Tag: eToro

Under its chair, Gary Gensler, the SEC is taking massive action against crypto companies in the U.S. The regulator believes that most coins and tokens qualify as securities, and therefore, the issuers and exchanges need appropriate registration. The U.S. subsidiary of the Israeli eToro broker scheme has also been sued for this reason. eToro settled with the SEC with a $1.5 million payment.

The recent sharp rise in crypto prices points to the next crypto bull run. This means that regulated retail brokers such as Robinhood, Trade Republic, Coinbase, and Bitpanda will be courting customers and their funds, and scammers will be looking for potential victims with fake campaigns. If you plan to try your luck as a retail trader, you should first spend a lot of time selecting your broker. Avoid unregulated providers at all costs.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recently updated its alert list to include organizations that are prohibited from engaging in foreign exchange trading. This latest iteration of the list also includes entities that may be authorized in other jurisdictions, do not hold authorization in India. Notably, the list includes prominent names such as eToro and other notorious offshore brokers like Alpari, Pocket Option, and OctaFX.

Binance UK CEO Jonathan Farnell has stepped down amidst increasing scrutiny from the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Hired in 2021 for a compliance-centric role and later elevated to oversee Binance's UK operations, Farnell's exit leaves Ilir Ergis Laro as the sole representative of Binance in the UK. Before the FCA's recent regulatory changes, Farnell was instrumental in aligning Binance with the UK's regulatory framework.

It has come to our attention that the entity known as Crypto Service Authority is presenting itself as a self-regulatory organization for cryptocurrency professionals, lawyers, and consultants. They claim to offer a comprehensive suite of services, including recognizing brokers, providing consultations, and resolving disputes. However, the Crypto Service Authority is not an authority; it's a fake. Do not invest in schemes claiming to be regulated by this fake.

The Israeli social investment platform eToro has partnered with OpenPayd, a banking-as-a-service (BaaS) infrastructure provider enabling eToro, to issue Euro virtual IBANs, unique to each of its customers, and gives eToro access to SEPA Instant rails for the first time. The solution is currently available in 12 countries and is being rolled out across Europe. eToro’s customers can now make deposits and withdrawals from their eToro Money accounts quickly and securely.

The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) has authorized Revolut to launch its cryptocurrency service. The authorization will allow the neo bank to offer crypto services to its 17 million customers in the European Economic Area. Revolut is betting strongly on crypto and has been doubling down on its crypto strategy with the launch of 22 new tokens available to trade in its app. Revolut is valued at $33 billion and has approximately 20 million clients worldwide.

Forbes has been closely associated with the world's largest crypto exchange, Binance, for at least a couple of weeks. FinTelegram reported that Binance had invested $200 million in preparing the Forbes listing on the NYSE. The investment made the crypto exchange the second-largest shareholder of the online business publication. In its new Top 10 ranking of crypto exchanges, Forbes ranked Binance as #6. Coinbase, Kraken and Robinhood lead the ranking.

The C19 pandemic apparently didn't hurt the FinTech hype. On the contrary, while Wise (formerly TransferWise), CoinBase, or eToro have IPO plans with billion-dollar valuations, Sky News reports today that UK FinTech unicorn Starling Bank has received £270M from new investors. Quite impressive, isn't it. Starling Bank will on Monday unveil the biggest fundraising in its seven-year history when it announces that it has secured more than £270m from investors, including one of the world's biggest wealth funds.

The pump-and-dump schemes around the Reddit forum WallStreetBets made social trading attractive. It was perfectly foreseeable that scammers were pouncing on this social media powered trading approach. Reports that the already more than 7.8 million members have beaten the Wall Street pros and created billions in market valuation virtually out of thin air is tantalizing. Today, the FCA warned against the Copy Trade Capital and Premium Trade Capital broker scams, which attack consumers mainly in the UK.

The U.S. SEC is already looking into the GameStop scheme currently performed. The German and UK regulators BaFin and FCA, too, warned against it and similar stock schemes. On the other hand, celebrities like Elon Musk seem to endorse these new stock games driven by online boiler rooms on Reddit or Telegram and online trading platforms and apps like eToro, Robin Hood, Interactive Brokers, or Kraken. Social media-based market manipulation or the next generation trading approach, that's the question. Anyway, it's scammers' paradise.

The global COVID-19 crisis is unlikely to prevent 2021 from being a promising year for stock markets and FinTechs. UK FinTech unicorn TransferWise is reportedly currently evaluating a billion-dollar blockbuster IPO for 2021 led by Goldman Sachs. The latter is also said to be evaluating an IPO of the Israeli FinTech unicorn eToro on Nasdaq at a $5 billion valuation, Israeli Calcalist reports. Allegedly, it has been valued at about $2.5 billion.