income for the latest quarter reached $190 million, compared to $161.7 million in Q2 of 2020.
Read more on the Cboe Global Markets Revenues here.
Global Cryptocurrency Users Reached 221 Million in June 2021
Global cryptocurrency users jumped by more than 100% in the first half of 2021 amid a spike in the adoption of digital currencies.
According to the latest research report published by Crypto.com, the total number of crypto users around the world reached 221 million in June 2021.
The international crypto user base nearly doubled between February and May 2021. Overall, the cryptocurrency users jumped from 106 million in January 2021 to 221 million in June 2021. Crypto.com highlighted that the cryptocurrency adoption in January and February was mainly driven by Bitcoin. However, the number of altcoin users surged substantially in May 2021.
Read more on the global cryptocurrency user growth here.
