eToro has been talking up bitcoins lately through its official blog and via comments from its CEO Yoni Assia. There have been mentions that they are planning on adding Bitcoin trading on their platform and the ability to deposit and withdraw with the digital currency. So far, it’s been talk, with even bitcoin deposits failing to get launched yet by the broker despite stating it was coming in a few days on April 3rd.
The question of whether Forex brokers can get a BTC instrument up and running will factor into the activity at current exchanges. With credit card acquisitions for bitcoins being rare due to the chargeback worries, the ability to buy them isn’t a seamless process. As such, with much of the current happenings focused on speculation, rather than actual demand for the currency, it would make sense that these traders would migrate to forex brokers offering a CFD version of bitcoins. Despite the euphoria though, it may be take some time before any notable broker starts offering bitcoin trading. Firms need to get a price feed from somewhere, and exchanges have been suffering from latency and overloads. Also, there is a small matter of hedging. How would brokers offering their clients the ability to short bitcoins be able to hedge the product themselves. (one idea that we were throwing around at Forex Magnates, that I would be interested to hear feedback on, is operating as a pure market maker and buying insurance against potential losses)
So far, traders do have the bitcoin exchanges that are back up and running after yesterday’s issues. Following its trading halt, MtGox trading resumed in the middle of the night with few glitches and stable pricing.
