High web traffic, low CFD volumesA new dataset from the fmintelligence portal challenges the long-held belief that more website traffic translates into higher trading activity for brokers. Analysis of 47 retail forex and CFD firms shows that the correlation between organic web traffic and actual trading volumes is just 0.09, essentially insignificant. The figures, which compare January 2026 traffic data with recent monthly CFD volume averages, suggest that online visibility and trading activity measure very different aspects of a broker’s performance.The sector as a whole is seeing strong traffic growth, though unevenly distributed. Total organic traffic rose 36.5% year-over-year to 40.2 million visits in January 2026, up from 29.4 million. However, only 57% of brokers gained visitors, while 36% lost ground.iForex readies £43.3M London IPO after delayMeanwhile, iFOREX set the price of its London Stock Exchange IPO at 195 pence per share, implying a market capitalization of about £43.3 million. Trading in the shares, which will list under the ticker IFRX, is expected to start on February 25. The listing comes after the company postponed an earlier plan to go public in late June 2025 due to additional time needed to complete a routine compliance inspection in the British Virgin Islands, before recently confirming that the process had restarted. The IPO comprises 4,487,179 new ordinary shares, with no existing shareholders selling any stock.Plus500 plunges on £67M exec share saleSignificant insider share sales, even in profitable brokers, can still grab market attention. Plus500 executives sold £67.1 million worth of shares on Tuesday, sparking a sharp selloff that briefly wiped out up to 10% of the broker’s market value before the stock narrowed losses to trade 6% lower at 4,430 pence.CEO David Zruia, CFO Elad Even-Chen and CMO Nir Zats offloaded a combined 1.5 million shares at £44.78 each to Goldman Sachs International, in a block trade arranged by Panmure Liberum that accounted for 2.14% of Plus500’s issued share capital. The broker earlier posted strong metrics with average client deposit jumping 124%.Last year, non-over-the-counter revenue at the broker surpassed $100 million and grew to about 14% of total revenue, up from virtually zero just a few years ago. The rapid growth of this segment highlighted how the contracts for difference (CFD) specialist is steadily building business lines beyond its core CFD offering.​eToro soars despite crypto setbackMore interesting numbers came from the Nasdaq-listed eToro. The group posted record full-year results, alongside an expanded share buyback program and upbeat guidance. It shares soared more than 20% higher to close at $33.07, the highest level in over a month. Net contribution for the year rose 10% to $868 million, GAAP net income increased 12% to $216 million, and the company ended 2025 with $1.3 billion in cash on its balance sheet.Source: eToro Group Ltd. SEC filings (Form 6-K), Q1-Q4 2025CEO Yoni Assia described 2025 as a “defining” or “milestone” year for eToro, highlighting its May Nasdaq IPO, faster product rollouts, and a broader international footprint as supporting factors behind the company’s growth momentum.IG’s latest “Check Your Fees” campaign stirs debateAre “fat cats” quietly snacking on UK investors’ funds with hefty fees? Well, IG’s recently launched campaign, “Check Your Fees,” aims to highlight how much UK investors are overpaying in platform charges. The broker’s latest Fat Cat Index found that more than half (52%) of investors use one of the 12 most expensive investment platforms, paying up to £515 more per year than those on lower-cost alternatives. For active investors using one of the top four costly providers, the extra annual cost rises to £711, or even £922 on the priciest platform. The findings show that active investors pay an average of £54 in annual fees on the cheapest platforms, compared to much higher totals on premium ones.Kraken goes on hiring frenzy in CyprusAway from cats, something interesting is unfolding in Cyprus’ crypto space. Over the past two weeks, crypto exchange Kraken has posted about 50 new roles. The hiring spree follows its 2025 acquisition of CFD broker Greenfield Wealth, a move that gave the exchange a Cyprus Investment Firm (CIF) license and access to the EU’s MiFID framework.Most of the new vacancies are senior or managerial, indicating a focus on building leadership and technical depth rather than entry-level capacity. Roughly 70% of the openings target senior talent, including positions such as Regulatory MiFID Officer, Global Head of Middle Office, and Senior AI/ML Engineer.The Trading Pit launches Seychelles CFD brokerIn the prop space, The Trading Pit has launched a new brokerage, TTP Markets, which is regulated in Seychelles. With this move, the company joins other proprietary trading firms expanding into the CFD brokerage sector.The launch is being carried out gradually, with TTP Markets initially onboarding a small group of selected retail and corporate prop traders from The Trading Pit’s community. The company emphasized that this is not a full-scale retail push but rather a pilot phase to test its regulatory systems and prepare for future global expansion.The5ers enters futures prop marketAt the same time, prop firm The5ers entered the futures proprietary trading space with the introduction of its new futures prop offering, joining a growing list of CFD-focused prop firms expanding into this segment. Other major names, including FundedNext, have recently launched similar initiatives as the market continues to attract established trading brands.The Trading Pit has introduced TTP Markets, our Seychelles-regulated brokerage arm.The rollout will begin with a select group of successful retail and corporate prop traders, followed by a expansion across jurisdictions.Read the full article - https://t.co/e0IUfhUyLY pic.twitter.com/T26BbsywbM— The Trading Pit (@TheTradingPit_) February 17, 2026Many CFD prop firms are turning to futures as a way to access the US market, which remains largely closed to CFD-based operations. Following MetaQuotes’ reported restrictions on CFD prop firms onboarding American traders, demand in the US has shifted toward futures-focused models.Overnight trading stays niche as access growsMeanwhile, for years, 4 p.m. in New York signaled the end of the trading day, when markets quieted and traders reviewed the day’s activity. That routine is changing. According to data shared exclusively with Finance Magnates, between 25% and 40% of Capital.com’s retail clients traded during pre- and post-market hours in the past three months, although only 4% to 5% traded overnight.Robinhood has surpassed $20B in overnight trading volume since launching Robinhood 24 Hour Market last year. ? pic.twitter.com/qK8gNF797c— Vlad Tenev (@vladtenev) June 5, 2024On eToro, which recently introduced 24/5 trading for S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 stocks, about one-third of stock trades in December 2025 happened after normal trading hours.A similar trend is visible at Robinhood. In June 2024, CEO Vlad Tenev said that one year after launching its “24 Hour Market,” the platform had recorded more than US$20 billion in overnight trading volume.CFTC defends prediction marketsGlobal regulators are increasingly at odds over how to treat prediction markets. CFTC Chair Michael Selig stepped up tensions between federal and state regulators over control of prediction markets. He directed the agency to get involved in ongoing court cases and made it clear that the CFTC, not individual states, should have authority over these markets and their event-based contracts.I have some big news to announce… pic.twitter.com/3OBNTaOnIL— Mike Selig (@ChairmanSelig) February 17, 2026In a video posted Tuesday on X, Selig said the agency had filed an amicus brief to support its claim of “exclusive jurisdiction” over prediction markets, saying they are part of the broader derivatives market regulated by the CFTC.Netherlands shuts PolymarketIn Amsterdam, things are quiet different. The Dutch Gaming Authority has ordered Adventure One, the operator of prediction platform Polymarket, to stop offering games of chance in the Netherlands because it does not hold a local gambling license. The move comes after similar action in the United States, where Tennessee’s Sports Wagering Council told Kalshi, Polymarket, and Crypto.com to halt sports-related contracts, cancel existing ones, and refund customers. This article was written by Jared Kirui at www.financemagnates.com.

The Supreme Court today (Friday) invalidated most of President Donald Trump’s broad tariffs, removing a key element of his second-term economic strategy.In a written opinion, the court said Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose sweeping tariffs was unlawful. The 1970s law allows the president to “regulate” imports to address national emergencies that pose an “unusual and extraordinary” threat.The ruling comes after Trump’s tariff announcements drew sharp reactions from trading partners, particularly in Europe, where officials warned of retaliation, and markets and economic activity had already been affected.Supreme Court Blocks Trump’s Emergency TariffsChief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, said the court was not evaluating economic policy. “We claim no special competence in matters of economics or foreign affairs,” he wrote. “Fulfilling that role, we hold that IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs,” The Hill reported.Trump is the first president in nearly 50 years to invoke IEEPA for tariffs. Beginning in February, he declared an emergency related to fentanyl and used it to levy duties on Canada, China and Mexico. He later cited a trade deficit emergency to impose reciprocal tariffs on dozens of other trading partners.Lower courts had allowed the tariffs to remain in place while the Supreme Court reviewed the case. The ruling does not affect sector-specific tariffs imposed under other laws, including on steel, aluminum and copper.Did you know? Donald Trump is the FIRST U.S. President in history to have his tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court! No other president has faced this—usually Congress handles tariffs, but Trump used emergency powers under IEEPA. Historic ruling! pic.twitter.com/kaEqpX4ntt— USMC Lady Vet ?? (@Arkypatriot) February 20, 2026Stuart Kousoulou, Quantitative Trader at CMC Markets, said the Supreme Court ruling had been “positive for risk assets, particularly equities and global markets, by reducing a major policy uncertainty.” He added that the decision also clarifies legal boundaries on trade policy, but noted that questions remain over refunds, small business impacts, and potential alternative tariff authorities.Companies May Seek Billions Tariff RefundsThe decision is expected to prompt companies to seek refunds for billions of dollars in tariffs already paid. Before the ruling, firms including Costco, parts of the Toyota Group and Revlon filed lawsuits to preserve potential claims. The Supreme Court case originated from suits brought by Democratic-led states and two groups of small businesses.Trump had described the case as one of the most important in U.S. history and warned that a decision against him could cause economic harm. Despite the ruling, the administration retains options. Congress can impose tariffs, and similar measures could be justified under other laws. This article was written by Tareq Sikder at www.financemagnates.com.

EC Markets has appointed Nicholas McGregor as Sponsorship and Partnerships Manager based in London. In the new role, he will work on the broker’s recent partnership with the English Premier League defending champions Liverpool FC alongside other sponsorship projects."I'll be focusing on our partnership with Liverpool Football Club alongside a wider range of sponsorship initiatives. It's a role that sits right at the intersection of sport, brand, and business, and I couldn't be more excited by the opportunity," McGregor announced on Friday. Sponsorship and Marketing Experience Before joining EC Markets, McGregor worked as Marketing Manager at the United Rugby Championship in London. He also previously served as Sponsorship Manager at Biffa, focusing on communication and sports marketing. His new responsibilities include sponsorship activation and relations.McGregor has a strong expertise in the marketing space. Earlier in 2024, McGregor held the role of Senior Account Manager at PR agency 42Bruton, working with startups and small and medium-sized firms in Greater London.Sports Sponsorship Background from eToroAdditionally, he brings experience from rival eToro, where he worked in London for nearly three years. He served as Global Sponsorship Assistant Manager and later as Europe Sponsorship Manager. His work at the Nasdaq-listed broker covered sponsorships and communications with a focus on sports.Read more: Learning to Trade like a Champion: Insights from EC Markets and Liverpool FCLast year, EC Markets signed a multi-year sponsorship agreement with Liverpool FC, a deal that made the broker the club’s “Official Global Partner.” The collaboration included visibility for EC Markets at Anfield, Liverpool’s home stadium. The broker’s branding appears on pitch-side LED screens and other digital advertising boards around the ground. It ensures the firm's brand is seen by fans in the stadium and by viewers watching matches on TV.Anfield, opened in 1884, is one of the renowned football stadiums in the UK and has a capacity of more than 60,000 spectators. EC Markets also renewed its partnership with a prominent snooker star Judd Trump last year. This article was written by Jared Kirui at www.financemagnates.com.

Prediction markets have spent the past two years trying to prove they belong. This week, the establishment responded. The developments were more than symbolic: investment, integration, lawsuits, enforcement actions, academic scrutiny, and even the first serious attempts to wrap event contracts inside ETFs. Once tolerated as an experiment at the edge of crypto and betting culture, prediction markets are now being tested politically, legally, and institutionally. In other words, the system is striking back. Wall Street Cracks the Door Open The most significant signal came from the institutional universe. Tradeweb Markets announced a partnership with Kalshi, alongside a minority investment. Initially, Kalshi’s real-time event probabilities feed into Tradeweb’s institutional workflows and then eventually extend to trading access via an institutional-facing portal. That is not a fringe endorsement. Tradeweb is a core electronic marketplace operator in rates and credit. When a firm of that scale starts experimenting with event probabilities as inputs for macro risk assessment and capital allocation, prediction markets stop being a curiosity. The logic is straightforward. If bond desks already trade around policy expectations and macro releases, why not integrate crowd-implied probabilities directly into pricing and analytics? The infrastructure is there; the data just needed a distributor. Liquidity is following the same path. Jump Trading is set to take minority stakes in both Kalshi and Polymarket in exchange for providing liquidity. These arrangements resemble venture-style deals, but the strategic message is clearer: event contracts are liquid enough, and scalable enough, to justify serious market-making capital. The establishment is not dismissing prediction markets. It is wiring them in.The growth narrative is compelling. Capital is flowing. Platforms are scaling. Volume is accelerating.Sports: From Episodic Bets to Continuous Flow If Wall Street is testing the macro use case, sports may be where scale truly lies. Startup Pred, a peer-to-peer sports prediction exchange, raised $2.5 million in funding led by Accel, with participation from Coinbase Ventures. It promises 200-millisecond execution, spreads under 2%, and an exchange model where traders face each other rather than a house. The pitch is telling. Elections and macro events are episodic. Sports are continuous, global, and high-frequency. A $500 billion global sports betting economy already exists — mostly controlled by sportsbooks that manage risk internally and limit winners. Pred’s model reframes sports prediction as a trader-driven marketplace. Whether it succeeds is secondary to what it represents. Capital is now funding purpose-built exchange infrastructure for sports predictions, not merely retrofitting general-purpose crypto tools. At the same time, the Super Bowl narrative continues to reverberate. Analysts estimate prediction markets captured roughly 80% of year-on-year wagering growth around the event, leveraging federal CFTC oversight rather than state gambling licenses. That “regulatory flank” has not gone unnoticed. And it has consequences. The Courts Push Back While institutional platforms integrate and startups raise funding, regulators are drawing harder lines. In the Netherlands, the Dutch Gaming Authority ordered Polymarket to cease operations for offering unlicensed games of chance, threatening weekly fines of €420,000. The regulator rejected the platform’s argument that prediction markets are not gambling and warned of social risks, including election-related concerns. In the United States, state-level enforcement continues. Nevada regulators scored a procedural win when a federal appeals court rejected Kalshi’s emergency request to pause enforcement. Meanwhile, nearly 50 active legal cases are unfolding across jurisdictions. The most forceful response, however, came from the federal side. Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Michael Selig filed an amicus brief asserting the agency’s exclusive jurisdiction over event contracts and warning that it “will no longer sit idly by” while states attempt to block them. “We will see you in court,” Selig said. This is no longer a question of product positioning. It is a jurisdictional fight over who governs a fast-growing derivatives category. Prediction markets are entering the establishment — and the establishment is answering in courtrooms. Do the Markets Actually Work?As capital flows in and regulators push back, a more fundamental question emerges: do prediction markets actually function the way their advocates claim? The academic case remains strong — at least on the surface. A recent study analysing more than 300,000 contracts on Kalshi finds that prices broadly track realised outcomes. Contracts priced at 50 cents win roughly half the time, and accuracy improves as expiration approaches. [Insert Figure 1: Win Percentages Sorted by Price] The pattern is hard to dismiss. As events draw closer, information accumulates and prices converge toward actual probabilities. On that front, prediction markets behave as advertised: they aggregate dispersed information into a single number. But pricing accuracy is not the same as economic fairness. [Insert Figure 2: Post-Fee Return Across Price Ranges] As capital flows and legal battles intensify, academics are quietly dissecting the economics. A recent study analysing over 300,000 contracts on Kalshi found that prices broadly reflect probabilities and improve as expiry approaches. In that sense, prediction markets are informative. Contracts priced at 50 cents win roughly half the time, and accuracy improves as expiration approaches.But they also display a classic favourite-longshot bias. Low-priced contracts win less often than required to break even, while higher-priced contracts win slightly more often, resulting in strongly negative returns for those buying cheap “lottery-like” outcomes. The average pre-fee return across contracts was estimated at-20%. The implication is uncomfortable but important. Prediction markets may be good at aggregating information. They are not necessarily good at distributing profits evenly. If event contracts are to become embedded in institutional workflows and ETF wrappers — and several issuers are now seeking election-linked funds — their economic mechanics will face more scrutiny. Legitimacy invites analysis.Bottom Line This week was not about hype. It was about resistance. Tradeweb integrates. Jump provides liquidity. Startups build exchange-grade sports infrastructure. ETF issuers prepare political funds. Regulators fine, litigate, and assert jurisdiction. Academics test the model. Prediction markets are no longer asking whether they belong. They are behaving as if they do. The establishment, for its part, is no longer ignoring them. It is investing, regulating, and, when necessary, pushing back. If the past two years were about expansion, this phase is about consolidation. The next chapter will not be written solely by traders or founders, but by exchanges, courts, regulators, and institutional allocators. The least predictable outcome may not be the result of the next election or sporting event. It may be who ultimately controls the markets that sets their prices. This article was written by Tanya Chepkova at www.financemagnates.com.

South Korean lawmakers are pushing for closer scrutiny of the country’s cryptocurrency market following a technical error at Bithumb, one of the nation’s largest exchanges.Earlier this month, Bithumb mistakenly credited users with Bitcoin it did not hold. The error briefly triggered a surge in sell orders. Officials said the incident revealed potential gaps in market oversight.$43Billion Bithumb Mistake Prompts RulesThe Financial Services Commission has proposed limiting major shareholders’ stakes in domestic crypto exchanges. The measure is intended to strengthen governance under the forthcoming Digital Asset Basic Act.Bithumb said it miscredited each user with 2,000 BTC instead of 2,000 Korean won (about $1.40), totaling 620,000 BTC. Most of the miscredited assets were later recovered. The exchange reported 125 BTC, worth roughly $8.6 million, remained unrecovered. Bithumb pledged to improve verification and monitoring systems. Industry reports estimated the total miscredit at about $43billion before most assets were corrected.? South Korean authorities under fire over $43B Bithumb Bitcoin error (https://t.co/0xYXvTMNBq)https://t.co/k6N1KPPlXu #Bitcoin— Kobocoin (@kobocoindev) February 20, 2026Lawmakers Criticize FSC Oversight FailuresTraditional financial firms are showing growing interest in the sector. Mirae Asset Financial Group is reportedly exploring a major stake in a local exchange, reflecting institutional positioning in South Korea’s crypto market.Lawmakers criticized the FSC for prior oversight. Representative Kang Min-guk of the opposition People Power Party said the incident showed “broader structural issues in the local crypto market,” including gaps in regulation and oversight. The FSC had inspected Bithumb at least three times since 2022.South Korea Faces Persistent Crypto Oversight ChallengesThe FSC opened an investigation on February 10. Officials initially expected it to conclude within days, but it has been extended to the end of February. Authorities said they would take “stern legal actions against acts that harm the market order.” Bithumb CEO Lee Jae-won told lawmakers the exchange had previously experienced two smaller payout errors, which were corrected.The incident raises further concerns over South Korea’s handling of digital assets. Previous cases, including missing Bitcoin from police and prosecutors’ offices, have prompted questions about custody and security. Analysts say persistent challenges remain in oversight and asset management in the country’s cryptocurrency sector. This article was written by Tareq Sikder at www.financemagnates.com.

“This marks our largest sponsorship to date, not just in monetary value but in strategic impact as well,” says Peter Aust, COO at FxPro, referring to the latest renewal of its partnership with McLaren’s Formula One. The UK-headquartered retail broker was a first mover in the racing sport by sponsoring Virgin Racing in 2009, followed by BMW Sauber in 2010 and in 2018, it inked its first deal with McLaren. This marks the third extension of that relationship. “The 2025 season was extraordinary for both organisations,” Aust explains. “FxPro had a record performance across every major business metric, while McLaren delivered a historic year by securing both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships. After sharing this upward journey together since 2018, renewing the partnership following such a milestone felt like a natural progression rather than a difficult decision.”The New Deal Brings Visibility to Prime Real Estate The extended partnership is expected to further boost FxPro’s visibility. The broker’s branding already appeared on the inner sides of the cars near the wing mirrors – a spot frequently picked on by onboard cameras – and on team sleeves, keeping the logo in plain sight across pit-lan action, the pit wall and crew’s official kit. The logo will now also feature on the backs of the drivers’ helmets. “Beyond race coverage, these are often showcased across promotional displays and media assets,further extending our reach,” he notes.Aust doesn’t disclose the cost of the extended partnership, typical in Formula One, where teams and sponsors rarely publish financial terms. Still, Marios Chalis, Chief Marketing Officer at Libertex, which sponsors now-Audi’s F1 team (previously Kick Sauber), had previously indicated that even a lower-tier Formula One sponsorship costs about US$5 million. “More broadly,” Aust tells Finance Magnates, “our total investment in sponsorships to date is close to one-third of a billion US dollars. We see partnerships of this calibre as a key part of our global growth.”The Real Return Is F1’s Global Reach Calculating the return on such sponsorship is, unsurprisingly, imprecise. There is no tidy funnel linking a TV viewer glimpsing the FxPro logo during a McLaren pit-lane shot to a newly opened trading account.Instead, success is measured through reach, market penetration and brand equity.Formula One’s own numbers help justify that logic. In the first half of 2025, China accounted for 221 million fans, a year-on-year increase of 39%, a market Aust describes as “strategically important.”The sport is also thriving across Latin America and the Middle East, key regions for retail brokers, with the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in December 2025 averaging 1.5 million viewers on ESPN, peaking at 1.8 million – an event record. According to Aust, FxPro’s strategy has evolved accordingly. The company once focused on Premier League sponsorships to target the UK, but today the EU accounts for less than 3% of its business, and no single market contributes a double-digit share. “We went down the F1 route because we wanted to align with a company and a sport that would be as global as us,” he highlights. Reaching Gen Z’sDemographics also play a role, with Formula One increasingly resonating with younger audiences: in 2025, 43% of its 827 million global fans were aged 35 and under. The audience is also becoming more balanced, with women now accounting for nearly 42% of the fanbase. McLaren – and its sponsors – has benefited handsomely from shifting demographics. A 2021 survey found the team to be the overall fan favourite among Gen Z audiences. Much of that popularity rests on its youthful and charismatic driver line-up, especially Norris, who today commands 3.1 million followers on TikTok and maintains one of the sport’s most interactive personal websites, where his helmet, now bearing the FxPro logo, is prominently displayed. “As the popularity of trading continues to expand globally, aligning with a sport and a team that is simultaneously growing younger and more diverse directly supports FxPro’s long-term growth ambitions,” he says. “McLaren Offers Credibility That Few Teams Can Match” FxPro’s earlier experiences in Formula One offered cautionary lessons: Virgin Racing was an untested entrant and BMW Sauber withdrew from the sport. So, the company’s criteria changed. “We focused exclusively on historic teams with strong infrastructure and clear future trajectory,” Aust explains. McLaren’s distinctive identity was equally important. “Rooted in over 60 years of racing history across multiple disciplines, McLaren offers credibility that few teams can match. Watching its transformation under Zak Brown’s leadership into championship contenders and winners has made the partnership hugely rewarding,” he says. This article was written by Adonis Adoni, Arnab Shome at www.financemagnates.com.

After a delay of about eight months, iFOREX has set a possible listing date of 25 February 2025. The move appears to be strategic, as the contracts for differences broker ended Q4 2025 with revenue of $13.5 million and EBITDA of about $2 million. The figures recovered from the previous quarter, when they were $7.7 million and negative $3.1 million, respectively.Flat Revenue, but Lower ProfitThe initial public offering (IPO) prospectus published yesterday (Thursday) also noted that the group generated $27.6 million in H1 2025, bringing annual revenue to $48.8 million, which is still below the $50.1 million recorded in 2024.Adjusted EBITDA for last year is expected to be about $4 million, down from $9.7 million the year before.This shows that the company has kept its IPO valuation at 1.1x of its revenue.Net profit for the first six months of 2025 came in at over $1.2 million, down 63.5 per cent year over year. Annual net profit in 2024 was $5.1 million, compared with $26.1 million in 2022 and $6.7 million in 2023.“The Group has positive momentum into FY26,” the prospectus noted.iFOREX, which operates with licences in Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands, is aiming to raise £8.75 million at a valuation of about £43.3 million. It is expected to receive about $6.07 million after commissions and deductions.The contracts for differences (CFDs) broker will use the majority of the proceeds, $1.5 million, to automate its customer onboarding and growth processes. It will also allocate another $1 million to investment in further automation software and products for its onboarding and AI risk management systems.Read more: AI Takes Center Stage in Brokers’ Layoff NarrativesIt will also use about $500,000 to enter new markets and accelerate growth in existing ones, and a similar amount to improve its human resources.Its decision to go public is supported by the belief that the move would raise its profile and help it access new markets, regulatory authorisations, and pursue strategic M&A opportunities.Founded by Eyal Carmon, iFOREX traces its origins to 1996 under different brands. It received its Cyprus licence in 2011 and its BVI licence in 2013. Over 95 per cent of its revenue came from the offshore entity, while the rest was generated by the Cyprus-registered one.The majority of transactions on the platform, 37 per cent, are in currency pairs, followed by 33 per cent in commodities, 19 per cent in indices, and 8 per cent in cryptocurrencies. The remaining 3 per cent came from stocks and ETFs in 2024.Carmon, who is now the sole shareholder of the CFD broker, will not sell any of his stake. However, even after the IPO, he will continue to be the largest shareholder with 58.91 per cent of the stake.The broker is currently led by Itai Sadeh as its CEO. Recovery after a DropiFOREX’s 2025 revenue clearly took a hit due to weak Q3 results. It attributed the weaker quarter to low market volatility and the impact of its IPO delay. It further noted that due to low market volatility, it “implemented a short-term revenue initiative which was ineffective and it was promptly reversed.”Notably, 70 per cent of its revenue is generated from dealing spreads.The majority of iFOREX’s client base is in East Asia, India, and the Middle East. It had 20,159 active clients in the first six months of 2025, broadly similar to a year earlier.Asia, predominantly Japan, remained its top revenue generator, bringing in over $10.6 million between January and June 2025. Revenue from MENA and South Asia, driven by India, was about $8 million and $5 million, respectively.Read more: iForex IPO Aims to Enter New Markets and Reverse Revenue Dependence on AsiaHowever, the figures remain significantly lower than the 2022 peak, which, according to iFOREX, was due to “a significant drop in spread revenues and trading P&L revenues.”Notably, the broker does not have a licence in any of its key markets — Japan, India, or MENA. In practice, it can only reverse solicit traders from those jurisdictions.iFOREX was also placed on warning lists by regulators in its key markets.Related: India Hikes Trading Tax, Will It Push Traders to ‘Unregulated’ CFDs?It intends to use the funds to secure regulatory licenses in Australia, Malaysia, the UAE, Chile, and the UK.Interestingly, iFOREX’s marketing budget also increased in the first six months of 2025: it spent $21.3 million on selling and marketing, up from $15.6 million a year earlier. Its total marketing spend in 2024 was $35.9 million, down from $46.7 million in 2022.The broker, which is B-book heavy, also appears to have reduced risks from the one-sided rally in gold, especially in January. As at 17 February 2026, its residual net exposure was $30.7 million, representing 21.5 per cent of all outstanding positions.iFOREX also remains debt-free, with a net cash balance of $6.7 million at the end of 2025. This article was written by Arnab Shome at www.financemagnates.com.

Prop Trading Firm Pairs Industry Recognition With Measured Payout Metrics and System DisclosureHolaPrime(https://holaprime.com/awards/) has been named “Fastest Payout Prop Firm – MEA 2026” at the Ultimate Fintech (UF) Awards MEA during iFX EXPO Dubai, one of the region’s leading fintech and trading industry gatherings. Instead of leading with the award alone, the proprietary trading firm released internal payout performance data and its payout control framework - positioning operational transparency as part of its funded trader model.According to firm-reported payout records, Hola Prime’s average profit split payout is completed in 33 minutes and 48 seconds, with the fastest recorded payout processed in 3 minutes and 37 seconds. The firm reports an average payout size of approximately $4,500, indicating that timelines in the report reflect standard funded account payouts rather than just some nominal transactions. As part of its commitment to transparency, the firm made the reports publicly accessible on its official website.In the prop trading industry, payout cycles often extend into multi-day timelines due to post-request account audits, manual checks of rules, compliance and KYC checks, and arranging funds. Hola Prime states that its payout performance comes from moving those controls earlier in the lifecycle of the account, rather than compressing them at the payout stage.A fundamental factor in the prop trading industry is the planning of funds. The prop firms need to pay attention to the flow of their revenue, against the amounts they owe to traders. Many prop firms fail because of their lack of ability to do this planning and execution effectively.Hola Prime operates what it describes as a 10-point payout system for funded accounts - a structured pipeline that includes continuous rule-adherence monitoring, real-time profit split calculation, pre-allocated daily payout funds, surge cash flow buffers, ongoing KYC and AML screening, maker–checker authorization, automated payout rail selection by region and method, priority processing for fully verified traders, end-of-day treasury and ledger reconciliation, and full audit-trail generation for every payout. By running verification, compliance readiness, and funds provisioning in parallel, the payout step becomes an execution event rather than a review trigger. All of this runs parallel to their copy trading systems at the back end, which makes them one of the few firms invested in trader success.“Fast payouts don’t come from processing faster - they come from designing the payout pipeline correctly. When rule checks, profit calculations, and cash flow provisioning are engineered upstream, execution time compresses naturally. That’s a systems result, and systems results can be measured,” said Somesh Kapuria, CEO of Hola Prime.As prop trading expands globally, traders are increasingly evaluating firms on payout reliability and processing transparency alongside evaluation rules, scaling models, and profit split ratios. In that environment, disclosed payout metrics function as an operational signal - not just a service claim.About Hola PrimeHolaPrime is a premier proprietary trading firm dedicated to empowering skilled traders with substantial capital and professional-grade tools. Recognized for its commitment to speed and transparency, Hola Prime offers a secure environment for traders across Forex, Futures, and Commodities, backed by a robust payout infrastructure. This article was written by FM Contributors at www.financemagnates.com.

The Era of the Digital SpectatorFor the better part of two decades, the average internet user has existed in a state of passive consumption. We have been trained to view the internet as a service that happens to us—a top-down delivery of data, entertainment, and utility managed by a handful of centralized gatekeepers. In this model, the user is the customer at best and the product at worst. We provide our attention and our data in exchange for access to platforms we do not own and infrastructure we do not control.This "spectator" identity has led to a fundamental disconnect between the value we generate and the control we exert. While our digital lives have become more complex, our role in the physical architecture of the web has remained stagnant. We pay for resources we don't fully use and rely on remote data centers that prioritize corporate scale over individual sovereignty. NodeLink is challenging this status quo by introducing a new digital identity: the Infrastructure Pillar.Shifting from User to Participant with the NX1The rise of Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN) represents a psychological and structural shift in how we relate to technology. It moves the individual from the sidelines of the digital economy directly into its engine room. When you integrate an NX1 device into your home, you are no longer just "using" the internet; you are sustaining the global grid.This transition is powered by more than just bandwidth. The NX1 activates the dedicated RAM and CPU power within your home, turning your living room into a high-performance compute node. By moving from a position of dependency to one of contribution, you are providing the foundational support that the next generation of AI and data services require. This is an active role that carries both agency and reward, transforming the home into a vital node in a global, resilient grid.The NX1: Your Passport and ProtectorAt the heart of this identity shift is the NX1 hardware. It is more than just a piece of technology; it is a gateway to a participatory economy. Traditionally, participating in global infrastructure required massive capital and technical expertise. NodeLink has democratized this process, making it accessible to any household.But being an Infrastructure Pillar also comes with personal protection. Every NX1 provides a comprehensive suite of premium services for five people during five years at no extra cost, including an enterprise-grade VPN, AI Security, a Password Manager, and an Ad Blocker. This reflects our philosophy that those who build the web should be the most protected by it. By deploying the device and adding Participation Units (PU), individuals seamlessly bridge the gap between their daily lives and the global digital landscape, operating with a "silent power" that secures both the grid and their own home.Redefining Value in the "DePIN of DePINs" EraIn the centralized cloud era, value was something captured by corporations. In the DePIN era, value is co-created by the network's participants. As NodeLink builds the "DePIN of DePINs," your role as an Infrastructure Pillar becomes even more significant. You are providing the base layer upon which future decentralized projects will deploy their own hardware and services.Through the NodeLink dashboard, you can see the real-time impact of your contribution. This visibility reinforces your new digital identity, providing tangible proof that your NX1 is helping power the global AI revolution. It is a shift toward a more equitable digital world where the rewards of infrastructure growth—generated over a sustained five-year horizon—are distributed back to those who provide the foundation.About NodeLinkNodeLink is a pioneer in Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks (DePIN), dedicated to transforming how the world builds and sustains digital connectivity. We provide the essential edge-based foundation needed to power the next generation of digital innovation. By bridging the gap between idle resources and global demand, NodeLink is fostering a community-powered internet where contribution is rewarded and the future of connectivity belongs to everyone. This article was written by FM Contributors at www.financemagnates.com.

Kraken-owned xStocks has surpassed $25 billion in total transaction volume, highlighting the rapid growth of tokenized equities across centralized and decentralized venues. According to the crypto exchange, the figure covers trading on exchanges, activity on DeFi platforms, and mint and redemption flows, all reached in less than eight months.xStocks Hits $25 Billion as Tokenized Equities ScaleOnchain activity accounts for more than $3.5 billion of the total, with over 80,000 unique onchain holders participating in the ecosystem. xStocks currently holds eight of the top eleven tokenized equities by unique holders and represents 68% of the top 25 tokenized stocks by holder count as of 17 February 2026.$25,000,000,000 in total transaction volume.In under 7 months since launch.@xStocksFi is making history.As part of @payward’s group, xStocks is cementing its position as the largest provider and leading framework for tokenized equities globally. pic.twitter.com/XTPyXOMpBU— Kraken (@krakenfx) February 19, 2026The instruments trade across centralized exchanges, DeFi protocols, self‑custody wallets and consumer applications, allowing users to move exposure between venues.You may also like: Kraken-Backed xStocks Debut on Deutsche Börse’s 360X“xStocks have fused crypto and traditional markets, turning tokenized equities from an idea into global infrastructure. Eclipsing the $25 billion milestone so quickly demonstrates that investors around the world are ready for markets that are open, permissionless, and built for the internet age”, commented Val Gui, the General Manager for xStocks. Custody Model, Market Access and Alliance GrowthNotably, crypto trading platforms including Bybit and Gate.io have integrated xStocks, extending access to tokenized U.S. equities for retail traders, professional users and institutional clients. Late last year, Kraken acquired Backed Finance, the firm behind the issuance of xStocks. The exchange aimed to bring these tokenized products closer to its main trading business as it works toward a planned public listing in 2026. Kraken already offered several tokenized stocks and ETFs that are created by Backed.Additionally, xStocks went live on 360X this month, giving Deutsche Börse Group clients access to tokenized versions of major equities on a regulated secondary trading venue. It also marked the first major product milestone under the partnership the two firms announced in December. This article was written by Jared Kirui at www.financemagnates.com.

Spotware has shipped version 9.9 of cTrader Admin, its back-office management platform for brokers and prop firms, with a handful of targeted changes aimed at tidying up daily operations rather than overhauling the product.The update does not introduce major new capabilities, but focuses instead on reducing friction in routine tasks, including session visibility, centralized settings, and trimming the number of clicks needed to reach common controls.“With cTrader Admin 9.9, we focused on targeted refinements that cut unnecessary steps from routine workflows, keeping administration clean, consistent and easy to manage day to day,” Irina Olyaeva, Product Manager for cTrader Admin at Spotware.The latest data for Q4 2025 shows, however, that the main competitor of cTrader, MetaTrader 5, accounts for the half of CFD volumes, according to fmintelligence portal.Client Identification Gets FasterOne of the more useful additions is email visibility inside the Sessions app. Until now, managers reviewing client activity had to work primarily from account numbers. Version 9.9 adds the client email address alongside that number, both in session views and in exported reports.The new Workspace settings app pulls together several previously scattered configuration panels into a single screen. Managers who previously had to jump between separate menus to adjust these parameters can now handle them from one place.On the trader-facing side, cTrader Mobile 5.6 earlier this year brought equity charts, candle countdowns and a new landscape mode, part of a broader push as the mobile CFD market moves toward an estimated $133 billion in value by the end of the decade.The main navigation has also been trimmed down. Clicking the menu icon in the top-left collapses the app list into icon-only view, recovering screen real estate without removing access. The “Global tools” and “Help” items have moved from the top toolbar down to the lower portion of the main menu, keeping the header uncluttered while leaving login and account-switching controls where they were.Tick Data Now Visible in Orders AppThe Orders app has been rebuilt with three tabs: Details, Ticks, and Journal. The Ticks tab is new and surfaces bid/ask prices, timestamps, and tick direction data that was previously not available through the interface. The symbol ID, previously only visible in the main symbol grid, now also appears in the Details view for individual instruments.Spotware also tidied up some configuration logic. The lots/units toggle has been removed from the Symbol grouping wizard. Asset classes in cTrader Admin will now be configured in lots only, while unit-based settings remain available to traders on the client-facing side. The company says this reduces the risk of configuration mismatches between the admin and trader environments.On the liquidity side, operators can now rename feeds directly within the Liquidity feeds app, making it easier to maintain clean internal labels when provider details change over time.A Stream of Platform UpdatesThe 9.9 release continues a pattern of incremental broker-side improvements Spotware has been rolling out over recent months. Version 9.8, released in late 2025, had marked a broader transition, officially retiring the cBroker name in favor of cTrader Admin and introducing session analytics and color-coded account management.The admin updates run alongside a busier period more broadly for Spotware. The company reportedly doubled its trading volume and added two million users in the past year, onboarding 104 new broker and prop firm clients during 2025. cTrader currently serves more than 11 million traders and over 300 clients.The company also deepened its broker ecosystem through a partnership with iSAM Securities, giving retail brokers access to risk and trading solutions via the combined offering. More recently, Mauritius-based Frontbroker integrated cTrader across its client accounts, extending the platform's reach into African-regulated markets. This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.

Cyprus’ financial regulator has withdrawn the Cyprus Investment Firm licence of OBR Investments Ltd after the company decided to give up its authorisation. The decision closes the firm’s status as a regulated CIF in Cyprus.Another Broker Exits CySEC OversightLast month, Cyprus’ securities regulator withdrew the CIF license of HTFX (EU) Ltd after the broker opted to exit the local regime. The decision follows the company’s choice to give up its authorization rather than continue operating as a Cyprus Investment Firm. The watchdog said the step formalizes HTFX’s renunciation of its licence and ends its status as a CySEC‑supervised CIF.According to Thursday announcement, CySEC decided on February 9 to withdraw the CIF authorization of OBR Investments Ltd. The regulator stated that it withdrew the authorization because the company expressly renounced it. The notice lists “N/A” for judicial review and ruling, which indicates that no court procedure or additional ruling applies to this decision.CySEC Decision and DatesOBR Investments Ltd operated as a Cyprus Investment Firm authorized by CySEC under license number 217/13 and used the trading name OBRinvest. The broker offered online trading in contracts for difference (CFDs) across several asset classes, including currencies, stocks, indices, commodities and cryptocurrencies, to clients in the European Economic Area and Switzerland.Expect ongoing updates as this story evolves. This article was written by Jared Kirui at www.financemagnates.com.

CME Group said its regulated cryptocurrency futures and options will be available for trading 24 hours a day, seven days a week, pending regulatory review.While CME does not offer direct retail access, the move may have indirect implications for retail traders. Those who access CME products through brokers or futures commission merchants could see smaller weekend price gaps and closer alignment with spot cryptocurrency markets. The change may also improve hedging flexibility outside standard trading hours.CME Launches 24/7 Crypto Futures TradingThe exchange will begin continuous trading on Friday, May 29, at 4:00 p.m. CT. Products will trade on CME Globex with at least a two-hour maintenance window over the weekend.Trades executed from Friday evening through Sunday evening will carry a trade date of the following business day. Clearing, settlement, and regulatory reporting will also be processed the next business day.Tim McCourt, Global Head of Equities, FX and Alternative Products at CME Group, said demand has increased. He stated that “Client demand for risk management in the digital asset market is at an all-time high,” and that this drove “a record $3 trillion in notional volume across our Cryptocurrency futures and options in 2025.” He added that continuous access allows clients to manage exposure “at any time.”Derivatives Trading Shows Rising Activity LevelsCME reported record activity in its cryptocurrency derivatives in 2026. Average daily volume reached 407,200 contracts year-to-date, up 46% year-over-year. Average daily open interest rose 7% to 335,400 contracts, while futures average daily volume increased 47% to 403,900 contracts.The exchange operates futures and options markets across multiple asset classes, including interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural products, metals, and cryptocurrencies. It also provides clearing through CME Clearing and offers fixed income trading via BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading on EBS. This article was written by Tareq Sikder at www.financemagnates.com.

Marcus Bacchi-Howard has shared on LinkedIn that he is joining Equals Money as Head of Digital Assets.Equals Money Hires Experienced Digital Assets ExecutiveBacchi-Howard has extensive experience in digital asset sales and trading. He most recently worked as a business development consultant at NewQube Capital for seven months. Before that, he was Head of Sales and Managing Director at One Trading for one year.He also held institutional sales roles at Gemini for ten months and at Binance for one year and seven months. Earlier in his career, Bacchi-Howard served as Director of Institutional Sales at BEQUANT for one year and three months, COO at Helix Securities for ten months, and as a Delta 1 Trader at ED&F Man for more than ten years. He also worked as a Delta 1 Trader at MF Global for ten months and in prime brokerage client services at Morgan Stanley for over seven years.Bacchi-Howard’s career spans more than two decades in financial services, with most of his roles based in London.Payment Networks Adopt Stablecoin InfrastructureFinancial firms have integrated stablecoins into payment and settlement processes. Platforms such as LMAX offer tools for real-time transfers across foreign exchange, crypto, and stablecoin markets. These tools target wallets, custodians, and payment providers to facilitate faster liquidity movements.Institutional firms have adopted stablecoins and white-label crypto payment platforms to enhance payments infrastructure. Providers such as B2BinPay are expanding services to support automated and tokenized settlement across multiple digital asset networks.Mainstream financial institutions are exploring stablecoin issuance for transaction and settlement purposes. Fidelity Investments has prepared for a stablecoin launch to support broker and institutional operations, reflecting broader adoption trends.Payment networks are incorporating stablecoins into traditional banking systems. Visa has initiated U.S. programs to allow stablecoin usage for payments, demonstrating interaction between digital assets and conventional payment infrastructure. This article was written by Tareq Sikder at www.financemagnates.com.

Tradeweb Markets and Kalshi entered a partnership that aims to bring prediction markets and event contracts into the core workflows of institutional investors. Tradeweb has also taken a minority stake in Kalshi as part of the deal.According to the global operator of electronic marketplaces, the collaboration combines Tradeweb’s electronic trading platform and global institutional client base with Kalshi’s event-driven markets and data.Electronic trading platform Tradeweb signed a deal to bring Kalshi’s prediction markets to more institutional investors https://t.co/kGtTIb7NKT— Bloomberg (@business) February 19, 2026Partnership and InvestmentTradeweb plans to use its reach to expand institutional access to prediction market data and trading. The firm's CEO, Billy Hult, said prediction markets are becoming part of the trading landscape and can help institutions assess macro risk and allocate capital.“Prediction markets are increasingly becoming a key part of the trading landscape, and have the potential to become an indicator for institutions to dynamically assess macro risk and allocate capital more effectively.”You may also find interesting: Inside the Prediction Markets: Working Their Way Into Wall Street and BeyondThe first stage of the partnership will focus on data. Tradeweb and Kalshi will integrate Kalshi’s real-time event probabilities and market data into Tradeweb’s rates and credit marketplaces. The firms will also co-develop analytics that combine Kalshi’s event probabilities with Tradeweb’s pricing, liquidity, and macro data. The aim is to give institutional investors new tools for forecasting, risk management, and pricing that incorporate event-based signals, such as the probability of policy decisions or economic releases.Event-Contract Trading PlansBeyond data and analytics, Tradeweb and Kalshi will explore creating an institutional-focused portal for trading event contracts. Tradeweb would act as the front-end access point, while Kalshi would provide the underlying prediction markets platform.The deal follows a similar arrangement with Jump Trading. The proprietary investment firm is set to acquire a minority equity stakes in prediction-market platforms Kalshi and Polymarket in exchange for providing liquidity, according to Bloomberg. The investment strengthens the Chicago-based firm’s connection to a fast-growing segment of the derivatives market centered on event-based contracts. The agreement with Kalshi includes a predetermined equity allocation, sources familiar with the matter said, requesting anonymity because the discussions are private. Jump’s stake in Polymarket, meanwhile, will reportedly be determined by the scale of trading capacity the firm ultimately contributes to the platform’s U.S. operations. This article was written by Jared Kirui at www.financemagnates.com.

South Korean prosecutors said they recovered 320.88 Bitcoin this week after the cryptocurrency was returned to an official wallet. At the time of writing, the coins were worth about $21.3 million, according to The Chosun Daily.320 Bitcoin Recovered, Suspect Still SoughtThe Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Office said the Bitcoin, stolen in August 2025, was discovered missing during a routine inspection on Jan. 23. Authorities attributed the theft to a phishing attack after access credentials were exposed. The returned funds were later moved to a secure domestic exchange wallet. Prosecutors requested local exchanges to freeze the hacker’s wallet, limiting the ability to liquidate the assets, but did not provide a reason for the return. “We will do our best to arrest the suspect regardless of the recovery of the bitcoin,” the office told Digital Asset Works.? JUST IN: South Korean prosecutors have recovered $21M in stolen Bitcoin after a hacker returned the funds when authorities blocked related exchange transactions. The hacker’s identity is still unknown. pic.twitter.com/brAXiVKfcZ— The Daily Block (@thedailyblock) February 19, 2026Seoul Police Lose 22 Bitcoin, Probe ContinuesThe recovery follows a separate incident in Seoul, where 22 Bitcoin, worth about $1.5 million, vanished from police custody. The coins had been voluntarily submitted in November 2021 and were transferred externally, though the cold wallet itself was not stolen. The Gyeonggi Northern Provincial Police Agency is investigating the missing 22 Bitcoin.High-Value Hacks Dominate Crypto Theft TrendsCrypto theft reached $3.4 billion in 2025, driven largely by a few high-value breaches, according to Chainalysis. North Korea-linked actors were responsible for at least $2 billion in stolen cryptocurrency. While large exchange and custodial hacks accounted for most losses, thefts from individual wallets also rose, affecting tens of thousands of users. The report highlighted evolving attack methods, including social engineering and impersonation, and noted that a small number of incidents continued to drive the majority of stolen funds. Analysts say these trends underscore persistent security risks across the crypto ecosystem. This article was written by Tareq Sikder at www.financemagnates.com.

Over the past fortnight, Kraken has posted roughly 50 Cyprus-linked vacancies on LinkedIn, signalling that the European playbook of the American crypto exchange is shifting from acquisition to execution.The hiring blitz follows Kraken’s 2025 purchase of CFD broker Greenfield Wealth, a deal that delivered a Cyprus Investment Firm (CIF) licence and, with it, a passport into Europe’s MiFID regime.Senior Roles Dominate, with a Focus on Engineering A closer look under the bonnet shows that roughly 70% of the vacancies target senior or managerial talent. The Regulatory MiFID Officer role stands out, alongside heavyweight hires such as the Global Head of Middle Office and a Senior AI/ML Engineer.While pay is not stated in the listings, the top-heavy mix of will require significant investment. According to web3.career, a crypto and blockchain job board, the average yearly salary of a legal expert in the space is US$170,000, while senior positions in AI/ML engineering can fetch salaries between US$146,000 and US$277,000. The largest share of vacancies – nearly half – sits in software engineering and technical functions, so product and platform development appear to be priorities. Product and design roles form the next tier, followed by compliance, legal and risk. Operations, finance and marketing roles are present but less prominent. The Lines Between Exchanges and CFD Brokers Are Evolving A growing chorus of crypto exchanges has moved to acquire MiFID licences. In 2025 alone, Coinbase bought the Cyprus unit of BUX, which had offered CFDs under the Stryk brand, while Crypto.com purchased AllNew Investment, the operator of LegacyFX, another CFD provider.The calculation is straightforward: MiFID opens the door to derivatives – futures, options and potentially CFDs – whereas the EU’s MiCA framework is focused primarily on spot trading and custody. As Kris Marszalek, co-founder and chief executive of Crypto.com, said at the time, securing MiFID alongside MiCA “further solidifies” the exchange's ability to offer a comprehensive regulated product suite across the European Economic Area.Kraken, though, appears to be among the first of this cohort to embark on a hiring push of this breadth.At the same time, established brokers are rolling out spot crypto, often via white-label solutions. Pepperstone, which built its own crypto exchange internally, recently joined the trend by offering physical crypto to its Australian clients. For Pepperstone’s Group CEO Tamas Szabo, while the lines between brokers and exchanges are evolving, "client priorities remain constant: cost, execution quality, trust and, increasingly, user experience.” This article was written by Adonis Adoni at www.financemagnates.com.

Conventional wisdom in brokerage marketing holds that more website traffic means more business. A dataset from the newly launched fmintelligence portal puts that assumption to rest.Across 47 retail forex and CFD brokers, the correlation between organic web traffic and actual trading volumes comes in at just 0.09 - statistically, almost nothing. The data, which pairs January 2026 traffic figures with recent average monthly CFD volumes, suggests that the two metrics are essentially measuring different things entirely.Traffic Is Booming, Just Not EvenlyThe sector's total organic traffic hit 40.2 million visits in January 2026, up 36.5% from 29.4 million a year earlier. On the surface, that looks like broad-based growth. Dig in, and the picture is more divided: 57% of brokers gained visitors year-over-year, while 36% shed them. The top five brokers alone now account for almost 74% of all organic visits, up from 69% in January 2025.OANDA leads the traffic rankings, eToro follows and Capital.com posted the most visible climb of any large broker.All of this is happening at a time when the number of active CFD accounts jumped by nearly one million in a single quarter, reaching almost 7 million by the end of 2025, according to Finance Magnates Intelligence data.Volume Leaders Live in a Different WorldHowever, swap the ranking criteria from traffic to trading volume, and the leaderboard barely overlaps.IC Markets tops the volume table with $1.76 trillion in average monthly activity, yet ranks fifth by web traffic. OANDA, by contrast, pulls in 14.6 million visitors to generate $430 billion in volume. CMC Markets and Plus500 tell another story worth noting. Both saw traffic fall, according to Finance Magnates Intelligence data, yet both held onto substantial trading volumes positioning among top 10 brokers. Client retention, it turns out, doesn't depend on Google rankings.The Full Picture Is on fmintelligenceThis is only part of what the data shows. The full analysis - covering all 47 brokers, traffic-to-volume efficiency ratios, business model breakdowns, and year-over-year growth patterns across broker size tiers, is available on the newly launched fmintelligence portal. Registration is free, and the platform gives access to broker volume data, traffic metrics, and in-depth industry research that goes well beyond what any single article can cover.We've recently also written about how much total CFD trading volume MetaTrader 5 holds, we analyzed India, and we examined how regional internet traffic is shifting among retail traders This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.

iFOREX Financial Trading Holdings Ltd. has priced its initial public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange at 195 pence per share, setting the company's market capitalization at roughly £43.3 million. Trading under the ticker IFRX is expected to begin on February 25.The IPO caps a drawn-out path to the public markets. iFOREX had originally planned to list in late June 2025 before pulling the plug on those plans, citing a routine compliance inspection in the British Virgin Islands that needed more time to complete. The company only confirmed the process had restarted two days ago, describing it as being at an "advanced stage."iForex Placing Draws Oversubscribed DemandThe offering consists entirely of 4,487,179 new ordinary shares, with no existing shareholders selling down their stakes. At 195p, the raise totals £8.75 million, around 20.2 percent of the company's share capital following admission. The placing was oversubscribed, according to the company, suggesting demand from institutional investors exceeded the available allocation.Getting here has been anything but straightforward, and the broader IPO environment for financial firms has not made things easier. Just last week, prime broker Clear Street pulled its own listing after a 40% valuation cut, spooked by software sector selloffs and crypto market volatility.Shore Capital and Corporate Limited is acting as sponsor, while Shore Capital Stockbrokers Limited is serving as sole bookrunner for the listing. Both are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.Founder Keeps a Firm GripEyal Carmon, iFOREX's founder, is not selling shares in this offering and will remain the majority shareholder after listing. He has entered into a relationship agreement that takes effect on admission and will continue advising the business through a consultancy arrangement with Recap Ltd., a company he wholly owns. The directors, proposed directors, and certain senior employees holding shares through an employee ownership trust have agreed to a 12-month lock-up, followed by a subsequent 12-month orderly market period."Today marks a pivotal moment in iFOREX's evolution as we prepare to list on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange," CEO Itai Sadeh framed the listing as a platform for growth. "The oversubscribed placing reflects investor confidence in our strategy, solid fundamentals and scalable operating model."If the listing goes ahead as planned, iFOREX would join a short list of publicly traded online brokers, a list that has barely changed since 2016, despite years of speculation about which firm might go next. Since then, only eToro has joined the list, last year, but FX and CFD brokers have historically avoided public markets, citing regulatory complexity, earnings volatility, and the difficulty of explaining their business models to generalist investors. iFOREX is betting that a London listing changes that calculus, at least for itself.Profit Fell Sharply Even as Revenue Held SteadyThe IPO arrives at a time when iFOREX's financials have been under pressure. An earlier FinanceMagnates.com analysis showed the broker lost around 20% of its clients and saw profits drop by 75% over two years ahead of the original listing attempt. For the year ended December 31, 2024, the company reported trading income of $50.1 million and adjusted pre-tax profits of $7.6 million, while net profit fell 31% to just above $5 million.The full prospectus, published today, includes new data. The first half of 2025 showed revenue recovering, $27.6 million versus $22.6 million in H1 2024, helped in part by Trump's crypto endorsements in February 2025 and the tariff-driven market volatility in April. But operating profit collapsed to just $420,000 in H1 2025, compared to $4.6 million in the same period a year earlier, as selling and marketing costs ballooned to $21.3 million - up 36% year-on-year.The prospectus is candid about what happened in the third quarter of 2025. Revenue fell to roughly $7.7 million with an adjusted EBITDA loss of approximately $3.1 million. The company attributes the miss to three factors: unusually low global market volatility, disruption caused by the IPO delay (which meant increased prior marketing spend didn't translate into the brand benefit of being listed), and a short-term revenue initiative the company itself describes as "ineffective" and which was "promptly reversed."The business recovered in Q4 2025, generating approximately $13.5 million in revenue and $2 million in adjusted EBITDA. For the full year 2025, the company expects revenue of around $49 million, broadly flat with 2024.LSE Main MarketListing on the Main Market, rather than the smaller AIM segment, subjects iFOREX to the full weight of FCA oversight and UK premium listing standards, which could help with institutional credibility but also increase disclosure obligations and compliance costs. The company is also in the process of obtaining a UK financial services license.The prospectus, now approved by the FCA, is available on the National Storage Mechanism and the company's investor relations page. Potential investors are advised to rely solely on that document, including its risk factors, before making any investment decision. The company notes that the offering is directed only at qualified investors in the UK and EEA, and is not available to investors in the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa, or Japan. This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.

More than $4 billion was stolen in 255 crypto hacks in 2025, according to Global Ledger. The data reveals a major shift: criminals now use slower laundering techniques, posing new, ongoing risks for financial institutions. Hackers now rapidly move funds at the moment of attack, but intentionally delay laundering—spreading it over days or even weeks. This creates delayed exposure, complicating detection and risk management for brokers and exchanges. The findings come after another year of elevated crypto crime. Chainalysis data showed that funds stolen through hacks surged in 2024 compared to prior years, marking the fourth consecutive year in which annual losses exceeded $1 billion.New Laundering Pattern The 2025 report from Global Ledger analyses the full lifecycle of stolen funds and highlights what it describes as a two-speed playbook. Hackers often move funds within 2 seconds of an exploit, with 76% of transfers occurring before public disclosure, reducing the window for intervention. However, the subsequent laundering slows, with attackers employing multi-stage techniques such as cross-chain bridges and privacy tools. It now takes an average of over 9 days to reach the cash-out point. The $2 Billion “Sleeper” Exposure Nearly $2 billion in stolen 2025 funds remains parked in attacker-linked wallets. This creates a sleeper threat as illicit assets may reenter regulated venues later, heightening compliance challenges. For brokers and exchanges, point-in-time address screening may miss emerging threats. Illicit funds might resurface long after the original attack, evading detection by static systems. The Changing Toolkit The report also notes shifts in laundering infrastructure as over $2.01 billion in stolen funds were routed through bridges, fragmenting transaction trails.Meanwhile, Tornado Cash saw renewed usage following the lifting of sanctions in March 2025. In the second half of the year, the mixer was used in nearly 75% of hacks involving mixers. For compliance teams, operational risks are intensifying. Longer laundering timelines and complex pathways demand more robust, continuous monitoring—outdated blacklists are no longer sufficient. This article was written by Tanya Chepkova at www.financemagnates.com.