The start of April brought with it a lot of exciting developments in the foreign exchange (forex) and crypto space. If you missed some of the top and most interesting stories, never fear, here is a recap of what you missed in our best of the week analysis.
Deutsche Börse Considers Acquisition of Reuters’ FXall Unit
One of the top stories in the FX industry this week was that Deutsche Börse Group is contemplating the idea of acquiring Thomson Reuters’ FXall electronic FX trading platform, according to reports.
Speaking to German financial daily Handelsblatt, Deutsche Boerse’s Global Head of FX Carlo Koelzer was quoted as saying: “If FXall were put on the market we would of course look at it.”
The potential acquisition, if confirmed, would mark the firm’s continued expansion into the FX space and institutional level trading businesses. For more on this move, you can read the full article here.
XTB Slips Up, Accidentally Releases Affiliate Data in Email
At the beginning of this week, Finance Magnates reported exclusively that XTB, a leading brokerage in Poland, accidentally sent out an email that contained the details for hundreds of its affiliates.
In what appears to have been a routine email of the company updating its affiliates on its new policy, instead of sending the message via a mail merge so the recipients can’t see who else the email has been sent to, it appeared as though someone at the broker accidentally copied all affiliate marketers into the email.
This means that everyone who received the email, could see their competitors, that is the addresses of all the other affiliate marketers who work for the broker. It’s unclear what the fallout of this mistake might be.
Bithumb Hacked for $19 Million
Bithumb, the leading cryptocurrency exchange in South Korea, has lost around $19 million in digital assets in a cyber attack. However, luckily for its customers, the trading platform confirmed that all the lost funds belonged to the exchange itself and none of the stolen funds belonged to its customers.
On March 30, the company detected an “abnormal withdrawal” around 10:15 pm on March 29, which turned out to be the siphoning of funds from the exchange. Although the South Korean firm didn’t reveal any official figures of the loss, reports have suggested 3 million EOS tokens worth around $12.7 million had been transferred from a hot wallet, and another 20 million XRP tokens valued around $6.2 million were also compromised.
Coinflex is "More Global than ErisX and Bakkt"
The cryptocurrency industry has long been plagued with security issues, with this being one of the main factors that have deterred investors from entering into the space. However, crypto futures contracts are proving to be a viable way for cautious traders to enter the crypto market.
One such company which is trying to establish itself as the go-to futures exchange in the European, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region is CoinFLEX. To find out more on the company’s strategy and business development efforts, Finance Magnates’ Rachel McIntosh spoke with Emmanuel Alamu, the new head of CoinFLEX’s Business Development efforts for the EMEA region.
You can check out the full interview here.
China Approves 197 Blockchain Firms
Although China has long been suspicious about Cryptocurrencies , the country has shown a keen interest in the technology the digital assets are built on - blockchain. This week, as Finance Magnates reported, China’s top-level internet censorship agency revealed the first round of companies that have had their application to begin blockchain-related services in the country approved.
On the list, affiliates of technology giants such as Alibabu, Baidu and Tencent were on the list, as well as a number of startup companies. In total, 197 businesses had their applications approved.
Broadway Technology Acquires Barracuda FX
FX and fixed-income solutions provider, Broadway Technology, also revealed another acquisition in the forex sector this week. Specifically, the firm announced that it had acquired 100 percent of Barracuda FX.
Broadway will use the acquisition to further expand its product suite, including the creation of multi-asset solutions. Under the acquisition, Barracuda FX will remain as an independent company, which is run by its CEO Kieran Fitzpatrick, and its COO Maurice Curran. Furthermore, Broadway will retain the full Barracuda FX team. You can find out more on the deal here.
ParagonEX Purchases the IP and Developers Team of Superdev
Amid an increasingly competitive market for providers of FX and CFD technology to white labels, ParagonEX, a technology provider, announced that it will purchase the intellectual property of Superdev as well as acquiring an office lease and a developer team in the capital city of Bulgaria.
As Finance Magnates outlined earlier this week, the B2B provider of trading platforms will complete its current product offering by adding a transaction processing platform, once the acquisition is complete. The value of the deal has not been disclosed.
Interview with the CEO of Stater Global Markets on ESMA and the Real Prime of Prime
We’re now four months into 2019 and although the pain inflicted by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) last year has subsided a little, it remains a top obstacle for brokerages in the European Union (EU).
Although the new regulations mainly impacted the retail trading industry, in what way has it influenced the prime brokerage sector? Finance Magnates’ Victor Golovtchenko sat down with the CEO of one of the emerging players in this space, Stater Global Markets, to find out more.
Australian Parliament Passes Product Intervention Law
Similar to the product interventions that allowed ESMA to limit leverage limits on CFDs and prohibit the sale of binary options to retail traders, a new bill that will give the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) those same powers is only pending a formal approval, as Finance Magnates broke towards the end of the week.
After months of deliberations in the Australian parliament, the Design and Distribution Obligations and Product Intervention Powers Bill now gives ASIC the power to deliberate what kind of limitations it will introduce into the market, although these are not likely to be implemented until early 2021.
