With September in full swing, 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.
Russia Fines Google for Allowing eToro Promotions
The Moscow office of Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) announced on Tuesday that it has slapped the search engine giant, Google with a fine of 200,000 rubles (around $2,720) for allowing advertisements of eToro, which is not regulated in Russia.
Earlier in May, the Russian authority first pointed out ‘multiple advertising law violations’ for the targeting of eToro advertisements to Russian investors. It pointed out the incorrect nature of the promotions as the broker is unlicensed in the country.
eToro stopped offering forex trading services in Russia in 2017. Additionally, it confirmed to Finance Magnates that neither did it have any operations in the country nor did it run misleading advertisement campaigns.
Read more on the eToro Russian Ad fine here.
Major Crypto Platforms Face Technical Troubles amid Strong Market Sell-Off
As sure as night follows day, as crypto markets plummeted earlier this week, major crypto exchanges suffered a number of 'technical difficulties.
With the cryptocurrency market experiencing a significant bloodbath, which saw Bitcoin plunge 17%, Major exchanges, such as Coinbase, Gemini and Kraken, reported delays in transactions on Tuesday.
Read more on the crypto platform outages here.
XRP Gets Re-listed Temporarily on Coinbase Pro Due to ‘Technical Issues’
Speaking of 'Technical Issues', Coinbase had another unusual situation this week.
Coinbase, the US-based cryptocurrency exchange, has seemingly re-listed Ripple’s token XRP on Thursday through its Coinbase Pro platform, but it was short-lived. According to users who took to social media to report the matter, XRP/USD, XRP/EUR, XRP/GBP and XRP/BTC pairs appeared on the platform as available to trade.
Afterwards, the XRP price skyrocketed for a while when the news made headlines, but it erased the gains after Coinbase stated that such reports on a re-listing were inaccurate, and, on the contrary, it happened due to a technical glitch.
Read more on the XRP Coinbase Pro Relisting error here.
Address Activity of XRP Increases Near $1.10
XRP, the world’s 7th largest cryptocurrency, saw its price jump by nearly 10% within a single hour during the Asian trading session on Friday.
One of the major reasons behind the latest jump in XRP is its address activity. The total number of active addresses has increased sharply in the last few days and one leading XRP wallet recently moved 83 million coins to an unknown address.
Read more on the XRP Address Activity here.
Solana Becomes More Valuable than XRP
Solana (SOL) is now more valuable than XRP. SOL touched an all-time high of $214 on Thursday after a surge of more than 22% in the last 24 hours.
According to Coinmarketcap, Solana is the 6th largest cryptocurrency in the world with a market cap of over $60 billion. SOL’s market cap is more than Dogecoin (DOGE), XRP, Polkadot (DOT), Uniswap (UNI), USDC and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).
Solana is currently trading above $200 with a crypto market dominance of over 3%. SOL has surged by more than 80% within the last seven days.
Read more on the rise of Solana here.
Exclusive: Amana Capital Announces the Appointment of Muhammad Rasoul as New CEO
In a Finance Magnates exclusive, Amana Capital, one of the leading online financial trading platforms, announced that the company has selected Muhammad Rasoul, an industry veteran with a strong entrepreneurial, commercial and operational track record in the global financial sector, as the company’s new CEO.
Amana Capital mentioned that Ahmad Khatib will be stepping down from his current role due to personal reasons. The financial services provider added that Khatib will stay on in a strategic advisory role to ensure a smooth transition.
Read more on the Rasoul Amana's, the Capital CEO, appointment here.
Thai Regulator to Revoke Local Crypto Exchange License of Huobi
Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recommended the country’s Finance Ministry to revoke the digital asset exchange license of Huobi (Thailand) Co, which is accused of failing to fix system flaws.
Announced on Saturday, the financial regulator is pushing the exchange to suspend its services and return clients’ funds within the next three months.
Read more on the Huobi Thai situation here.
Sinara Financial Acquires Cypriot Broker Think Wealth
Sinara Financial Corporation, the holding company of the Russian billionaire Dmitry Pumpyansky, is expanding its reach in the brokerage space and announced its acquisition of Cyprus Investment Firm (CIF), Think Wealth Ltd on Wednesday.
The parent company is now rebranding the newly acquired entity as Sinara Financial Corporation (Europe) Ltd, thus aligning its services with its existing broader brokerage brand. The group first launched the Sinara Financial Corporation in late June as a holding company to accelerate the expansion of its investment arm.
Read more on the Think Wealth Acquisition here.
Saxo Markets Singapore’s Client Onboarding Jumps 24% in H1
Saxo Markets Singapore, which is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), disclosed some key performance metrics on Tuesday for the first six months of 2021. The unit has reached the key milestone of SGD 10 billion ($7.45 billion) in clients’ assets.
The broker onboarded 24 percent more traders during the period and has highlighted strong market momentum behind this robust performance.
Read more on the Saxo Markets Singapore H1 here.
Panama Introduces Bill to Legalize Bitcoin, Ethereum
Panama became the second country in the region to move a bill in parliament, seeking legal status for Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The country’s lawmakers introduced the bill on September 6 that aims to regulate Cryptocurrencies in the country. According to the draft law, the country wants to become ‘compatible with Blockchain , crypto assets and the internet.’
Panama’s move came the day before El Salvador legalized Bitcoin, making it legal tender. However, Panama’s draft laws are very different from El Salvador’s, which makes the adoption of Bitcoin mandatory.
Read more on the Panana Bitcoin bill here.
