Where Does the Value Lie?Small and mid-cap equities continue to be among the least efficiently priced segments of global equity markets. This situation has fostered a favourable investment landscape for active investors looking for companies that can generate long-term shareholder value.The view that markets are less than completely efficient and that the actual value of a business is not always reflected in the price of its shares is well established and widely held.There are various metrics for identifying such undervalued companies. These include analysing revenue streams, focusing on businesses that have the potential to generate significant revenues from changes in their industry, and looking for firms that are well placed to take advantage of an upward earnings cycle.If we take Fidelity International’s Global Future Leaders strategy as an example, from a list of approximately 1,000 global small- to mid-cap companies, those with poor ESG ratings are immediately screened out.MARKET RECAP ? What a wild and crazy day, the S&P 500 was up in morning but closed the day down 1.2%, losing around $1 trillion in market cap ?The Fed left interest rates unchanged, as expected. What the heck is going on??! Let’s talk about it ?️ https://t.co/xm4C82iTbG pic.twitter.com/5WqLms6cfw— Peter Tuchman (@EinsteinoWallSt) June 17, 2026It then conducts more detailed analysis on the 150 to 200 investable stocks that are found to have the most promising prospects during the initial screening, based on viability of returns (pricing power, strong opportunities and rising return on equity), sustainability of returns (a strong industry position and the ability to generate cash flow to fund growth and withstand competitive pressures), and credibility (strong conviction in the quality of the business and management).At an individual stock level, the highest-conviction positions are in the range of 200–300 basis points (bps) overweight, medium-conviction holdings are 100–200 bps overweight, and reasonable-conviction positions have a 50–100 bps exposure at any given stage.How to Defend Your PositionRisk management is a key element of investment strategy regardless of market conditions. But when there is so much uncertainty surrounding global macroeconomics and geopolitics, it is vital to have some sort of allocation to defensive assets.There are many options here – some investors will hang their hats on consumer brands that seem oblivious to inflationary turmoil, while others will look at the tech giants with their soaring valuations and seemingly limitless potential. The startling rise in the value of gold, which peaked in the early weeks of this year, will have encouraged many to look to precious metals.According to Artemis analyst Harry Eastwood, an allocation to some of the world's modestly valued, growing but under-owned smaller companies has something to offer the defensively minded.This thesis is based on three interrelated factors:• The world looks different from how it did when many managers formed their ideas of what constitutes a ‘defensive’ asset.• The fundamentals of some smaller companies are compelling, particularly when compared with the large US companies that dominate market-cap-weighted indices.• Diversification remains the only free lunch on offer in financial markets.Eastwood notes that attributes that were once helpful for mega-cap multinationals, such as their globally diversified revenues and international just-in-time supply chains, now appear to be liabilities. Smaller companies, by contrast, tend to focus on their domestic markets, which offer shelter at a time when trade tariffs can change overnight.Read more: SpaceX at $2.5 Trillion vs. Bitcoin at $1.3 Trillion“Diversification may be the only ‘free lunch’ in investing, but it has slipped down the menu in recent years,” he says. “The comfort zone for many investors has been to be long in the US, long in mega-caps and long in growth. Funds that track capitalisation-weighted indices are exposed to the same themes and, until relatively recently, that was a winning formula.”But now a handful of mega-cap technology stocks exercise outsized influence over the success (or otherwise) of market-cap-weighted indices. Given the level of political and economic uncertainty, it is reasonable to ask whether having close to two-thirds of your equity portfolio exposed to the US – as anyone tracking the MSCI AC World Index does – makes sense.Don’t Rush to JudgementSmall-cap stocks have been viewed as persistent buy-and-hold winners since the 1990s because their higher risk premium led to historical outperformance. However, this return anomaly has faded.When the small-cap anomaly started to gain notoriety, large firms had relatively more debt and made more acquisitions that were not always accretive to earnings. These bloated conglomerates often made small and nimble firms appear attractive.However, we are now in a different era. Small-cap stocks have lost much of their edge over the past decade, with persistent underperformance against large-caps driven by structurally less supportive long-term market dynamics rather than just short-term cyclical factors.You may also like: Why Are Kraken, Coinbase, Binance and More Targeting Traditional Trades?That is the view of Michael Gates, Head of Model Portfolio Solutions for the Americas and Lead Portfolio Manager for Target Allocation Models and Mutual Funds at BlackRock.But just because small-caps have lost some of their edge does not mean that they should be discounted. For example, Gates sees reasons to own small-caps selectively with a more dynamic approach, trading on tailwind indicators rather than owning them long term.“If the IPO market re-emerges from its current winter, we believe that smaller firms could go public sooner and potentially allow the stock market to capture more early growth,” he says. “In our view, small-caps could also see tailwinds from rate cuts, which could lower the cost of their relatively high debt burden.”The Fed moving faster than markets anticipate on the way back down could provide an upside for debt-laden firms, while temporary supply disruptions have also benefited smaller stocks in the past.Gates notes that because large-caps tend to rely disproportionately on global supply chains, supply shocks and trade disruptions have served as a boon for firms that source domestically. These forces could create tradable events and sector trends.“It is not that small-caps have lost all their potential,” he concludes. “Our analysis indicates that they can be great investments when bought at the right time.” This article was written by Paul Golden at www.financemagnates.com.

Silver traded at $68.91 per ounce on Thursday, June 18, 2026, up 1.5% on the day and back above the 200 EMA it had broken just one week earlier. The reclaim reverses the bearish signal that defined my last analysis and drops price back inside the $66 to $89 consolidation that has framed the white metal since February. Wednesday's near 3% drop, triggered by a hawkish Federal Reserve, found a floor almost exactly at the moving average that matters most.The setup now is simple. Silver sits at the bottom of a range it has refused to leave for four months, and the next directional clue is the 50 EMA at $74. Until that level breaks, very little has changed on the chart since February.Follow me on X for real-time silver market analysis: @ChmielDkSilver Technical Analysis: The $74 GateA week ago I wrote that silver had broken below its 200 EMA and warned how low that could take it, in my analysis of the 200 EMA breakdown. The chart has since flipped. Price has climbed back above that average, and the consolidation between $66 support and $89 resistance is live again.The $66 to $68 support zone coincides almost to the dollar with the 200 EMA, and that confluence is what stopped Wednesday's selloff. The upper boundary near $89 traces the local highs from early February, a level last tested in the first half of May, which is what triggered the most recent leg down.[#highlighted-links#] This is the same range I mapped when silver crashed to the $70 floor for the third time in March. In 15+ years trading and analyzing metals at FinanceMagnates.com, 10 of them spent covering silver's every major break, a 200 EMA reclaim this fast after a breakdown is rare, and you can read more of my metals work on my analyst page.Silver is trying to bounce, but the move higher has a ceiling: the 50 EMA sits near $74, a meaningful distance above spot. That is the gate. The swing-trading principle for range-bound markets is direct. As long as price holds between two boundaries, it tends to travel from one to the other, so the path to $89 stays open while $66 holds.From current levels, the upside to the top of the channel is roughly 30%. My Fibonacci extension, stretched across the prior trend, puts the 100% level just above the $89 boundary, which reinforces a target aligned with the dominant trend. I do not rule that scenario out, but I want to see $74 taken first.Key levels:A close back below $66 reopens the $62 March low and turns the chart bearish again. A daily close above $74 is the trigger I am watching for the move toward $89.Why Is Silver Recovering?Silver climbed above $69 on Thursday after the US dollar retreated from the spike that followed Wednesday's Fed decision. President Donald Trump signed an interim agreement to end the conflict with Iran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, easing the oil-driven inflation premium that has weighed on metals all year. Lower crude takes pressure off Treasury yields, and softer yields reduce the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding silver.The cap on the rebound is monetary policy. Silver tumbled about 3% on Wednesday after the Fed signaled growing support for rate hikes this year, with half of FOMC members projecting that a hike may be needed. New Fed Chair Kevin Warsh declined to guide on the next move but stressed that inflation has run above the 2% target for years. That hawkish tilt is why silver bounced off support rather than ripping through resistance.The drivers behind the current move:Dollar pullback: The US Dollar Index eased off its post-Fed spike, the direct trigger for Thursday's bounce.Hormuz reopening: The US-Iran interim deal pulled oil lower, easing the inflation channel that suppressed metals.Hawkish Fed cap: Half of FOMC members flagged a possible 2026 hike, keeping yields elevated and limiting upside.Industrial demand floor: Data-center and AI infrastructure buildouts continue to underpin physical silver demand.How High Can Silver Go? What Traders on X Are WatchingSentiment among chart-focused traders on X leans cautiously bullish, with the $66 zone treated as the line in the sand."My view remains bullish while price stays above $60," said Jess, the trader behind @JessXAUUSD, who flagged $71 as the breakout trigger toward $77. That aligns with my own read: $66 holding keeps the bullish structure intact, though I put the real gate higher, at the $74 50 EMA.$xag #Gümüş takip ettiğimiz 66 bölgesinde yer alan mavi kutu desteğine geldi. Destekte tutunduktan sonra yükseliş yeniden devam edebilir. 71 tepesini kırdığında takip edeceğimiz dirençler 77-89 tepeleridir. Bu bölge önemli, üzerlerinde kapanış yapıp kalıcılık… pic.twitter.com/NoD5W47UkQ— Kamile Uray (@remdocan) June 18, 2026Kamile Uray (@remdocan) sees the same $66 support holding and points to $77 and $89 as the resistances above a $71 break. The clustering around $89 from independent analysts is notable, since it matches the top of my consolidation channel exactly.The most aggressive target comes from Dr. Potassium (@potassium_phd), who wrote that silver's "next target is $96.01, likely sometime in June," conditional on the October 2025 trendline holding as support. That sits well above my channel, and I would need a clean $89 break to entertain it.Silver ? — $77.04 — still not out of dead cat bounce territory until getting at least above the 50% level of the prior daily candle, but looks promising that the October 2025 trend line will hold as support and that the sell-off is essentially over. Could still be choppy for a… https://t.co/uU2GZMAIss pic.twitter.com/WfVtShejG2— Dr. Potassium (@potassium_phd) May 18, 2026Not everyone is positioned for a breakout. "Silver is entering a multi-month sideways consolidation between $60 and $75," said Damodara Rao (@damodara_SEBIRA), arguing selling momentum is drying up while the market builds a base. That range-bound thesis is closest to what my chart has shown since February.Silver is entering a multi-month sideways consolidation between $60 and $75 as the previous parabolic uptrend cools down and selling momentum is also drying up which signals that the market lacks the pressure to break lower but needs time to build a new base. pic.twitter.com/73W7YC3nOP— Damodara Rao (SEBI RA) (@damodara_SEBIRA) June 13, 2026Janey (@Janey_Analyst) framed an intraday long setup off the $67.65 area with short-term targets up to $70.15, a near-term echo of the broader bullish-while-above-support structure.#SILVER#XAGUSD Trading Setup – Buy Opportunity (1-Hour Chart)#XAGUSD is approaching a key demand zone, and buying power is emerging. As long as the price remains above the current market area, the bullish outlook remains valid.Current Market Area: 67.6500Technical Targets:… pic.twitter.com/XZPqfgWdgn— Janey (@Janey_Analyst) June 8, 2026Silver Price PredictionsThe forecast range for silver remains extraordinarily wide, and the spread between X traders and institutions tells the story. Back in April I laid out the full institutional case from BofA, Citi and Reuters as COMEX inventory tightened. My own structure says the question is binary: hold $66 and grind toward $89, or lose it and revisit $62.My view on each: Damodara Rao's $60-$75 base is the scenario my chart most supports, since silver has refused to leave this range since February. Jess and Uray's $77 is realistic but only after the $74 50 EMA falls, which neither flags explicitly. Dr. Potassium's $96 requires breaking $89 first, a level that has capped every rally this year.Citi's $150 call was made in January near the $120 highs and looks stretched against current action. HSBC's $68.25 average is almost exactly where silver trades today, which makes it the most credible institutional anchor on the board.FAQ, Silver Price AnalysisHow high can silver go in 2026? My chart puts the immediate ceiling at $89, the top of the consolidation that has held since February, roughly 30% above the $68.91 price on June 18. A daily close above the $74 50 EMA is the trigger for that move. Independent X traders target $77 to $96, while Citigroup's January call of $150 looks stretched against current action.What is the key level for silver right now? The 50 EMA at $74 is the gate. Silver reclaimed its 200 EMA near $66 to $68 this week, putting price back inside its range, but upside stays capped until $74 breaks on a closing basis. Below, the $66 confluence floor is the line that keeps the bullish structure intact.Why did silver fall this week? Silver dropped about 3% on Wednesday, June 17, after the Federal Reserve signaled growing support for rate hikes in 2026, with half of FOMC members projecting a hike may be needed. The hawkish tilt lifted the dollar and Treasury yields, both headwinds for non-yielding silver, before a US-Iran deal reopening the Strait of Hormuz sparked Thursday's bounce.What is silver's support level? The $66 to $68 zone is critical support, coinciding almost exactly with the 200 EMA, and it held on Wednesday's selloff. A daily close below it reopens the $62 March swing low as the next downside target. As long as $66 holds, the four-month consolidation between $66 and $89 stays intact.Is silver a buy at current levels? This is not investment advice. Technically, silver sits at the bottom of its range, which is where range traders look for long setups toward the $89 boundary, provided $66 holds. The risk is a hawkish Fed forcing a close below support, which would flip the chart bearish toward $62. Position sizing matters given silver's volatility. This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.

XTB stayed the dominant force in Polish account openings in May, adding 48,226 accounts with access to the local market, according to fresh data from Poland's Central Securities Depository, known as KDPW. That kept the Warsaw-listed broker far ahead of every domestic rival, even as its own monthly pace eased from the highs it set earlier in the year.The figure pushed XTB's domestic total to 1,087,740 accounts, more than double the second-placed firm. But it also extended a softer run. XTB booked 68,300 new accounts in January and just over 51,000 in February, before the monthly count slipped under 50,000 in April, the same month it crossed 1 million Polish accounts for the first time.XTB's Lead Widens Even as Growth CoolsThe gap between XTB and the rest of the field is still getting wider. mBank's brokerage arm, the second-largest player in the KDPW data, finished May with 560,967 accounts after adding 5,357 during the month. State-controlled BM Pekao ranked third with 210,079, followed closely by ING Bank Śląski's brokerage unit on 205,897.Only mBank cleared four-figure net additions alongside XTB. Dom Maklerski BOŚ added 1,087 accounts and BM PKO BP added 858, leaving the chasing pack adding in the hundreds while XTB added in the tens of thousands.mBank is also working through a leadership change. The bank's brokerage head, Maksymilian Skolik, is leaving at the end of June, with Kamil Figlarek set to take over the director's duties.Source: KDPW, May 2026.A Market on Track for 3 Million AccountsAcross the whole market, Polish brokerages added 59,444 accounts in May, taking the total to 2,856,520, the KDPW reported. That is 713,711 more than a year earlier, the largest annual jump on record.The monthly pace has held near 60,000 since February. December and January ran hotter, at roughly 100,000 and 80,000, as Poles rushed to open tax-advantaged IKE and IKZE retirement accounts before the year-end deadline. At the current rate, the market is on course to reach 3 million accounts within months.The depository's tally comes with a standing caveat. KDPW counts every account with access to the Polish market, not just those holding cash or actually trading. Brokerages periodically purge dormant accounts from their registers, which can pull the headline total lower.Price War Keeps Pressure on the LeaderXTB's home-market dominance is unfolding against the most crowded competitive backdrop the country has seen in years. German neobroker Trade Republic entered Poland in September 2025, its first market outside the eurozone, and immediately set off a fee fight, with mBank and DM BOŚ scrapping ETF commissions on retirement accounts to defend their bases.Incumbents are also retooling. ING Bank Śląski's brokerage unit has flagged a retirement-account push to challenge XTB, prioritizing IKE and IKZE products and foreign-market access through 2026. Revolut, which sits outside the KDPW count because of its Lithuanian license, is another pressure point, with a Polish investing base that rivals XTB's account totals.For its part, XTB has kept expanding its product range, recently rolling out retail options and extending ETF trading hours for Polish clients. That product drive comes shortly after the KNF, Poland's financial regulator, fined the broker 20 million zlotys over CFD marketing rules, a penalty XTB is contesting.The KDPW data captures only part of XTB's reach. The broker reports a larger global client base in its quarterly filings, while Poland still generates the bulk of its revenue. After a record first quarter built largely on its home market, the question for XTB is whether the slower May intake marks a normal post-milestone cooldown or the early sign of a saturating domestic market. This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.

iFX EXPO International 2026, held at the City of Dreams Mediterranean, enters its final day as attendees return for a second round of conference sessions and the closing stretch of meetings across the exhibition floor. The event continues to bring together brokers, fintech firms, liquidity providers, payment providers, technology vendors, and other participants from across the online trading industry.iFX EXPO 2026 Final Day Sessions ContinueFollowing a busy opening day marked by discussions, networking, and deal-making, activity has resumed across both the Speaker Hall and the Mastery Hub. Today’s programme features a full schedule of sessions spanning trading technology, regulation, payments, digital assets, client acquisition, and broader operational trends shaping the sector.Technology and AI are transforming the investment landscape. Speaking at iFX EXPO International 2026, CySEC Chairman highlighted the challenges and opportunities shaping the future of financial services, with a focus on innovation, investor protection and market integrity. pic.twitter.com/Jw7UWV8nYR— CySEC - Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (@CySEC_official) June 17, 2026Finance Magnates is on-site providing live coverage from across the venue, with updates throughout the day highlighting key insights, speaker remarks, and developments as the 2026 edition draws to a close.Tokenized Assets Open New Broker RevenueThe fireside chat titled “How Brokers Can Unlock New Revenue Through Tokenized RWAs” featured Tajinder Virk, Co-founder and CEO of Finvasia, and Panagiotis Tanampasidis, Managing Director at Blockmaze Greece.The discussion focused on the growing role of tokenized real-world assets as a potential revenue stream for brokers and trading platforms.The conversation examined how tokenisation could expand product offerings, enhance client engagement, and support new business models in a competitive market increasingly influenced by crypto-native firms. It also highlighted the importance of regulated infrastructure and the key considerations brokers must address before integrating tokenized assets into their product suites.Market Data Reveals Broker Growth ShiftsThe presentation titled “Where the Market Is Actually Moving – Data, Regulation, and the Next Broker Playbook” featured Ramzi Ahmad, Director of Intelligence at Finance Magnates Intelligence. The session focused on data-led insights into current trading activity and how market dynamics are shifting across regions and asset classes.Drawing on internal market intelligence, the discussion examined volume trends, emerging growth markets, and areas showing signs of slowdown. It also highlighted how ongoing regulatory developments may influence broker expansion strategies and operational planning.The session further explored the importance of aligning business decisions with real-time market data, including regional opportunities in LATAM and APAC, as well as broader industry feedback from regulatory discussions.Global Payments Infrastructure Faces Transformation Debate The panel “Who Will Power the Future of Global Payments?” featured Nikolett Palinkas, Group Chief Growth Officer (Acquiring) at payabl., Martynas Bieliauskas, Founder and CEO of Bivial AG, Tim Ferland, CEO of LetKnow Pay, Fotini Tsikkou of ECOMMBX, Ayodeji Osisami, Chief Financial Officer at Kora, and José Martí, CEO of PayPaga.The discussion focused on the evolving global payments landscape as fintech firms, payment providers, and digital asset companies seek to shape the next generation of payment infrastructure. Panelists examined the growing integration between blockchain-based systems and traditional payment networks, particularly in areas such as cross-border transfers, business payments, and global payouts.The session also explored the role of partnerships between financial institutions, fintech companies, and crypto firms, alongside the regulatory and infrastructure challenges associated with scaling new payment models. Speakers considered how these developments could influence the future structure and operation of global payment networks.Market Risks Expose Operational Blind SpotsThe session “F*&K UPS – Real Failure Cases: Lessons From Leaders Who Learned The Hard Way”* featured Gil Ben Hur, Founder of 5% Group, Ruben Abitbol, Founder and CEO of RUBIK Prop Firm Consulting, and Albina Zhdanova, CCO at TFB.The discussion focused on operational and risk management challenges facing firms in fast-moving financial markets. Drawing on real-world examples, the speakers examined how issues such as toxic flow, latency arbitrage, liquidity disruptions, and unexpected client behaviour can affect business performance and resilience.The session also explored common blind spots in risk management frameworks, along with the technologies, processes, and mitigation strategies firms use to navigate volatile market conditions. Particular attention was given to lessons learned from past failures and how these experiences can inform stronger operational practices going forward.Who Owns the Customer in FintechThe panel “Your Customer Isn’t Yours Anymore” featured Stanislav Galandzovskyi, Acquisition & Growth Marketing Consultant at finforceone.com, Anthony Migui, Group Chief Commercial Officer at Virtual Pay International, Vince De Castro, Head of Marketing at Acuity Trading, Angelos Gregoriou, Co-Founder and CEO of Dynamic Works, and Lihi Notea, Director of Client Engagement & Marketing at Nuvei.The discussion focused on how evolving platform ecosystems are reshaping customer acquisition, distribution, and retention across payments, trading, and fintech. Panelists examined how product, marketing, and transaction flows are increasingly influenced by platforms, intermediaries, and algorithm-driven systems rather than direct brand control.The session also explored the impact of AI on user discovery, personalisation, and fraud prevention, and how firms are adapting to changing customer expectations while competing for visibility and transaction flow in environments where traditional ownership of the customer journey is becoming less defined.Next Era of Digital Checkout BeginsThe Masterclass by Visa titled “The Next Era of Checkout Starts with Click to Pay” featured Michael Ioannides, Visa Country Manager Cyprus at Visa Europe.The session focused on the Click to Pay solution, a digital card payment experience designed to streamline the online checkout process. It examined how reducing friction at checkout can improve authorisation rates, enhance security, and create a faster payment journey for customers.Day 1 at iFX EXPO showed exactly why the industry comes together here ?Day 2 is underway, come find us ?? Booth 70–71#iFXEXPO2026 #Leverate #Fintech #FX #Brokers pic.twitter.com/qcKYiVkqeC— Leverate (@leveratelive) June 18, 2026The discussion also highlighted the broader impact of frictionless payment design on merchant performance, including its influence on conversion rates, customer trust, and overall payment efficiency in a digital-first environment.Bullion Debate Focuses on Market ResilienceThe panel “The Great Bullion Debate: Rally or Retreat?” featured Yam Yehoshua, Editor-in-Chief at Finance Magnates, Stuart Brock, Business Development Manager at B2PRIME, Rauan Khassan, Chief Growth Officer at TradingView, Emanuel Georgouras, Head of Precious Metals Trading at Swiss Finance Corporation, and Liam Smith, Chief Operating Officer – UK at 26 Degrees Global Markets.The discussion focused on recent volatility in bullion markets, including sharp price movements that have placed pressure on broker balance sheets and trading infrastructure.Panelists examined how gold has become a dominant instrument for many brokers, and the operational challenges created by concentrated positioning and rapid market swings.The session also explored broader structural issues in bullion trading, including liquidity strain, margin adjustments, shifts between B-book and A-book models, and whether gold is increasingly behaving like a digital asset in terms of volatility and flow dynamics. Speakers considered what these developments mean for market resilience and whether current trading infrastructure is prepared for future volatility spikes.Execution Matters More Than AIThe Masterclass by Microsoft titled “AI Isn’t the Advantage, Execution Is” featured George Georgiades, CEMA Azure Tech Lead at Microsoft, and Valentinos Georgiades, Azure Business Lead, CEMA SMB at Microsoft.The session focused on how financial firms are shifting from AI adoption as an innovation goal toward execution at scale as the key differentiator. It explored how cloud infrastructure, AI, and automation are being used to improve operational efficiency, decision-making, compliance, and resilience across organisations.The discussion also highlighted the move from incremental modernisation to broader transformation, with emphasis on cloud-native architectures, secure system design, and scalable platforms. It further examined how firms are operationalising AI to support productivity, faster innovation cycles, and real-time performance while maintaining regulatory and cost efficiency requirements.Brokers Face Crypto Trading Competition ShiftThe panel “Blurred Lines: When Crypto Platforms Trade Wall Street” brought together Badea Alexandru Gabriel, Senior Regional Director at Naga, Lior Aizik, Co-Founder and COO of XBO.com, Andrew Theodosiou, Sales Director EMEA at Talos, Dr. Demetrios Zamboglou, Group CEO of BitDelta Group, and Steven J. Hatzakis, Global Director of Research at ForexBrokers.com.The discussion focused on the convergence between crypto-native platforms and traditional financial services, as both expand into overlapping asset classes and trading models. Panelists examined how crypto firms are moving into equities and commodities, while traditional brokers are integrating digital assets and upgrading infrastructure to remain competitive.Key themes included the growing demand for 24/7 multi-asset trading, the role of regulation in shaping competitiveness, and whether the future market structure will be led by crypto-native platforms or legacy brokers as the industry shifts toward hybrid trading models.Tokenization Debate: Who Will Own MarketsThe session “The Tokenization Revolution: Who Will Own the Markets of Tomorrow?” brought together Jonathan Fine of Ultimate Group, Louis Hawila, VP Capital Markets – Europe at Crypto.com, Stavros Vassiliades, COO and Executive Director at Kraken Cyprus, and Oren Danziger, Managing Director at Finvasia Wealth.The discussion focused on the evolving landscape of tokenized assets and the question of which market participants are best positioned to shape future financial infrastructure.Panelists examined whether traditional financial institutions or blockchain-native platforms are more likely to lead the transition toward tokenized markets, along with the technological and regulatory challenges involved in scaling adoption.Key themes included interoperability, liquidity, and infrastructure readiness, as well as the potential impact of regulatory frameworks such as the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation. The session also considered the longer-term outlook for tokenization, including whether it could reshape capital markets within the next five years or require a longer transition period.Simplicity Drives Leadership High PerformanceThe Leadership Workshop titled “High Performance Is About Doing Less, Not More” featured Hassan M. Al-Shohaty, Executive Performance Coach at HMS Coaching. The session focused on leadership performance and the idea that higher effectiveness is often achieved through prioritisation and refinement rather than increased workload.The discussion explored how leaders can improve outcomes by identifying key behavioural and strategic adjustments that deliver disproportionate results. It also examined the role of habits, mindset, and decision-making in sustaining high performance, with an emphasis on simplifying processes to enhance clarity and efficiency in leadership practice.Athlete Mindset Drives Business Success GrowthThe session titled “Built Like an Athlete: Surviving Dubai’s Business Rollercoaster on the Road to the Top 1%” featured Tarik Chebib, MENA CEO at Capital.com.The discussion focused on the demands of building and scaling a business in Dubai’s highly competitive environment, where continuous performance and adaptability are key to sustaining growth.Chebib reflected on how principles drawn from sport — including discipline, preparation, and consistency — have shaped his approach to leadership and decision-making. The session drew parallels between elite athletic performance and business resilience, highlighting how structured training and mindset can translate into navigating competitive markets and sustained professional development.Day 2 at iFX EXPO Cyprus! Proud to connect with financial institutions & fintechs shaping payment futures. We build partnerships, simplify infrastructure, and ensure compliance. Visit us at City of Dreams Mediterranean Resort | Booth 176 + 177. pic.twitter.com/yOy1qCERqk— VirtualPay (@virtual_pay) June 18, 2026Geopolitics, Inflation Drive Economic Outlook DiscussionThe Executive Interview titled “The Macro Shock Era: What’s Next For The Global Economy” brought together Darius Anucauskas, Chief Market Analyst at Markets.com, and Michalis Persianis, Chairman of the Fiscal Council of Cyprus. The discussion focused on how ongoing geopolitical tensions are reshaping the global economic outlook, with particular attention to implications for growth, inflation, and international trade.The conversation also examined how major central banks could respond over the upcoming policy cycle, alongside potential risks to global trade flows and consumer stability. The speakers further considered how these macroeconomic pressures may transmit to smaller open economies, before turning to Cyprus and assessing its economic resilience, structural strengths, and key vulnerabilities in the current global environment. This article was written by Tareq Sikder at www.financemagnates.com.

Outgoing CME Group CEO Terrence Duffy revealed that the world's largest derivatives marketplace will file a federal lawsuit against the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) over the agency's decision to greenlight crypto perpetual futures in the United States.Talking to CMBC’s Fast Money, Duffy said that the lawsuit will directly target the CFTC's late-May authorisation of Kalshi's BTCPERP contract, the first regulated crypto perpetual futures product in US history, and a related no-action letter issued to Coinbase.Duffy Pulls No PunchesDuffy, who is simultaneously stepping down as CME's top role, described the CFTC's approval process as rushed and legally flawed, arguing it bypassed a mandatory full review required for products the agency had classified as "novel and complex.""Perpetuals are effectively swaps," he said, adding that CME holds exclusive benchmark licensing agreements that would require all such contracts to route through its infrastructure. On the prospect of fighting the very regulator that oversees his exchange, Duffy was characteristically blunt; he is, in his own words, “always up for a good battle.”Perps vs. Swaps: The Distinction That Could Reshape US Crypto MarketsThe crux of CME's legal argument is a technically loaded classification question. Traditional futures are standardised contracts to buy or sell an asset at a set price on a fixed expiry date: they settle, they close.Perpetual futures have no expiry. Traders hold leveraged positions indefinitely, with a periodic funding rate exchanged between longs and shorts to keep the contract price tethered to spot.You may also like: Perps vs CFDs and Futures - What Brokers Need to Know Before Adding Crypto’s Hottest DerivativeDuffy argues that an open-ended, rolling, cash-settled structure makes perps functionally identical to swaps; bilateral derivative contracts regulated under Dodd-Frank with mandatory clearing, dealer registration, and strict margin requirements. If a federal court agrees, U.S.-listed perps would face a far heavier compliance burden and, given CME's licensing claims, would arguably need to clear through CME's own systems, dealing a significant blow to Kalshi, Coinbase, and Kraken, which have only just entered the space.Systemic Risk at the CoreBeyond the classification argument, Duffy has raised a broader macro alarm. Perps on crypto exchanges routinely offer leverage of 50-to-1 or higher, backed by automated liquidation mechanisms that force-close positions when margin thresholds are breached. He earlier warned at the Piper Sandler Global Exchange & Fintech Conference that this mirrors the structural vulnerabilities that amplified losses in 2008: "This is a catastrophe in the making."Read more: CySEC Chair on Crypto Perps, Prediction Markets and the High-Wire Act of EU RegulationCFTC leadership appears to be pushing back firmly. The agency's position, as articulated publicly, is straightforward: It wants to regulate perps locally and seal the offshore gap.If the court sides with CME, regulators could face pressure to roll back existing approvals and impose swap-level oversight on all perp products. If the CFTC prevails, it would signal broad judicial backing for the agency's authority to approve novel derivatives structures, potentially opening the door to a wider class of crypto products entering US markets.Either way, Terrence Duffy's final act as CME Group CEO may prove to be one of his most consequential. This article was written by Arnab Shome at www.financemagnates.com.

TMGM today announced a new collaboration with OG Esports, marking TMGM’s first esports campaign. As the Official CFD Partner of OG's Dota 2 and Counter-Strike 2 teams, TMGM will engage esports audiences through fan-focused digital activations, exclusive rewards and branded content.The collaboration reflects TMGM's commitment to engaging digitally native audiences through performance-driven communities. The initiative highlights similarities between competitive gaming and financial markets, where preparation, precision, speed and resilience drive success."Success, whether in financial markets or competitive gaming, is built on preparation, resilience and the ability to adapt in a fast-changing environment. These qualities are deeply embedded in both TMGM and OG Esports," said Nick Yang, Chief Commercial Officer of TMGM."We are pleased to collaborate with an organisation that has built a strong reputation within the esports industry, and we look forward to delivering meaningful experiences that resonate with audiences around the world."Throughout the campaign, fans can look forward to cashback rewards, signed OG Dota 2 and Counter-Strike 2 team jerseys, branded content and social media activations.TMGM's presence will be integrated across OG's website, social channels and streaming platforms.Through the collaboration, TMGM aims to deliver meaningful experiences and lasting value to OG's global community."OG has a global fanbase that deserves the very best experiences. That's why we've partnered with TMGM. As a leading CFD trading platform, TMGM will offer our community new ways to engage both through trading and unique OG experiences. We're proud to support TMGM's first step into esports and look forward to building a strong partnership that delivers lasting value for our fans," said Xavier Oswald, Chief Executive Officer of OG Esports.About TMGMFounded in 2013 in Sydney, Australia, TMGM Group is the Official Regional Partner of Chelsea Football Club. As a broker providing global financial product trading, TMGM is regulated by ASIC(Australia), VFSC (Vanuatu), FSC Mauritius, and FSA (Seychelles).Disclaimer: Investing in leveraged products carries high risks and is not suitable for all investors. You have no interest in the underlying asset. Read the Client Agreement and other disclosure documents set forth on our website. The above information is provided by TMGM Group (Trademax Australia Limited, ABN 76 162 331 311, AFSL 436416, Trademax Global Markets (SE) Limited, FSA licence number SD224, Trademax Global Limited, VFSC 40356 & Trademax Global Markets (International) Pty Ltd, Company No. 195323, Mauritius Investment Dealer Licence No. GB22201012). This article was written by FM Contributors at www.financemagnates.com.

iFOREX has appointed Daniel Shalom as chief operating officer, putting a technology and data executive in charge of the CFD broker's day-to-day operations. He takes responsibility for business operations, customer experience, product and technology with immediate effect.The company said the appointment supports a plan to scale growth and deepen the use of data and AI across the client lifecycle. iFOREX has leaned on that message before, having brought back a head of innovation last year to oversee AI work shortly after it launched an AI-powered trading recommendation service called Pulse.Another Name in iFOREX's AI Build-OutShalom joins from Yad Vashem, Israel's World Holocaust Remembrance Center, where the company said he served as chief information officer and ran a technology overhaul that included a six-petabyte data and cloud environment.Before that he spent eight years at Amdocs, a software and services provider to telecom, media and financial-services firms, latterly as vice president of data and AI, leading a 500-person team, according to iFOREX. The company said he also held profit-and-loss responsibility for cVidya Networks, a unit Amdocs acquired and folded in.Chief Executive Itai Sadeh said the appointment "strengthens our ability to continue developing our proprietary platform."[#highlighted-links#] It follows iFOREX's hire of former CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson as a senior strategist in April, part of a steady run of senior additions since the broker went public.Brokers Race to Put AI Talent in Senior SeatsiFOREX is not alone in treating data and AI as a leadership-level priority rather than a product feature. The pitch has spread across retail brokers chasing the same pool of clients, and most are routing it through new hires.Equiti recruited a former Meta software engineer in December to stand up a new AI team covering trading, risk and investment products, framing the move as a push toward an insight-driven platform. The talent is changing hands in the other direction too, with Trading 212's head of product leaving in May to focus on AI full time.A Listing Still Searching for a CatalystThe reshuffle lands while iFOREX's public listing struggles for momentum. The broker priced its London IPO at about £43.3 million in February after an eight-month delay, raising £8.75 million from new shares.Trading dried up almost immediately. iFOREX shares were effectively frozen within weeks of the debut, with no analyst coverage and a free float of barely 20%, leaving the stock parked just above its 195p offer price.The numbers gave investors little to chase. iFOREX reported its first loss as a listed company, roughly $3.2 million, on broadly flat 2025 revenue near $49 million. More than half of that revenue still comes from Asian markets where the broker holds no local license and relies on reverse solicitation, a concentration the IPO was meant to ease.For iFOREX, the AI plan now sits alongside the licensing wins and stronger results analysts have said the stock needs to move. Shalom comment his priority would be "continuing to apply data and AI across the client experience." This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.

BitGo has named Angela Ang as managing director for Asia-Pacific and president of BitGo Singapore, the digital asset infrastructure firm said today (Thursday). Ang spent more than a decade at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, where she helped build the country's payments and crypto licensing framework, before moving to blockchain analytics firm TRM Labs.Ang takes the role after clearing regulatory and fit-and-proper requirements, BitGo said. She joins from TRM Labs, where she was head of APAC public policy and strategic partnerships and part of the firm's founding regional team. At MAS, she led the team that operationalized the licensing regime that BitGo's local unit now sits under as a Major Payment Institution licensed by the regulator.From Rule-Writer to Regulated OperatorAng's move traces a line from the public sector into the industry her former agency oversees. TRM Labs sells blockchain intelligence tools used by regulators and law enforcement, while BitGo is a custodian and infrastructure provider that has to satisfy those same rules.In the new post, she will lead BitGo's business growth, market development, and operations across the region, the company said. Jody Mettler, BitGo's chief operating officer, said the appointment "strengthens BitGo's leadership in one of the world's most important regions."BitGo's Regional Build-Out After Going PublicThe hire follows BitGo's move to take crypto custody onto public markets, an IPO that earlier coverage put at up to $201 million in proceeds and a valuation near $2 billion. The company now trades on the New York Stock Exchange under BTGO.BitGo also said it has since entered the Fortune 500 at No. 273. The firm describes its BitGo Bank & Trust unit as the first federally chartered digital asset trust bank owned by a publicly traded company.The Singapore appointment continues a regional staffing pattern. BitGo earlier named a former Citi and Standard Chartered banker to lead its European sales push, tying senior hires to specific geographies as it expands custody, trading, lending, and settlement services.Custodians Compete for Institutional AsiaAng inherits a regional market where rivals are also courting institutions. Nomura-backed Komainu has moved to offer crypto custody in Japan, working with local partners to reach the country's institutional investors.Larger exchanges are pushing the same way. Kraken built a US institutional custody service through its Wyoming-chartered bank, positioning regulated status as the selling point.Traditional finance names are circling too. Nasdaq has said it will launch custody for institutions, and Schwab is aiming crypto custody at its advisor channel by 2027. Against that field, BitGo is leaning on a hire who knows how the rulebook in one of Asia's main hubs was written.Ang said APAC is "entering an important phase of institutional market development." BitGo serves what it calls thousands of institutions across custody, wallets, staking, trading, financing, settlement, and stablecoin infrastructure, a client count it did not break down. This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.

SpaceX’s rapid climb to a roughly $2.5 trillion valuation marks more than a strong IPO debut; it highlights a shift in how investors allocate capital across high-risk assets. The space exploration firm, founded by Elon Musk, now ranks among the world’s largest firms, with a valuation nearly double that of Bitcoin.The rally reflects more than limited share supply, although the small float at listing amplified early price gains. Investors are pricing SpaceX as a hybrid company that combines aerospace with artificial intelligence.With Bitcoin valued at about $1.29 trillion and SpaceX sitting well above the $2.5 trillion mark after its IPO rally, SpaceX’s equity market value is now more than double Bitcoin’s, even though BTC is trading near $64,000 and remains one of the largest single assets in global markets.Keep reading: Exness launches SpaceX CFD after historic public debutThe adoption among brokers is one of the reason behind the surge. FxPro recently announced that its clients can now trade SpaceX shares via contracts for difference (CFDs), following the company’s highly anticipated public debut. SpaceX raised $75 billion in what is being described as the largest IPO on record, with the stock jumping 19% on its first day to close at $160.95.What Could be Driving the Surge By the end of its debut session, the company’s valuation exceeded $2 trillion, placing it among the most valuable publicly listed firms globally and drawing comparisons to some of the most significant technology listings in Nasdaq history.The broker said clients can access SpaceX CFDs with features including fractional trading from 0.01 shares, the ability to take long or short positions, and extended-hours trading on MT5 covering pre- and post-market sessions.Exness has introduced SpaceX as a CFD instrument following the company’s high-profile public debut, offering traders access to one of the most closely watched listings of 2026. The broker said the addition allows clients to capitalize on heightened volatility and rapid price discovery typically associated with major IPOs, particularly one of SpaceX’s scale and broad market appeal. SpaceX’s rise also reflects a broader rotation of capital. Bitcoin’s market value, currently around $1.2–$1.3 trillion, shows that crypto still attracts interest, but it now competes directly with AI equities for the same pool of funds. Recent portfolio adjustments by large investors indicate that some are reducing crypto or other holdings to increase exposure to SpaceX.Capital Rotation and Valuation RisksAt the same time, the company’s valuation raises clear risks. SpaceX reported a net loss of $4.94 billion on $18.67 billion in revenue in 2025. Its valuation implies a price-to-sales ratio above 130, leaving little room for execution missteps.SpaceX has exercised the option to acquire @cursor_ai in an all-stock transaction with the goal of building the world’s most useful AI models.For the past few months, SpaceXAI has been jointly training a model with Cursor, which will be released in Cursor and Grok Build soon.… https://t.co/X5mepgXgjJ— SpaceX (@SpaceX) June 16, 2026The macro backdrop currently supports risk-taking, with stable monetary policy expectations and easing inflation concerns. However, this environment can change quickly. If sentiment weakens, assets with the highest valuations and strongest narratives tend to react first.SpaceX now sits at the center of this dynamic. Its performance reflects where capital is flowing today, but it also highlights how sensitive markets have become to shifts in growth expectations.Read more: How Low Can Bitcoin Go? This BTC Price Prediction Targets Lows from September 2024Bitcoin is trading around the mid‑$64,000 level, with the quoted spot price of 64,213.08 reflecting a modest intraday move that fits within its recent consolidation range in June 2026. The accompanying percentage changes suggest only fractional shifts on the day but a slightly stronger performance over the past week and month, underscoring how the market has cooled from late‑2025 highs above $120,000 while still maintaining relatively elevated levels by historical standards. This article was written by Jared Kirui at www.financemagnates.com.

FX Back Office (FXBO) proudly announces the successful introduction of its newly redesigned Client Area, officially presented at iFX EXPO International 2026 in Limassol, Cyprus.During the event, FXBO showcased the fresh Client Area design to brokers, fintech leaders, partners, and industry professionals. The announcement marked an important step in FXBO’s continued commitment to improving the way brokers deliver digital experiences to their clients.The redesigned FXBO Client Area introduces a cleaner interface, smoother navigation, and a more modern user journey. Built to support the daily needs of traders, the Client Area gives clients easier access to essential brokerage services, including registration, verification, deposits, withdrawals, account management, documents, and personal information.Dmitriy Petrenko, CEO of FXBO, commented: “iFX EXPO International 2026 was the perfect event to introduce our redesigned Client Area to the industry. The response we received from brokers and partners confirmed exactly why this update matters. A broker’s Client Area is no longer just a login page. It is one of the most important spaces where trust, usability, and operational efficiency meet.”The new design focuses on making the trader experience clearer, faster, and more intuitive, while giving brokers the flexibility to deliver a polished client-facing environment that reflects their brand. From onboarding to account management, the refreshed Client Area helps brokerages create a more professional, consistent, and user-friendly client journey.FXBO’s successful showcase at iFX EXPO International 2026 also highlighted the company’s broader CRM ecosystem, including its back-office tools, payment integrations, KYC workflows, partner management features, automation capabilities, and mobile solutions. Together, these tools help brokers connect front-end trader experience with the operational control required behind the scenes.FXBO serves over 250 brokers worldwide and boasts more than 370 integrations. The product not only addresses the everyday needs of a brokerage but also adds value by providing user-friendly tools, simple partnership management programs, a customizable Client Area, and a CRM that saves time and money for brokers while enabling them to focus on retention and attracting new clients. Highly automated, with the ability to customize just about anything, FXBO is a CRM giant and holds the title of ‘The Ultimate Forex CRM’ for a reason.For further information, please visit:www.fxbackoffice.com This article was written by FM Contributors at www.financemagnates.com.

B2PRIME, a global financial services provider, has launched an AI Assistant directly inside B2TRADER, its flagship trading platform. The tool delivers real-time market analysis, sentiment signals, and price outlooks without requiring traders to leave their workspace or consult a separate analytics service. It is the first public step in B2PRIME's strategy to become a fully AI-native brokerage.Moving Towards Market InterpretationAs financial markets become increasingly data-driven, traders are expected to process vast amounts of information across multiple sources while making decisions in real time. B2PRIME believes the next generation of trading technology will also help users understand them, going far beyond providing simple access to markets.Instead of adding AI as a standalone feature, B2PRIME is going further by embedding intelligence directly into the trading workflow, creating a more connected and context-aware trading environment.This way, the company is changing the very role of the trading platform: from a transaction-execution environment to an intelligent workspace that helps the user interpret the market directly at the time of analysis.What the AI Assistant DoesThe AI Assistant sits directly inside the B2TRADER interface and automatically adapts to whichever market a user is viewing at any given moment. Rather than requiring traders to switch between countless charts, research portals, news feeds, and analytics tools, it brings multiple layers of market intelligence into a single workspace. No tab-switching, no external subscriptions, no separate logins necessary.The Assistant continuously analyses the selected market and presents a consolidated view of the factors shaping current conditions. Within one interface, users can access:An AI Score reflecting the system's current assessment of the selected marketA model-generated 12-month price outlookBullish and bearish sentiment insightsTechnical, on-chain, and sentiment signal driversInformational suggested actionsKey market metrics, including trading volume, market capitalisation, and historical price levelsBy combining these elements, the AI Assistant helps traders understand not only what is happening in the market but also the signals and data points influencing current conditions.Why It Matters for TradersMarket analysis has historically required either expensive professional tools or significant time investment in self-education. Traders relying on instinct or fragmented information sources often face a structural disadvantage when navigating fast-moving markets.The B2PRIME AI Assistant is designed to address this challenge on multiple levels.Lower Barrier to EntryTraditionally, accessing structured market analysis — sentiment breakdowns, technical signal aggregation, price outlooks — required either professional-grade subscriptions or building the analysis yourself.The AI Assistant brings institutional-quality context in front of any trader, at the moment they need it, and regardless of their level of experience. Someone opening a position on a crypto asset or FX pair can see immediately what the signals say before they act, without needing to spend hours doing preliminary research.A Practical Starting Point for Self-EducationFor traders looking to build their market knowledge, the AI Assistant serves as a reference point rather than a replacement for independent thinking. By exposing users to sentiment analysis, technical indicators, and broader market signals within their normal workflow, it helps them better understand how different factors contribute to market behaviour over time.What’s Next?“We are building infrastructure for the way professional traders actually work — under time pressure, with too much fragmented information and not enough contextual clarity," said Eugenia Mykuliak, Founder and Executive Director of B2PRIME Group. "Embedding AI into B2TRADER is the first step in a longer journey toward a fully AI-native brokerage."The AI integration is available to B2PRIME clients via B2TRADER across web, iOS, and Android.About B2PRIMEB2PRIME Group https://b2prime.com/ is a global financial services provider for institutional, professional and retail clients. Regulated by reputable authorities — including CySEC, SFSA, FSCA, FSC Mauritius, and DFSA (Dubai), and SCB (The Bahamas) — the group of companies offers access to competitive liquidity across multiple asset classes. Committed to the highest compliance standards, B2PRIME provides institutional-grade trading solutions with a focus on reliability, transparency, and operational excellence.This article is neither produced by nor contributed to by any editorial team member of Finance Magnates, nor does it necessarily reflect the views of the editors from Finance Magnates. This article was written by FM Contributors at www.financemagnates.com.

There is a moment, familiar to advisors who work with ultra-high-net-worth families, when a client stops asking about returns and starts asking about meaning. What does this wealth do for the next generation? How does it reflect what the family stands for? Who, beyond the family itself, benefits from it? These are not questions a transactional bank is equipped to answer. They are the questions that define what modern private banking is actually for.The wealthiest clients in the world have not simply accumulated more assets than others. They have accumulated more complexity. Philanthropy, family governance, multi-generational planning, global mobility, and values-based decision-making now sit alongside portfolio performance as central concerns. The bank that cannot engage with all of it is only partially useful.The limits of transactional bankingLegacy private banking was built around custody and transactions. The bank held assets, executed instructions, and reported back. The relationship was defined by what the client owned, not by what the client was trying to build or preserve.For a long time, this was sufficient. The wealthiest families had advisors, lawyers, and family offices to handle the complexity that the bank could not. The bank was a vault with a relationship manager attached.That model is fraying. UHNW clients, particularly those managing multigenerational family wealth, are looking for consolidation, not fragmentation. They want fewer relationships, not more, and they want each of those relationships to carry more weight. The private bank, in this context, is expected to be a genuine partner: one that understands not just the portfolio but also the family's priorities, values, and long-term ambitions.The distinction matters. A service provider responds to instructions. A strategic partner anticipates needs, contributes perspective, and engages with the fuller picture of what the client is trying to achieve. These are structurally different relationships, and they require structurally different banks.What a strategic banking partnership actually looks likeThe shift from transactional to strategic is not primarily a technology question, though technology is part of it. It is a question of culture, orientation, and what the bank considers to be its actual responsibility to the client.For family offices, this means a bank that understands that liquidity decisions are also succession planning decisions. That a philanthropic commitment is not a side concern but a core expression of what the family stands for. That reporting is not just a compliance function but a tool for family governance and intergenerational communication.Loizos Theofanous, Banking Operations Lead at BankPro, describes the shift directly. "The clients we work with are not simply looking for somewhere to hold assets. They are looking for a banking relationship that fits the scale and the ambition of what they are building. That means being available, being informed about their full picture, and being genuinely invested in outcomes that go beyond the transaction."This orientation requires a bank to think in longer timeframes than most financial institutions are structured to consider. Quarterly performance is relevant. Generational continuity is more so. The clients who operate at this level are acutely aware of the difference between a bank that thinks in quarters and one that thinks in decades.BankPro and the fuller definition of client valueBankPro was built for clients whose lives extend well beyond the portfolio. The platform provides real-time access to multi-currency accounts, bespoke reporting structured around the client's own operational framework, and digital private banking infrastructure designed to serve the specific needs of institutional and UHNW clients globally.The platform's digital architecture delivers the operational agility that modern wealthy clients require: consolidated visibility, clean reporting across entities, and the responsiveness that legacy systems routinely fail to provide. However, BankPro's case for being a genuine banking partner rests on something broader than product functionality.Paolo Broccardo, CEO of BankPro, puts it plainly. "The clients we are building for think in generations. They are managing not just assets but legacies. Our job is to be worthy of that relationship, and that means understanding what matters to them beyond the numbers."BankPro offers unlimited transfers and card payments, directly addressing UHNW client needs and going beyond what traditional private banks typically allow.A bank with roots in the communityBankPro is headquartered in The Bahamas, at Lyford Cay in New Providence, and its commitment to that community is active and substantive. The bank is an official partner of the McLaren WEC Hypercar, which brings it face-to-face with the elite audience of FIA hypercar endurance races. This partnership is of particular importance, as it marks McLaren Racing’s official entry in the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), a display of high performance, precision, and innovation - values that define both BankPro and McLaren.BankPro also supports a range of local charities and causes across the Bahamian community, reflecting a broader commitment to the country's social and economic development. The bank explicitly positions itself as a partner in the Bahamas' growth, with an ambition to contribute to the country's standing as a centre of innovative finance.For UHNW clients whose own philanthropic commitments are a defining element of their identity and legacy, this matters. A bank that is itself embedded in community life, that invests in people and institutions beyond its own commercial interests, signals something about how it approaches relationships in general. The culture of a bank is visible in what it chooses to support.This alignment between client values and institutional behaviour is not incidental. It is the foundation of the kind of long-term trust that genuine banking partnerships are built on.Beyond the transactionThe private banking relationships that endure are not defined by products or yields. They are defined by understanding: a bank that knows what its clients are building, respects the complexity of that ambition, and brings the infrastructure, the responsiveness, and the values to support it over time.BankPro is building that kind of bank. For UHNW clients, family offices, and institutional clients who want more from their banking relationship than a well-managed ledger, the conversation starts at bankpro.com. This article was written by FM Contributors at www.financemagnates.com.

Arizet Labs, the fintech infrastructure company behind A-Trader and the Meritix quality-scoring framework, today announced the public launch of The Desk, a competitive trading career platform built to challenge the traditional retail prop-firm model.In less than 12 days of early marketing, The Desk has attracted more than 6,000 traders to its Open Tier and processed over $3B USD in notional trading volume within the first week of soft launch. This signals strong demand for a model that lets traders start free, instead of paying upfront to pass a challenge.The Desk allows every trader to start with a free $10,000 Open account. From that account, traders can build a public trading record, compete in live Rooms for prize pools, open a Daily Funded Session for one day of quality-scored payout eligibility, and work toward Junior and higher funded memberships as their Rating grows. .The core premise is simple: traders should not have to pay repeatedly to prove they can trade. The Desk is designed around progression, transparency, and trading quality rather than pass/fail challenge fees.A new category: career platform, not challenge sellerThe Desk is not positioned as a conventional prop firm. It does not sell a one-time evaluation as the main product. Instead, it gives traders an Open account first, then provides multiple ways to prove skill and earn: short-term competition, one-day funded sessions, and long-term funded career tiers.“The challenge-fee model made failure too central to the business,” said Shervin Arian, Chief Strategy Officer at Arizet Labs. “The Desk starts from the opposite idea. Give traders a free starting account, measure the quality of their trading, and let capital access grow from that record.”The result is a platform where the first milestone is not buying another evaluation. It is building a track record.Day-one earning paths: Rooms and Daily Funded SessionsThe Desk introduces two short-term earning paths available from Open:Rooms on The Floor: live, small-field trading competitions where traders enter from their Open account, trade on a shared clock, and compete for prize-pool payouts based on placement and risk-adjusted performance.Daily Funded Session: a one-day funded session priced at $29.95, where a positive session P&L receives a profit share based on Snap Quality Score, the platform’s automated and transparent short-session scoring system. Disciplined, skillful trading can earn a higher share, potentially up to 100%.This distinction is central to the platform. Rooms are competitive. A Daily Funded Session is individual. Junior and higher memberships are the long-term funded career path.“Two things have to coexist,” said David Davtyan, Founder and CEO of Arizet Labs. “Traders need something real to do today, and they need a long-term path that does not reset every time they hit a bad stretch. The Desk was built for both.”The Open account: a base layer. No card, no challenge, no auditionThe Open account is the trader's base layer. It allows traders to build history, enter eligible Rooms, and access Daily Funded Sessions. It also begins the Rating profile that determines eligibility for Junior and higher funded tiers.No card and no document uploads are required to start, which gives traders the flexibility to complete KYC verification only at the point of withdrawal, in accordance with the platform's controls and compliance norms.Where the firm wins when you do. → Join The Desk Now and Claim Your Free 10k Account. From Open to funded careerThe Desk’s long-term funded path begins at Junior and scales through Pro, Elite, Master, and Legend. Funded capital starts at $25,000 at the Junior tier and can scale to a $10 million Legend allocation for the rare traders who earn that level through Rating, Meritix quality, sustained performance, and platform review.Unlike a pass/fail challenge model, The Desk treats drawdown as a quality signal rather than a one-click career reset. Risk still matters heavily. Poor risk control can reduce profit share, pause progression, or move a trader into recovery mechanics. But the model is designed to evaluate the trader continuously rather than erase the entire career after one bad day.Meritix and Snap Quality: profit quality, not just profit sizeThe Desk is powered by Meritix, Arizet Labs’ trading-quality framework. Meritix evaluates how profits are produced, including risk control, consistency, concentration, sizing, engagement, and behavioral signals. In funded membership cycles, a trader’s Meritix Quality Score determines the profit share available for that cycle.Daily Funded Sessions use Snap Quality Score, an automated and transparent short-session scoring system built on the same philosophy. A profitable day is not automatically treated the same as a disciplined, high-quality day. Snap Quality Score measures factors such as high-water-mark drawdown, top-trade concentration, symbol concentration, exposure, news-event timing, holding behavior, and integrity checks. High-quality P&L can receive a higher profit share, potentially up to 100%, while lottery-like or over-leveraged behavior can receive little or no payout share.The purpose is to reward skill that appears controlled and repeatable, not isolated windfalls created by excessive risk.Built on trading infrastructure, not a marketing shellThe Desk is operated by Arizet Labs ME Limited (Reg. HE 488153), Nicosia, Cyprus, and built on infrastructure developed by Arizet Labs across trading technology, execution platforms, CRM systems, and risk tools. The same team developed A-Trader and the Meritix scoring architecture that powers The Desk’s quality-based payout logic.Arizet Labs has spent years building infrastructure for trading operators, prop platforms, asset managers, and institutional finance clients. The Desk represents the company’s move into a direct-to-trader career platform using the same underlying product, analytics, and risk philosophy.AvailabilityThe Desk is live now at the-desk.arizet.com. Traders can open a free $10,000 Open account with no card required to start. Rooms are available on The Floor, and Daily Funded Sessions are available as the platform’s first individual funded-day product.Payout eligibility depends on performance, quality scoring, risk controls, review, KYC, and the platform terms. Trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone.About The DeskThe Desk by Arizet Labs is a competitive trading career platform that combines a free $10,000 Open account, live trading Rooms, Daily Funded Sessions, and a merit-based path toward funded capital. The platform uses Rating and Meritix quality scoring to evaluate progression, profit share, and long-term capital access.About Arizet LabsArizet Labs builds trading infrastructure products including A-Trader, Meritix, and The Desk. The Desk is operated by Arizet Labs ME Limited (Reg. HE 488153), Nicosia, Cyprus.Risk disclosure: Trading involves substantial risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone. Room entries, Funded Session fees, and deposited funds are at risk. Nothing in this release constitutes financial advice, investment advice, or a guarantee of earnings, payouts, funding, or results. Figures describe platform mechanics and eligibility paths, not guaranteed outcomes. Payout eligibility is subject to performance, quality scoring, risk controls, review, KYC, and platform terms.Optional shorter headline/subheadline alternativesArizet Labs Launches The Desk After 6,000+ Traders Join and $3B+ USD Notional Trades in First Week of Soft LaunchThe Desk Launches as a Challenge-Free Trading Career Platform With Free $10K Open Accounts and Day-One Earning PathsArizet Labs Introduces The Desk, a Merit-Based Trading Career Platform Designed to Replace Challenge Fees With Rating-Based Progression This article was written by FM Contributors at www.financemagnates.com.

AI-powered investment advice, tokenised stocks, portfolio transfers, trading agents, options, and prediction markets do not have much in common at first glance. Yet all of them appeared in Coinbase's latest System Update. The announcements point to a consistent pattern. Coinbase is expanding both the ways investors can bring assets onto the platform and the number of things they can do once those assets are there.We started as a place to buy Bitcoin, now we power your entire financial life.Here’s everything we announced today ↓→ Tokenized Stocks→ Pre-IPO Perps→ Stock options→ Crypto options→ Perpetual-style equity indices→ Crypto derivatives, back in America→ Time-based… pic.twitter.com/fuNWPmwMU5— Coinbase ?️ (@coinbase) June 16, 2026 Bringing More Assets Onto the Platform Portfolio transfers, which allow investors to move existing holdings into Coinbase, have received less attention than some of the update’s headline announcements. However, they may be the missing link between the company’s product expansion and its push to bring more assets onto the platform. The feature helps bring assets in, while the expanded product set gives users more reasons to keep activity on the platform once those assets arrive. In Coinbase’s case, that now includes tokenised U.S. stocks for non-U.S. customers, options, and new perpetual futures contracts. The more markets available within a single platform, the easier it becomes for investors to consolidate activity that would otherwise remain spread across multiple providers. Moving assets between platforms involves custody, account setup, transfer workflows, reporting, and tax records. Portfolio transfers address part of that friction, while the broader product lineup gives users more reasons to complete the move. Competition for client balances remains intense across traditional brokerages, crypto exchanges, fintech platforms, and wealth-management providers. But the update shows Coinbase investing in both sides of that equation, making assets easier to bring in and expanding what users can do after they arrive.Finance Magnates previously covered Coinbase’s “Everything Exchange” strategy as part of its expansion into prediction markets and multi-asset trading. This update adds another layer to that strategy: not only more products, but more ways to bring assets in and manage them inside the platform.Giving Investors More Ways to Use Those Assets Bringing assets onto a platform is only part of the challenge. Several of Coinbase’s other announcements focus on what investors can do once those assets are there. Coinbase Advisor, initially available to Coinbase One members in the United States, is designed to help users analyse portfolios, interpret market developments, and generate investment ideas. Coinbase describes the product as an SEC-registered AI-powered investment adviser.Introducing Coinbase Advisor.One of the first SEC-registered AI-powered investment advisors in the world.High-quality advice - specific to you - is now one chat away. Real-time portfolio analysis, automated tax loss harvesting, and more.Rolling out to Coinbase One members. pic.twitter.com/VEyEc1jzKS— Coinbase ?️ (@coinbase) June 16, 2026 Coinbase for Agents addresses a different part of the process, allowing AI agents to interact with financial accounts and perform actions within user-defined limits. The two products sit at different points in the investment workflow. One is designed to help users make decisions; the other is designed to help carry them out. Both extend Coinbase’s role beyond trade execution and into the day-to-day management of assets held on the platform. Other additions announced as part of the update, including options, perpetual futures, and prediction markets, expand the range of activities available within the same environment. Together, the announcements point to a strategy that extends beyond adding new markets. Coinbase is also building more services around the assets already held on the platform. This article was written by Tanya Chepkova at www.financemagnates.com.

CME Group has announced a leadership transition that will see long-time Chief Executive Officer Terry Duffy step down in March next year, ending a tenure that spans more than two decades at the top of the derivatives exchange operator.The company said in Wednesday's announcement that Duffy will move into the role of Executive Chairman, while current President and Chief Financial Officer Lynne Fitzpatrick will take over as CEO and join the board.Leadership Transition PlanDuffy has led CME Group since 2002, when he became Chairman, and later took on the CEO role in 2016. He oversaw CME’s transition from floor-based trading to electronic markets and led major acquisitions. These include the merger with the Chicago Board of Trade in 2007 and the purchase of the New York Mercantile Exchange in 2008.Continue reading: CME to Launch Single Stock Futures on 50+ Major U.S. Shares, Including Nvidia and TeslaThe company has also grown in scale. CME reported average daily volumes of 28.1 million contracts last year and now has a market capitalization of more than $95 billion.Duffy said he plans to remain active in the business during the transition. “I am pleased our company is well positioned and have never been more optimistic about its future potential,” he said.Fitzpatrick to Take OverFitzpatrick will assume the CEO role after serving in several senior positions at CME. She became Chief Financial Officer in 2023 and was promoted to President and CFO in 2024. She joined the company in 2006 and previously worked in investment banking at Credit Suisse and UBS. CME said Duffy will continue to work closely with Fitzpatrick as Executive Chairman. The most recent notable leadership transition at CME was the late‑2024 reshuffle where Lynne Fitzpatrick was promoted to President and Chief Financial Officer and Suzanne Sprague was elevated to Chief Operating Officer as longtime COO Julie Holzrichter moved into an advisory role. That package of changes, coupled with the extension of Terry Duffy’s employment agreement through end‑2026, was framed by CME as a leadership update to support future growth of the derivatives franchise.Meanwhile, CME recently announced plans to launch cash-settled single stock futures this summer, covering more than 50 major U.S. companies such as Nvidia, Tesla, Alphabet, and Meta. The move comes as demand for equity derivatives continues to grow among both institutional and retail investors. The launch will still need to pass regulatory approvals before going live. The new contracts will track individual stocks from major indexes like the S&P 500, Nasdaq-100, and Russell 1000. Since they are cash-settled, traders will not own the actual shares but will instead trade on price movements. This setup allows investors to gain exposure to individual stocks using futures margin, rather than paying the full cost of buying the shares outright. This article was written by Jared Kirui at www.financemagnates.com.

HFM has appointed Jean Nahas as Head of Category in the UAE, where he will lead the company’s newly established licensed entity and head its Dubai office. The move adds a senior executive with experience across FX, CFDs, and financial services, as brokers continue to expand regulated operations in the region.Overseeing Dubai OperationsHis remit includes driving business growth, ensuring compliance with local requirements, and strengthening HFM’s presence in the Middle East.Before joining HFM, Nahas worked as an independent strategic advisor and board member, supporting firms in brokerage, fintech, and financial services. During this period, he also co-founded 357 Group and served as Group Chief Operating Officer at Zarvista Capital Markets between 2023 and 2025.Background in Brokerage and FintechEarlier in his career, Nahas was Managing Director (Cyprus) at BUX up to 2023. He also held senior executive roles as Chief Operating Officer at Finteractive and Chief Executive Officer at IMS Markets.His experience includes commercial leadership positions such as Business Development Director at FX88 and Head of Business Development at Blackwell Global Investments, where he spent five years.Georgios Papassavas became CEO of HFM early this year, marking a quiet but notable leadership shift at the broker. He previously served as Chief Information Officer and has spent nearly a decade at the Larnaca-based firm, overseeing its technology infrastructure. His appointment reflects a broader industry trend where technology leaders are moving into top executive roles as trading becomes increasingly shaped by AI and digital innovation.Continue reading: HFM Hires Ex-Zarvista CEO Mohammed Essosse as Head of Business Development for North AfricaPapassavas began his career in software development at Amdocs in 2008 and later led financial software teams at FxPro. His promotion comes as HFM continues its evolution from its former identity as HotForex, following a 2022 rebrand aimed at positioning the company as a multi-asset broker beyond traditional FX offerings.And more recently, HFM brought Mohammed Essosse as Head of Business Development for North Africa, bringing in a senior executive with experience across several CFD brokers. Essosse joined from Zarvista Capital Markets, where he served as CEO and previously led business development and Africa expansion efforts. This article was written by Jared Kirui at www.financemagnates.com.

Robinhood is cutting roughly 10 per cent of its full-time workforce, about 290 people, in a move CEO Vlad Tenev framed ;as a culture upgrade. In a memo shared on X, he told staff the business "has never been stronger" and that the company "cannot default to operating as a heavily-layered organization." The 8-K disclosing the cut leans on the same language: the goal is to maintain "a high performance culture," accelerate product velocity, and stay "lean and disciplined," all from what Robinhood calls "a position of business strength" backed by record June trading volumes across equities, options and prediction markets.Two numbers complicate that tidy story: on Robinhood's own payroll math those 290 roles are worth roughly $77 million a year in freed-up pay, and even as the cuts land, the company's careers page still advertises around 153 open jobs.Our CEO Vlad Tenev shared the following note with our team at Robinhood today:Robinhoodies,We’ve made the difficult decision to say goodbye to some of our team members today. Those departing are being notified, and we’re offering them full support through this transition,…— Robinhood Comms (@RobinhoodComms) June 16, 2026What the Average Robinhood Head Costs, and What 290 of Them SaveRobinhood doesn't disclose individual salaries, but its 2025 accounts make the average easy to triangulate. Across all departments, "employee compensation, benefits and overhead" totalled about $1.079 billion: $485 million in technology and development, $401 million in general and administrative, $83 million in operations, $60 million in brokerage and transaction, and $50 million in marketing. Spread across roughly 2,900 full-time staff at year-end, that's an all-in average of about $372,000 per employee.That figure flatters the actual paycheck. It bundles a 401(k) match (which alone cost the firm $17 million in 2025), employer-paid health benefits, a flexible "lifestyle wallet," generous family leave, and office overhead.Equity is the bigger swing factor: Robinhood booked $305 million in share-based compensation in 2025. Strip that out and the average drops to roughly $267,000 per head of cash compensation, benefits and overhead, and the true base salary sits lower still.Run the layoff through those numbers and the savings come into focus. Removing 290 roles trims about $77 million a year in cash-equivalent compensation, or closer to $108 million once equity is counted. The catch: Robinhood expects roughly $28 million in restructuring charges, about $20 million in cash severance and benefits plus $8 million in share-based comp, booked in Q2. So in year one the net cash benefit is modest; the full payoff arrives in 2027.Why Now, When Revenue Is UpThe timing looks odd against the headline numbers. Q1 2026 revenue rose 15 per cent year-over-year to $1.07 billion and net income climbed to $346 million. But it was a miss. Analysts wanted $1.14 billion, and crypto revenue collapsed 47 per cent to $134 million, a brutal comedown from the prior year's boom. The stock was down 13 per cent year-to-date heading into the announcement.Related: Robinhood Had a Slow Q1, but Event Contracts Demand Appears to Be BoomingThere's also a cost story. Robinhood lifted its 2026 adjusted operating expense and SBC outlook to $2.7 billion to $2.825 billion, partly to fund the build-out of "Trump Accounts." Trimming headcount helps fund that ambition without blowing the budget. And the backdrop is industry-wide: tech-sector employers announced more than 123,000 job cuts in the first five months of 2026, up 66 per cent year-on-year, with fintech alone shedding 5,731 roles in May, AI repeatedly cited as the driver.Robinhood Isn't the Only Broker TrimmingThe retail trading industry has spent the past year quietly thinning its ranks, almost always reaching for the same efficiency-and-AI script. In March 2026, IronFX laid off around 150 staff, roughly 10 per cent of its 1,500-strong workforce, with sources pointing to "efficiency" amid the AI wave. eToro moved to cut about 7 per cent of its global headcount, while Stratos, the parent of FXCM and Tradu, shed more than 100 jobs in 2025, its CEO pinning the decision on advances in agentic AI.Read more: AI Takes Center Stage in Brokers’ Layoff NarrativesThe common thread is the framing as much as the headcount. AI has become a convenient narrative for the sector: by bundling performance-based redundancies and hard cost-cutting into a single, forward-looking message, brokers can dress mass layoffs up as strategic upgrades rather than retrenchment. Robinhood's "lean and disciplined" language, delivered "from a position of business strength," fits the pattern neatly, with one twist: its trading volumes are setting records, where some of its smaller rivals are managing decline.The Contradiction: Cutting 290, Advertising 153Here's where the "lean" narrative gets complicated. Even as the layoffs land, Robinhood's careers page lists around 153 open roles. The mix is telling: 39 in software engineering, 24 in security and corporate engineering, 14 in data/AI/ML, plus a dozen each in compliance/risk/fraud and infrastructure engineering. Nearly 60 per cent are engineering, security or AI positions.The 8-K does flag that the reduction "additionally involves the closure of a small number of open roles across the Company." But "a small number" is the operative phrase: the vast majority of those 153 listings stay live. This isn't austerity; it's a reshuffle toward talent density and "builders" over management layers. The signal is clear: 290 leave, the hiring machine keeps humming, and the people Robinhood wants back are the ones writing code. This article was written by Arnab Shome at www.financemagnates.com.

XRP traded at $1.20 on Wednesday, June 17, 2026, correcting for a second consecutive session after Monday's rally above $1.29 was rejected at the lower edge of the range the token broke down from earlier this month. The move puts the Ripple-linked token, XRP, roughly 4% lower on the day and keeps it inside a structural downtrend that has framed the chart since the $3.65 cycle high in October 2025.In this article I am answering the question why XRP is going down today and how low the XRP price can go in the next weeks.Follow me on X for real-time market analysis: @ChmielDkXRP Technical Analysis: The $1.29 RejectionMonday's session rejected the consolidation XRP traded inside through the start of June, and the token is now testing the lower edge of that box, between $1.28 and $1.31, as resistance. My chart shows a clean polarity flip: the boundary that held as a floor now caps price, and the 50-day EMA sits directly on that level, reinforcing it. That confluence is why the $1.29 test failed.In 15+ years overall as a trader and analyst, with 10 years specifically at FinanceMagnates.com, I treat a failed reclaim of a broken range as confirmation rather than noise, a pattern I flagged repeatedly on my analyst page. The same setup played out in my February analysis of XRP's decline, when an 8% spike to $1.66 gave everything back within a session.Below spot, XRP holds a support zone marked by $1.14, the February low, and $1.07, the early-June low. The $1.07 print is the lowest level of 2026 and the lowest since November 2024, as the daily chart below shows.The main daily trend stays clearly bearish, and a daily close under $1.07 confirms the breakdown.Weekly View: XRP Below the 200-Week EMAOn the weekly timeframe, XRP trades below the 200-week moving average, which keeps the medium-term trend bearish as well. Below the $1.07 support sits the next major zone, drawn from 2023 and 2024. It begins near $0.93, the March 2022 peaks retested in July 2023, and extends down to $0.76, the March 2024 highs. Price chopped sideways under those levels for months before the November 2024 breakout, which makes the band a credible magnet on a support break.From $1.20, that zone sits 23% to 36% lower, depending on whether the move targets the top or the base of the band. The downside potential on a break of local support is therefore substantial. An upside close back above $1.31 would reopen the $1.51 to $1.57 ceiling that has capped every rally this year.Why Is XRP Falling This Week?The selling is macro before it is XRP-specific. Bitcoin's weakness has dragged the broader market, with crypto investment products shedding roughly $4.3 billion across 13 sessions of net outflows into mid-June. Traders are also de-risking into the FOMC, where a hawkish projection from Warsh's first meeting would lift the dollar and pressure risk assets.The CLARITY Act limbo compounds it. The bill sits on the Senate calendar after the June 1 committee report, but leadership has not scheduled a floor vote, the White House July 4 signing target now looks tight, and Galaxy Digital puts 2026 passage odds near 60%. As I noted in my recent piece on viral XRP targets, regulatory wins alone have not sustained a bid this year.Paul Howard, Senior Director at Wincent, framed earlier weakness as "an opportunity for accumulation and strategic positioning" ahead of the May markup. That accumulation thesis has not translated into price, which is the core problem for XRP bulls right now.The drivers behind this week's slide:Bitcoin-led risk-off, with crypto ETFs shedding about $4.3 billion over 13 sessionsDe-risking into the June 17 FOMC and Warsh's first dot plotCLARITY Act floor vote still unscheduled despite the July 4 targetA confirmed resistance flip at $1.28-$1.31 reinforced by the 50-day EMAInstitutional Flows: Whales Accumulate as Price SlidesThe flow data cuts against the price. Spot XRP ETFs have pulled in roughly $1.43 billion since their November 2025 launch, with May setting a monthly record near $131.94 million. On-chain, more than 25 million XRP has moved off exchanges and whale addresses hit a record 332,230, a divergence that points to accumulation beneath the bearish tape. That same tension shows up at the index level, where FM Intelligence's base case for Bitcoin pins a $95,000 to $130,000 band on CLARITY passage while spot trades far below it.How Low Can XRP Go? XRP Price PredictionsForecasts for XRP span an unusually wide range, and the table below pairs each with my own read.Standard Chartered's Geoffrey Kendrick holds an $8.00 end-2026 target, contingent on CLARITY passage and $4 billion to $8 billion in ETF inflows, a path that needs a catalyst the calendar is not delivering, so I treat it as a 2027 story at best. The 24/7 Wall St Monte Carlo base case of $1.26 to $1.46 assumes range-bound trade, which my chart only validates while $1.07 holds. Its $1.00 downside, pinned at 35% probability if the bill stalls, lines up closely with my own structural read.Several analysts flag $0.87 to $0.92 as the next support on a daily close below $1.09, which sits inside the upper half of my target zone. My measured target from the 2023-2024 supply band is the $0.93 to $0.76 zone, 23% to 36% below spot, and it is the level I am watching if local support breaks, a thesis consistent with my March analysis and its $0.53 ultra-bearish extension.FAQ, XRP Price AnalysisWhy is XRP falling today?XRP fell to $1.20 on June 17, 2026, a second straight down session after Monday's rally to $1.29 was rejected. The slide is mostly macro: Bitcoin weakness, roughly $4.3 billion in crypto ETF outflows over 13 sessions, and de-risking into the Federal Reserve's rate decision. The stalled CLARITY Act floor vote removed the near-term bullish catalyst that bulls expected this month.How low can XRP go?On my chart, immediate support sits at $1.14 and $1.07, the lowest level since November 2024. A daily close below $1.07 opens the 2023-2024 supply zone between $0.93 and $0.76, which is 23% to 36% below the current $1.20. Other analysts flag $0.87 to $0.92 as interim support inside that band on a break of $1.09.What is XRP's key resistance level?The $1.28 to $1.31 zone is the level to beat. It was the floor of XRP's recent consolidation and now acts as resistance after the breakdown, reinforced by the 50-day EMA on the same boundary. Monday's rejection at $1.29 confirmed the flip. A daily close back above $1.31 would be the first sign the bearish structure is weakening.Will the CLARITY Act push XRP higher?It could, but timing is the problem. The bill cleared the Senate Banking Committee 15-9 on May 14 and sits on the Senate calendar, yet no floor vote is scheduled and the July 4 signing target looks tight. Galaxy Digital puts 2026 passage near 60%. Each missed deadline this year has triggered a sell-the-news reaction rather than a sustained rally.What is the XRP price prediction for 2026?Forecasts range widely. Standard Chartered targets $8.00 by year-end if CLARITY passes and ETF inflows accelerate. A 24/7 Wall St Monte Carlo model sees a $1.26 to $1.46 base case with a $1.00 downside if the bill stalls. My own chart targets the $0.93 to $0.76 zone on a break of $1.07, given the bearish daily and weekly structure. This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.

Devexperts is building a dedicated cryptocurrency front-end for its DXtrade white-label platform, giving brokers a crypto-specific trading screen they can put their own branding on. The company said the interface is currently available for demonstrations, without specifying when it will reach general availability or what brokers will pay for it.DXtrade is Devexperts' off-the-shelf, multi-asset platform, which the firm says can be configured to support stocks, options, futures, ETFs, mutual funds, bonds, FX, CFDs, and both margin and spot digital assets. The Ireland-based company has been pushing the platform into new segments, onboarding more than 40 prop firms in a year before turning its attention to futures.What the Crypto Interface AddsThe new front-end is built specifically for digital assets, sitting on top of the existing DXtrade backend. According to Devexperts, it pairs a high-density trading workspace with real-time data from the company's own dxFeed service, with the option to plug in other market data providers, integrated charting that lets users trade directly from the chart, and a live order book.Jon Light, Devexperts' senior director for product management, said interested brokers are invited to "book a demo of the platform" ahead of launch.[#highlighted-links#] The firm lists several crypto-oriented additions, all of them company descriptions rather than independently tested features. They include a "You Will Receive" preview showing expected net proceeds after fees before execution, portfolio valuation in a reference currency, percentage-based order sizing, live recalculation of order value as prices move, and pre-trade fee estimation.Brokers that license the interface will be able to customize it to their own branding and connect third-party tools through open APIs, the company said. Devexperts describes the result as a "market-leading crypto trading experience," a characterization it has not supported with benchmark data.A Crowded Field for Broker Crypto ScreensThe launch lands in a segment where several platform vendors are already courting the same brokers. Spotware's cTrader has added direct crypto deposits, while Match-Trade Technologies markets its Match-Trader product as a unified environment covering trading, CRM, onboarding, and a crypto payment gateway. The two firms have themselves partnered to combine cTrader with Match-Trade's tools, a sign of how quickly the white-label field is consolidating.The timing reflects steady retail appetite for crypto exposure, which has kept platform suppliers competing on interface design and cost. Devexperts has iterated on DXtrade at a quick clip elsewhere, including updating its mobile app a day after a similar cTrader move.Demo Now, Launch LaterFor all the feature detail, the announcement describes a product still short of release. Devexperts said the platform is open for demos and that it "will soon be launching," but it set no go-live date, published no pricing, and named no brokers signed up to deploy it. The company traces the product to its work in capital markets software since 2002, a record it says spans more than 800 engineers across offices in the United States, Germany, Portugal, Bulgaria, Singapore, Turkey, and Georgia. This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.

Kraken has promoted Stavros Vassiliades to Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Executive Director of its European Union business, putting a longtime CFDs executive in charge of running its regulated EU arm. Vassiliades joined the crypto exchange last year from Pepperstone EU, the Cyprus-licensed operation of the Australian CFD broker.His background reads like a retail-brokerage one rather than a crypto one. Before his three years as executive director at Pepperstone, Vassiliades was head of compliance at MPS Marketplace Securities and an operations and compliance manager at the Cyprus consultancy MAP Fintech. The appointment extends a pattern Kraken set when it began offering crypto derivatives in Europe under a Cyprus license.CFD Veterans Fill Kraken's European RanksWho Kraken installs in its senior European seats says a good deal about how it plans to operate there. Over the past year the company has packed its Cyprus entity with people from the CFD and FX world, posting roughly 50 Cyprus-linked roles in two weeks earlier this year, many in compliance, middle office and management.Vassiliades now sits at the top of that structure as both COO and executive director. The second title carries regulatory weight under Cyprus rules, which require named individuals to be accountable for running a licensed firm.From CFD Shell to Multi-Asset VenueThe unit he oversees, Payward Europe Digital Solutions, did not start inside Kraken. Parent company Payward acquired the Cyprus investment firm previously tied to the CFD broker now trading as PU Prime, picking up a MiFID II license that passports across the European Economic Area.Kraken has since stretched that license well beyond crypto. It launched perpetual and fixed-maturity crypto contracts in May 2025, then added futures tied to equity indices, commodities and currencies across 26 European countries in early 2026. "Our focus on the European market remains a top priority," Shannon Kurtas, Kraken's co-general manager of Pro and Exchange, said when the exchange first outlined its EU plans.The European work runs alongside a wider move into traditional markets. Kraken bought the US futures platform NinjaTrader in a $1.5 billion deal announced in 2025 and now routes CME-listed crypto futures to American clients through it.Crypto Exchanges Keep Buying Cyprus LicensesKraken is hardly alone in treating a Cyprus shell as the quickest route into regulated European trading. Coinbase acquired the Cyprus unit of BUX, once home to the Stryk CFD brand, in early 2025, renamed it Coinbase Financial Services Europe, and later switched on perpetual-style and dated futures for EEA users.Crypto.com followed a similar route, buying CySEC-regulated A.N. Allnew Investments, operator of the LegacyFX brand, to add securities, derivatives and CFDs across the bloc. Chief executive Kris Marszalek said pairing MiFID with a MiCA license "further solidifies" the firm's regulated European range. Backpack, meanwhile, bought FTX's Cyprus unit for a reported $32.7 million and began offering EU derivatives last year.The traffic moves both ways. Established CFD brokers have been bolting on spot crypto, and Pepperstone, the firm Vassiliades left, built its own crypto exchange in-house before offering physical coins to Australian clients. What sets Kraken apart is the depth of its hiring, examined in detail by FinanceMagnates.com, and how quickly it has layered futures, perpetuals and tokenized stocks onto a permit that started as a plain CFD license.EU Leadership Takes Shape Before a 2027 IPOThe promotion lands while Kraken prepares to go public. The exchange filed confidentially for a US listing late last year, raised fresh capital including a $200 million investment from Deutsche Börse Group, and has watched its timeline slip toward 2027.Regulators and prospective investors tend to look closely at how a crypto firm governs its licensed subsidiaries, which makes a named, accountable COO in Cyprus more than a routine reshuffle. Kraken reported 2025 revenue of $2.2 billion, with the company citing product expansion across Europe and a push into traditional markets. This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.