X-Trade Brokers, better known by its trade name XTB, has put most of its cryptocurrency contracts for differences (CFDs) instruments on close-only mode, citing heavy volatility in the digital currency market.
“Due to the extraordinary volatility in the markets and the inability to hedge positions with Liquidity providers, we are forced to make a decision to change the availability of selected financial instruments,” the Polish broker wrote on the notification.
This broker first stopped accepting new positions on several Cryptocurrencies last Friday. The first list includes several cryptos like ETH, XRP, XEM, EOS, NEO and many more. Except for DASH, all digital currencies in the list were paired with BTC.
On Tuesday, the broker added two more cryptocurrencies, EOS and Steller, to its list of close-only pairs. EOS gained more than 73 percent in the last 7 days, while Steller jumped by almost 25 percent in the same period, according to Coinmarketcap.com data.
It is not clear for how long the Polish platform will keep these digital currencies under close-only mode.
Liquidity Crunch
Putting volatile instruments on close-only mode is not new to the trading industry. The main concern with the broker-dealers is the liquidity requirements during the volatility stage. Earlier, many platforms made headlines when they stopped taking new open orders for GameStop stocks.
Publicly-listed XTB released its financials for the first quarter of 2021 last month, reporting a massive gain in quarterly profits. Further, the broker reported a record surge in the onboarding of new traders and client activities.
Meanwhile, XTB is expanding its global footprint as it is aiming to enter the middle eastern markets by the first half of 2021, setting up its operations in the UAE. However, XTB President Omar Arnaout stressed that it might take 6-12 months for the broker to create its brand value in the new market.
