The UAE became the first country to regulate finfluencers around a year ago, and its Capital Markets Authority (CMA) registry now lists 171 registered financial influencers. But a FinanceMagnates.com review of the list raises serious questions about enforcement quality and compliance — with social media links found to be inconsistent, non-functional, or misattributed across registrants. The CMA told FinanceMagnates.com that "all available links of the financial influencers will be reviewed accordingly," without addressing specific anomalies flagged by the publication.Singapore Summit: Meet the largest APAC brokers you know (and those you still don't!)Despite the gaps, the initiative has been a great success. The structured regime has attracted many, including regulator finfluencers and even contracts for differences (CFD) broker executives, and the list is continuously growing.The list of regulated finfluencers on the regulatory website includes their names, dates of registration, registered email addresses, and social media accounts.According to the regulator, it “publishes only the social media channels through which the financial influencer has elected to provide financial recommendations.” However, it appears very difficult for a layperson to verify regulated finfluencers from the registry list due to the current anomalies.Running a Broker to Become a FinfluencerThe CMA is regulating credible finfluencers, at least on paper.At a high level, the eligibility criteria include being an accredited financial analyst by a competent authority or holding a CFA qualification, alongside fit-and-proper expectations and required disclosures. The regime also includes a minimum threshold of 1,000 followers, financial and technical expertise for over six months, among other requirements, to fall within the influencer perimeter.“If the condition of holding a Certified Financial Analyst qualification is not met, the natural person may still submit a registration application to the Authority based on any of the other available criteria, such as possessing relevant experience or having a record of issuing repeated recommendations,” a CMA representative said.“We would also like to emphasise that the assessment of whether the conditions are met rests solely with the Authority.”Read more: Retail Traders Trust Finfluencers More than Friends and Family, Study FindsAlthough the conditions specify that the regulated finfluencer “be independent (i.e., not employed by any entity licensed by the Authority or by an equivalent regulatory authority)”, at least two CFD broker executives have become regulated finfluencers — one is Ashu Khurana, CEO of Kira Financial, and the other is Rabi Abdalla, Regional Head MENA and General Manager of Axi. The name of Abedelqader Shaath, a Director at MultiBank’s MEX platform, also appeared on the list.However, it is not illegal for brokerage executives to become finfluencers. “Providing a financial recommendation must be done in his personal capacity or through the use of his own platforms and personal accounts,” the regulatory spokesperson added.Abdalla already runs an Instagram blog where he shares personal Arabic market analysis, particularly focusing on gold. He obtained the influencer license as it is now required in the UAE.For Khurana, however, the aim is different. “My ambition is not to build a following,” he told FinanceMagnates.com, “it is to contribute to a framework of responsible financial dialogue — one that encourages investors to shift away from prediction-driven behaviour and toward process-driven thinking.”Most of the other financial market analysts, trading educators, and broker affiliates appear to be the target of the licensing regime.Proper Disclosure Is a Must, but…The CMA’s rules clearly state that a regulated finfluencer is “required to clearly and prominently disclose” whether the person is a financial analyst or a natural person, and that their registration number must be displayed on “every financial recommendation and on all platforms.”However, FinanceMagnates.com found that many regulated finfluencers might not be complying with disclosure requirements — neither their approved social media handles nor their posts indicate any licences.“I have not been instructed by CMA to display my license number on my social channels,” a UAE-regulated finfluencer who promotes binary options and crypto trading told FinanceMagnates.com. “If this becomes an official requirement, I will comply immediately. I also guide other influencers on how to correctly apply for the CMA license, ensuring that all practices are fully compliant.”Related: Israeli Authorities Probe Alleged Binary Options Marketing Involving Pocket OptionAnother regulatory requirement is that regulated finfluencers must disclose “the last financial recommendation made by the finfluencer within the previous twelve months related to the same financial product, virtual asset, financial service, or issuer”, but this is clearly missing from the content of most finfluencers.There is also a question about the feasibility of this requirement: how can one include detailed references to previous recommendations in a photo or a short video?Who Is the Content For?The UAE has a population of about 11.5 million, of whom roughly 90 per cent are expatriates. This mix indicates a strong appetite for non-Arabic financial content in the country.Although English is widely spoken there, the country’s regulator has also licensed multiple finfluencers who primarily create content in other languages, including Italian and Hindi/Urdu. Many do not have any of the required disclosures on their profiles or content.The finfluencer who actively promotes binary options also stands out for his content language — he creates content in Hindi/Urdu and appears to be targeting South Asians in the UAE and abroad. It is not only the language of the content, but the content itself, that raises concern.He also promotes only binary options and crypto trading. In a video (in Hindi/Urdu, of course), he also explained that he does not like trading or promoting margin forex, although he features an Exness affiliate link. He appears to be promoting Quotex, an unregulated binary options trading platform registered in St Kitts and Nevis with no licences.Read more: “Prediction Markets Are a Different Title for Binaries… We Have Capability in the Space,” Said IG CEO“A registered finfluencer cannot legitimise the promotion of a product or platform that is not approved to be promoted in the UAE,” said Nikolas Xenofontos, Managing Director at SALVUS Funds, without referring to any particular finfluencer. “Their content should remain within permitted, approved financial instruments or services and must comply with disclosure requirements and standards.”Although a majority of the finfluencers are affiliates of locally regulated CFD brokers, some are promoting links to offshore brokers with no local presence.“If you are seeing regulated finfluencers promoting binary options,” Xenofontos added, “the angle is either that the underlying product is not authorised and the promotion is therefore problematic, or the content is being framed as something other than a regulated recommendation. Either way, it is a compliance red flag.”The finfluencer, however, argues that content is entirely focused on education and awareness, not promotion. “I do not receive any payment from Quotex or any other platform. I do not run sponsored posts, nor do I encourage anyone to deposit or trade. I explain how trading works, how platforms function,” he said. However, he does indeed feature affiliate links for Quotex.His other argument is that any platform accessible from the UAE without a VPN is not illegal.“I have contacted the CMA legal department directly to obtain written clarification regarding offshore-regulated platforms,” he said, adding that regulatory officials informed his associates that “if a website is blocked or inaccessible, it is illegal; if it is accessible normally, then it is allowed.”You may also like: CFD Brokers Flock to Dubai, but Few Go All InSelling the Lifestyle ContinuesThe binary options-focused finfluencer has 467k followers on Instagram, over 325k subscribers on YouTubeHis Instagram account also shows that, despite the regulatory regime, the CMA has not curbed the flashy lifestyle displays of finfluencers. With G-Wagons, BMWs, and luxury villa backdrops, he is clearly selling the image of trading as an ultra-luxury lifestyle.Dozens of other regulated finfluencers are also showing off their luxury lifestyles — some posing inside private jets, while others have dinners with panoramic views of Dubai.View this post on InstagramA post shared by Thair Jarrar (@thair.jarrar)Interestingly, his Telegram signal channel has a disclosure notice: “All content shared here is for educational and awareness purposes only and is not financial or investment advice, nor a solicitation to trade or open accounts. I am not a financial adviser…”The disclosure, however, is dated 23 August 2025, whereas, according to the CMA registry, he became a regulated finfluencer on 30 December 2025.UAE-regulated finfluencers are allowed to make “investment recommendations to buy, sell, or hold a financial product or virtual asset, or recommendations related to a financial service or any issuer within the state.”The CMA’s influencer regulatory regime has made one thing clear: finfluencers based inside the country must be regulated, regardless of their target audience.No regulatory framework arrives fully formed. The UAE's finfluencer regime is the first of its kind anywhere in the world, and the challenges it is encountering — disclosure gaps, registry accuracy, cross-language monitoring, and edge cases involving unregulated products — are the kinds of challenges that regulators refine over time, through enforcement action, updated guidance, and market feedback. But the question then arises: Does the agency have the resources to scan through the thousands of pieces of content posted by these finfluencers? This is particularly relevant when the content is in non-Arabic and non-English languages.“Keyword here is complaints,” Xenofontos said regarding the ways for the regulator to scrutinise finfluencers’ content. “Ongoing scrutiny is typically a mix of monitoring, periodic reviews, and enforcement triggered by complaints or market intelligence. If a registered finfluencer is operating from the UAE mainland, publishing recommendations can remain regulated even if followers are predominantly non-UAE, because the regulated act is the provision of recommendations via media channels, not merely the nationality of the follower.” This article was written by Arnab Shome at www.financemagnates.com.

SIX, the operator of Switzerland's stock exchange and Spain's BME, has agreed to publish real-time pricing for equities listed on both venues directly to smart contracts through Chainlink, in a deal the two firms announced today (Wednesday). The arrangement uses Chainlink's institutional data service DataLink and covers companies with a combined market capitalization of around €2 trillion, opening the dataset to more than 2,600 applications running across over 75 public and private blockchains, according to the companies.Singapore Summit: Meet the largest APAC brokers you know (and those you still don't!)The pipe carries quotes from constituents of the SIX Swiss Exchange and Bolsas y Mercados Españoles, the Madrid-based exchange SIX acquired in 2020. That puts pricing for blue chips such as Nestlé, Novartis, Roche, Banco Santander, and Inditex within reach of any smart contract that subscribes through Chainlink's network, alongside the US-listed names that already dominate onchain equity feeds. Until now, European blue-chip data on public blockchains has been sparse, with most tokenized equity products and onchain prediction markets pulling from American sources.Matthew Nurse, head of market data at SIX, said the firm is using the integration to bring "flagship Swiss and Spanish blue-chip equities onchain via Chainlink's DataLink," and to deliver "real-time, high-value market data" to digital asset applications.Swiss Blue Chips Meet Smart ContractsThe announcement does not put SIX shares themselves onto a blockchain. What goes onchain is the price feed, delivered in a format that smart contracts can read and act on without a human intermediary. Trading applications, derivatives platforms, and structured product issuers built on blockchain rails can now consume European exchange data the same way they consume US equity feeds today.For SIX, the move extends a years-long effort to commercialize its market data outside traditional broker and terminal channels. The exchange operator has spent the past few years building digital asset infrastructure including its SIX Digital Exchange, a regulated venue for tokenized securities, and has experimented with longer trading windows on its conventional venues, including a recent decision to stretch its derivatives day to nearly 14 hours to overlap with US sessions.For Chainlink, the deal lands one of the largest exchange data sets to date on a network that already supplies pricing to most onchain trading venues. The same infrastructure was used last year to connect JPMorgan's private blockchain to public networks during a tokenized treasury settlement test that fed into the bank's Kinexys deployment with CMC Markets.Tokenized Equities Race Heats Up Across VenuesThe data deal arrives in the middle of a noisy period for onchain equities. Crypto exchanges, brokers, and traditional venues have all been racing to put traditional stocks within reach of around-the-clock trading, with US shares so far getting the most attention.Kraken's xStocks platform, run with Backed Finance and now operated through Alpaca, crossed $25 billion in tokenized trading volume in under eight months and is now listed on Deutsche Börse's 360X regulated venue. Bitget, KuCoin, and Robinhood have followed with their own tokenized US equity offerings, mostly limited to non-US users. Alpaca opened the door wider in October with its Instant Tokenization Network, which lets institutions swap real shares for tokens and back without a cash leg. The US Securities and Exchange Commission approved a Nasdaq pilot in March that will let large-cap US equities and major index ETFs trade in tokenized form on the exchange itself.From Indices to Prediction Markets, the Cited Use CasesThe companies say the integration is aimed at applications including tokenized indices, structured products, compliant DeFi protocols, prediction markets, and what they describe as "new trading primitives" built on European equity data. Fernando Vázquez, president of capital markets at Chainlink Labs, framed the appeal in commercial terms, saying DataLink offers data providers "a secure, scalable path to commercialize high-quality market data onchain while preserving the integrity, entitlements, and distribution controls required by regulated financial institutions."Several of those categories are already drawing meaningful flow. Prediction market venues such as Polymarket and Kalshi have grown into a category large enough that the CFTC has been litigating with state regulators over their treatment, and oil traders have begun using prediction markets as a signal source. Structured products are already SIX's largest derivatives segment, with more than 70,000 listed instruments on its Swiss venue.Whether the European data attracts the same kind of trading volume that has gathered around tokenized US equities will depend on whether issuers actually launch products that use it, and whether retail and institutional traders show up to trade them. SIX did not provide adoption targets or a timeline for the first products built on the feed. This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.

TS Imagine, the trading and risk technology vendor formed by the 2021 merger of TradingScreen and Imagine Software, released a new version of its execution automation platform this week, pitching it as a single environment for desks to design and run rule-based trading workflows across asset classes.Singapore Summit: Meet the largest APAC brokers you know (and those you still don't!)The product, branded Automation 2.0, combines a visual and code-based rule builder with what the company calls a stateful workflow engine that processes order events in real time. TS Imagine said the system can encode branching logic, fallback actions, sequencing, and liquidity, cost and market-calendar awareness, then chain those rules together without manual intervention."With order handling requirements becoming more complex, trading desks need automation tools that can reflect the realities of their workflows,” Andrew Morgan, president and chief revenue officer at TS Imagine, said.[#highlighted-links#] “Automation 2.0 enables firms to move beyond manual, reactive processes towards a more consistent, scalable approach to automated execution within a single integrated, multi-asset platform."Moreover, TS Imagine declared publicly disclosed customer assets under service now exceed $19.5 trillion, up from $5.3 trillion in 2023. Crowded Field for Multi-Asset Execution ToolsAutomation 2.0 lands in an EMS market where most major vendors have spent the past several years bolting rule-based routing, AI signals, and cross-asset workflows onto their existing platforms. Rules-driven order routing is not new in itself: Refinitiv's REDI EMS introduced a Rules-Based Order Routing feature back when it was still operated by Thomson Reuters, designed to let traders preset destinations and conditions for automated execution.FlexTrade Systems has taken a similar path with its FlexTRADER EMS, layering in third-party analytics and AI-driven broker selection through a partnership with BTON Financial, and pairing its order management capabilities with SimCorp's portfolio platform under a cross-vendor integration announced in 2023. CQG and Broadridge tied their OMS and EMS offerings together in a similar move that same year.Where TS Imagine differentiates Automation 2.0, according to the company, is in handling more nuanced order logic, particularly cases where compliance, execution strategy, and market conditions intersect. The firm argued that desks often revert to manual handling when existing automation tools lack the flexibility to express the full complexity of a workflow. Building Toward an "Execution Agent"The company framed Automation 2.0 as the foundation for a future product it calls the Execution Agent, described as an autonomous system that, in the company's words, "doesn't just follow predefined rules, but can reason, adapt, and act across the full order lifecycle." Talk of agentic AI has spread quickly across capital markets technology over the past 18 months. TS Imagine itself announced a partnership with AI platform Gentek.ai in October 2025 to embed AI infrastructure into its front-to-back platform. On the brokerage side, FXCM and eToro have both cited advances in agentic AI when announcing job cuts, while regulators including the Bank of England's Financial Policy Committee have warned that increasingly autonomous trading models could amplify volatility during market stress. This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.

Britannia Global Investments swung to a £657,002 profit in 2025 from a £1.14 million loss the year before, as the FCA-regulated institutional broker pushed deeper into securities financing and saw client custody assets jump to £7.43 billion from £1.23 billion. Singapore Summit: Meet the largest APAC brokers you know (and those you still don't!)From £1m Loss to £657k ProfitTurnover at the London firm reached £9.85 million for the year ended December 31, more than 23 times the £427,330 reported in 2024, according to annual financial statements filed with Companies House this week.The wholly-owned subsidiary of Britannia Financial Group Limited posted pre-tax profit of £906,979, compared with a pre-tax loss of £1.52 million the year before. The turnaround came as BGI, which provides custody, execution-only brokerage and securities financing to professional and institutional customers globally, ran a transitioned business under a refreshed board that included the September appointment of director Simon Foster. The shift extends a trajectory flagged in coverage of BGI's 2024 results, when custody assets tripled but the company still booked a loss.Key Performance IndicatorsSource: Britannia Global Investments Limited annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2025, filed with Companies House on 14 April 2026.Securities Financing Becomes Largest Revenue LineThe most striking change in BGI's income profile came from securities financing, an activity that contributed nothing to the books in 2024. Interest income, which the firm now reports together with securities financing revenue, generated £7.39 million in 2025, accounting for roughly three-quarters of total turnover. Commissions rose to £1.81 million from £202,277, while custody fees climbed to £658,445 from £225,053.The balance sheet now reflects the scale of that activity. Securities financing receivables stood at £164.74 million at year-end, against obligations of £131.81 million, leaving a net position of £32.93 million. None of those line items existed a year earlier.London Faces Crowded Field for Institutional Custody and Prime ServicesBGI's move into securities financing places it alongside a growing number of London firms competing for hedge fund, family office and asset manager flow. In June 2023, StoneX Financial launched a CASS-compliant multi-asset custody solution under its StoneX Institutional Prime brand, bundling repo financing and securities lending. IG Group has expanded its IG Prime business over the same period, while Marex Group and Sucden Financial continue to invest in prime services and outsourced trading for institutional clients.The non-bank prime segment has also drawn larger corporate activity. Ripple's $1.25 billion acquisition of Hidden Road and the subsequent rebrand to Ripple Prime in 2025 combined clearing, financing and prime brokerage across FX, digital assets and fixed income under one banner, illustrating how custody and financing are increasingly bundled with execution at the institutional end of the market.BGI's positioning differs from those operations. The company focuses on cash equities, fixed income, equity swaps, funds and securities financing rather than CFD-led or crypto-native services, and serves clients globally except in the United States and other restricted jurisdictions. Its sister firm, Britannia Global Markets, runs the group's CFD and FX prime brokerage business, which has previously expanded into FX, index and commodity CFDs under the Britannia Prime brand. 2026 OutlookThe wider Britannia Financial Group has been building out its FCA-regulated footprint over the past year. Britannia Global Markets gained LME Category 4 membership in late 2025, expanding the group's metals trading capability, and previously drew on senior hires from TP ICAP, LSEG and Morgan Stanley including Martin Ryan as COO of that entity.The directors said commission revenue is expected to rise further in 2026, attributing the projection to higher custody assets and trading volumes. BGI carries a deferred tax asset of £2.75 million against expected future profits, and recorded a tax charge of £249,977 for the year following the move into taxable income. This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.

In a prop trading industry where credibility is everything, Equity Edge has reached a milestone that demands attention.The proprietary trading firm has now paid more than $10 million to traders in just two years, underlining its rapid growth and strengthening its position in an increasingly crowded market. At a time when traders are paying closer attention to payout reliability, platform quality, and overall trust, the milestone gives Equity Edge a clear point of differentiation.The announcement comes alongside another notable development: the return of MetaTrader 5 to the Equity Edge platform. For many funded traders, access to MT5 remains a major factor when choosing a prop firm, making the timing especially significant.Together, the two updates highlight a company looking to build on momentum and reinforce its standing among the leading names in prop trading.A $10 Million Milestone That Carries WeightBig numbers are common in this industry. What matters is whether they mean anything.In the case of Equity Edge, surpassing $10 million in trader payouts speaks directly to one of the most important questions in the prop firm space: does the firm actually pay its traders, and does it do so consistently?That question has become more important as the funded trading sector has matured. Traders are no longer only comparing challenge fees or headline offers. They are looking more closely at withdrawal times, trading conditions, and whether firms can build long term trust after the marketing fades.This is where payout history becomes meaningful.According to Equity Edge, funded traders have been receiving payouts within 48 hours of submitting a withdrawal request. In a market where delays can quickly damage confidence, fast payouts remain one of the clearest indicators of operational strength and trader trust.Reaching the $10 million mark within two years also places Equity Edge in a select category of prop firms that can point to real scale rather than simply ambition.MT5 Returns to the PlatformThe return of MetaTrader 5 adds another layer to the story.MT5 remains one of the most recognised trading platforms in the forex and CFD markets, widely used by both retail traders and funded traders for its charting tools, execution capabilities, and support for automated strategies. In a sector where platform familiarity often influences a trader’s decision, access to MetaTrader 5 is more than a technical feature. It is part of the value proposition.For Equity Edge, bringing MT5 back gives traders access to an environment many already know and prefer. For traders deciding between prop firms, that matters.Platform choice can shape everything from onboarding to retention. A familiar and trusted interface reduces friction and makes it easier for traders to focus on performance rather than adaptation. By restoring MT5, Equity Edge is aligning itself with what much of the market still wants most.Competing on Value, Not Just PriceChallenge pricing remains one of the biggest points of competition in the prop firm market, but low pricing on its own rarely builds loyalty.Traders may be drawn in by affordability, but they stay for the overall experience. That includes execution quality, payout speed, platform access, and the confidence that the firm can deliver once profits are made.Equity Edge has positioned itself around that wider balance.The firm is known for competitive challenge pricing, but its broader message is centred on value. The combination of accessible pricing, fast payouts, and MT5 access is designed to appeal to traders who want strong conditions without paying a premium to get started.That balance is not easy to maintain. In the prop trading space, firms often compromise somewhere. Some compete on price but struggle operationally. Others charge more while offering little extra in the areas traders actually care about.Equity Edge is aiming for a middle ground that is harder to execute well: affordable entry, professional infrastructure, and a payout model that builds confidence.Why Fast Payouts Still Shape ReputationIn prop trading, payout speed is not a minor detail. It is a signal.Fast payouts create credibility. Slow payouts create doubt.That is why the 48 hour payout window highlighted by Equity Edge matters beyond operations alone. Traders actively share their experiences across Discord, Telegram, X, and trading communities, and payout performance often becomes one of the biggest drivers of reputation.In that environment, firms that can consistently pay traders quickly have a clear advantage.The $10 million figure reinforces that reputation. It suggests not only that Equity Edge is attracting traders, but that it is maintaining enough trust for those traders to continue engaging with the platform and sharing their experiences publicly.For a proprietary trading firm operating in a sector where trust can be fragile, that kind of social proof carries real weight.Building Momentum in a More Demanding MarketThe prop trading market is more competitive than ever, but it is also more demanding.Traders are asking tougher questions. They want proof, not just promises. They want transparent conditions, reliable infrastructure, and evidence that a firm can scale without losing the qualities that made it attractive in the first place.Equity Edge’s latest milestone speaks to that shift.Surpassing $10 million in trader payouts within two years is not just a growth headline. It is a marker of how the firm wants to be seen: established, credible, and capable of delivering for funded traders in a market that increasingly rewards consistency over noise.With MetaTrader 5 back on the platform, a strong focus on fast payouts, and pricing that remains competitive, Equity Edge is making a clear play for traders who value both access and reliability.Final WordFor traders evaluating the prop firm landscape in 2026, Equity Edge has added another strong argument in its favour.More than $10 million paid out to traders.MetaTrader 5 restored to the platform.A 48 hour payout process.Competitive challenge pricing.In a sector crowded with promises, Equity Edge is building its position around delivery.For many funded traders, that is what matters most. This article was written by FM Contributors at www.financemagnates.com.

The use of artificial intelligence in trading has a long and storied history that predates the recent breakthrough of LLMs into mainstream awareness and widespread use. From institutional HFT algorithms and the adoption of trading bots in retail, to early sentiment analysis systems and earnings call analyzers. In 2023, on the eve of the recent AI boom, EY reported that 99% of the CEOs it had surveyed were making or planning significant investments in AI. As far as retail brokerage is concerned, these investments appear to have initially focused primarily on client-facing tools that include market summaries, trade suggestions, portfolio construction and analysis, stock screening, technical insights, and strategy development. This approach has served to aid branding initiatives and to boost conversions at a time when AI was at the forefront of public consciousness. Below we make an argument for why this is changing towards churn prediction and revenue retention, focusing more on harnessing proprietary data that remains underutilized by brokers.Prioritizing competitivenessIn our conversations with clients, we’ve found that as the market becomes saturated and AI fatigue sets in, financial services businesses are increasingly turning their attention to how AI can assist in the retention of revenues and the prevention of client churn. Dormant accounts, high client turnover, and increasing customer acquisition costs repeatedly come up as on-going concerns for brokers. These concerns are being exacerbated by increased competition from a myriad of rival offerings, among them neobanks and neo brokers that are expanding into multiple asset classes, instruments, and regulatory jurisdictions. Online brokers have mastered how to convert leads, but to remain competitive in today’s increasingly crowded market, they’re now called to become experts in revenue retention, and AI can be a valuable ally in this area. Our own approach to the development of AI tools has been two-pronged in that we’ve focused on the development of both front- and back-end technologies that serve the goals of personalization, engagement, churn prediction and revenue retention, each picking up where the other leaves off.Data quality has been an on-going conversation in AI-circles. Our own position has been that brokers have access to high quality client data of their own that is unique to each business and can provide competitive advantages when harnessed correctly. Two types of proprietary brokerage dataOn the one hand, brokers have access to user inputs, which include queries and preferences expressed through searches and engagement touchpoints. On the other hand, they have access to trading behavior, which is available via platform telemetry and account management behavior. The first can be gathered from client-facing interfaces such as AI-assistants and can be used to provide insights that relate to client interests via queries, conversations, and search box interactions. The second is available on the back end by gathering trading data that says a great deal about client trading habits, risk profiles, as well as their money management practices. Each is beneficial to brokers seeking to maximize their revenue-retention initiatives, which include offering a more personalized service, increasing engagement, providing pre-emptive support, and in general having a more holistic view of each client.Client-facing AITo start with, client-facing AI can be used to help users engage with a broker’s offering in a more constructive manner. Recommendations and search bar suggestions allow traders to broaden their horizons while remaining on the platform, helping them to find both what they’re searching for and to be exposed to things they may not yet be aware of. These systems also act as a first line for customer inquiries, answering queries and solving problems quickly and efficiently, lightening the load of human teams and allowing them to tackle high priority issues. Our own version of such a system ships with the DXtrade platform and allows customer support staff to observe these interactions and to seamlessly step in as a second line of support, when required, with in-platform chat, video calls, and screen sharing.It’s important to note that this process generates its own valuable data. Client interactions such as those described above can form the basis for additional client insights, which can be used as the basis for timely alerts, asset suggestions, and other educational content to keep clients engaged and developing as traders. DXtrade’s trading assistant is also integrated with Discord, Telegram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. These integrations allow users to remain “plugged-in” to the trading terminal and to send instructions even when not in direct contact with it. In this way, it borrows from the stickiness of their preferred communication apps, without having to compete with them for attention. Another thing to note is that users benefit from dxFeed market feeds, meaning that the data used to answer market-related queries is of a higher quality.Broker-facing AIOn the back end, effective user profiling can be conducted, and actionable behavioral insights can be distilled at scale. Utilizing machine learning models trained on real client trading data, it's possible for brokers to gain a view of what’s going on with their clients in a way that wasn’t feasible in the past. DXtrade’s user profiling module provides client churn predictions derived from proven engagement metrics, which indicate the users that are statistically most likely to drop off. This information can be directly integrated with company CRMs and is crucial to retention initiatives as it can guide the generation of timely responses that are highly targeted.The system’s extensive segmentation capabilities and its ability to discern between different platform actions that may be of interest to brokerage teams (such as repeated deposit failures, or trading difficulties such as setting stop losses) open up a variety of communication opportunities. This is the key to incorporating systems such as these into the ways different brokerage teams organize their workflows, whether it be via in-platform communications, email, or personalized outreach in advance of accounts falling dormant. Common groundIn the past, overreliance on a constant stream of new conversions and an acceptance of client churn figures as a matter of fact have contributed to a dragnet approach to customer acquisition. This and the reality of fragmented software ecosystems have been obstacles to brokers making the most of the data they generate in an efficient and productive way. As trading evolves from a niche occupation to a lifestyle, brokers are being called to truly know their customers, and to start viewing them as long-term partners. The point here is that churn statistics are not set in stone. Much of the data pertaining to client turnover originate from a time before it was possible to truly provide personalization at scale.Through a combination of learning from what they say and what they’re interested in, as well as what their actions when trading reveal about them, brokers are now able to bridge the engagement gap between acquisition and retention in order to encourage longer, mutually beneficial relationships with their traders. This article was written by FM Contributors at www.financemagnates.com.

Jon Light, Senior Director of Product Management at DevexpertsIn recent years, retail prop trading has emerged as a viable alternative to the traditional brokerage business model. The segment has marketed itself effectively, and activated new retail demographics that other financial service providers have struggled with in the past. The retail prop trading industry was valued at $12 billion in 2025, with some expecting this to rise to $20 billion in 2026. As with any other market that garners wider attention, prop trading appears to be coming of age. Mainstream awareness has turned trading contests into a social media phenomenon, while also placing the industry under increased regulatory scrutiny. The next few years are likely to be critical as the industry tackles these regulatory challenges, consolidates, and expands into other areas such as retail brokerage. Institutional precursorsThe institutional heyday of proprietary trading took place between the mid-1980s and the onset of the 2008 financial crisis. The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which prohibited commercial banks from trading with their own funds, had been introduced to prevent some of the excesses that contributed to the stock market crash of 1929. By the mid-1980s, Glass-Steagall was being eased via regulatory reinterpretations that effectively eroded its separation between commercial and investment banking. This led to an expansion of proprietary trading activity among banking institutions, as well as the establishment of independent proprietary trading firms.In the wake of the 2008 crisis, the Dodd-Frank Act introduced the Volcker Rule. Like Glass-Steagall before it, the rule banned banks from prop trading and shifted this activity to independent proprietary trading firms like DRW and Jane Street, which have been two of the most successful prop trading firms. The former was established during the period of Glass-Steagall easing, while the latter was founded post-Dodd-Frank.Unlike hedge funds, prop firms trade with the company’s own capital, essentially allocating funds to traders and providing performance-based compensation and profit shares with them.The Rise of RetailTop Step is acknowledged as the first retail prop firm. Founded in 2010 by former floor trader Michael Patak as Patak Trading Partners, Top Step would go on to pioneer the retail prop trading model. Blending education, gamification, and market access into an attractive package, the firm introduced trading contests in a simulated environment where successful contestants could earn a funded account to trade with the firm’s capital. The trading evaluation model, which exempted Top Step from the regulatory requirements of securities brokers, was quickly picked up and adapted by many other market participants. Notably, the technologies used by retail CFD brokers, which had themselves enjoyed a period of massive growth in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, provided a professional and cost-effective way to run the same kind of business model via a different instrument. Typically, US prop firms like Top Step were able to partner with registered Futures Commission Merchants, while circumventing the need for broker-dealer regulation due to the simulated nature of the trading they offered. Similarly, prop firms that used a CFD backbone to offer trading challenges were able to do the same. This was achieved by partnering with MetaQuotes licensees and offering challenges via grey-labelled platforms in demo mode. In 2024, MetaQuotes restricted its licensees from continuing to do so, ostensibly in order to ensure compliance with US CFD regulations, but this only led to other entrants into the space, such as OANDA, and to the rival platforms gaining a firmer foothold, among them our own DXtrade platform. Increased scrutinyThe surging popularity of the retail prop trading business model, and particularly the way it has captured the imaginations of younger traders, is leading to regulators placing the industry under increased scrutiny. In the EU, several financial regulators, among them Italy, Belgium, and Spain, have raised concerns about retail prop trading. In Australia, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has issued warnings to financial influencers that promote prop trading in their content without disclosing risks. In the United States, the CFTC has raised the question of whether prop firms should fall under the category of Commodity Trading Advisors and is considering whether prop firms that offer exchange-traded derivatives should have to register with the CFTC regardless of the simulated nature of the challenges they provide. Also under consideration by regulators are requirements that firms unambiguously disclose fee and payout structures, success rates, as well as stricter observation of KYC and AML requirements, and even appropriateness tests before onboarding new traders. Despite these suggestions, a lack of regulatory clarity pervades the industry, with some suggestions that 2026 may be the year where regulatory procedures pertaining to the prop trading business model are formalized. Prop trading instrumentsAs far as the instruments on offer go, retail prop trading has developed along similar geographic lines as retail brokerage. US-based prop firms initially focused on futures and spot FX, while prop firms in other markets opted for CFDs on underlying assets like FX, equities, indices and commodities. Increased attention from regulators and a more general move towards listed markets has led some firms, particularly those targeting US consumers, to pivot towards exchange-traded futures, owing to the perceived transparency of listed markets as compared to OTC.This is echoed in the wider prop trading community with many discussions taking place over social media as to which instrument is to be preferred from the perspective of the end trader. Furthering this trend, one of the new frontiers in this space is the offering of prop trading challenges on options markets. A relatively newer phenomenon, this move leverages the growing interest and participation from retail traders in options markets, which peaked during the pandemic, but has remained elevated ever since. From our perspective as a technology provider, we’re observing increased interest in trading platforms like DXtrade that are purpose-built for exchange traded derivatives like futures and options and include the various instrument-specific risk management capabilities, as well as client-facing tools necessary for the trading of these markets.This is opening the space up even further, with many firms looking beyond incumbent platforms to consider a broader range of providers. The growing interest in prop options raises the bar even further, both in terms of risk management tools, but also to the sourcing of market data itself, as a competitive options offering necessitates more specialized data services, such as options Greeks. Our sister company, dxFeed has also seen an increase in these types of requests. Consolidation and expansionRetail prop trading’s mainstream moment is leading to market consolidation, with many smaller firms having dropped out following the 2024 actions by MetaQuotes, while larger players have moved to secure their dominance via strategic acquisitions such as FTMO purchasing Oanda, and Top Step partnering with Plus500 to further its ambitions of expanding into retail brokerage. The latter reveals another nascent trend, with some prop firms like FundedNext pursuing brokerage licenses. This is taking place both internationally via offshore CFD licensing and in the US via FCM partnerships. The reverse is also true, with established brokers venturing into the world of prop trading. AxiTrader, and IC Markets being prominent examples of this move. The bottom line is that the success of the prop trading business model, its ability to onboard new traders that traditional brokers may not otherwise have been able to attract, as well as the fact that prop trading provides a potential gateway into real money trading, suggests that things are set to heat up further in 2026 as the barriers between what it means to be a traditional brokerage and a retail prop firm continue to blur, and regulators move to make their own positions clearer. This article was written by FM Contributors at www.financemagnates.com.

Moneta Funded, the leading proprietary trading firm backed by award-winning broker Moneta Markets, today officially launched its groundbreaking Sprint Challenge, a completely new trading model that delivers instant gratification and same-day payouts to traders worldwide.Unlike traditional multi-phase prop challenges that can take weeks or months to complete, the Sprint Challenge is built for speed and simplicity. Traders select an account size ($10,000 or $25,000), a multiplier (2x or 5x), and a timeframe (1, 2, 4, or 8 hours), with the price starting from just $30 to purchase the challenge. The challenge begins the moment the first trade is placed and runs for exactly the chosen duration. To succeed, traders must hit a clear profit target (0.6%–2%) without breaching the maximum loss limit. Traders can track their progress directly from the Moneta Funded Dashboard, with a live countdown and performance monitor. Upon success, they receive their full profit as a fixed payout with a 100% profit split. The account is then closed, and traders can start a new Sprint Challenge right away.The Sprint Challenge features minimal restrictions, no news trading, no gap trading, and no market-open trading during the 5-minute windows before and after high-impact economic events or major market opens (NY, London, Asia). Everything else is permitted, giving skilled traders maximum flexibility to showcase their edge in a single focused session.“This is the prop trading experience traders have been waiting for,” said David Bily, Founder and CEO of Moneta Funded and Moneta Markets. “We created the Sprint Challenge for ambitious traders who don’t have weeks to spend on evaluations. Whether you have one hour before work, a lunch break, or a quiet evening, you can now turn your skill into immediate cash with total clarity and zero unnecessary complexity. It’s effort - result - payout, all in the same day.”Moneta Funded’s full challenge lineup now includes the new Sprint Challenge alongside its popular One-Step, Two-Step, Instant Funding, and Phoenix programs, offering every type of trader the perfect path to funded capital, from ultra-fast sprints to comprehensive longer-term evaluations where traders can access up to $2,000,000 in funding.As a broker-backed prop firm powered by Moneta Markets, Moneta Funded delivers superior execution, deep liquidity, and institutional-grade technology that sets it apart in the industry. Traders benefit from tight spreads, fast fills, and the confidence that comes from trading with a firm that has real skin in the game.David Bily added: “Moneta Markets’ backing ensures our traders get the best possible conditions and fastest payouts in the industry. The Sprint Challenge is more than a new product, it’s a statement that prop trading can be simple, fair, and genuinely rewarding. We’re incredibly excited to see how our community ‘sprints’ toward success.”The Sprint Challenge is available immediately to new and existing clients at monetafunded.comAbout Moneta FundedMoneta Funded is a next-generation proprietary trading firm headquartered in Dubai and powered by Moneta Markets. With a trader-first philosophy, Moneta Funded offers flexible funding programs, lightning-fast payouts, and industry-leading trading conditions designed to help serious traders scale their capital quickly and profitably. This article was written by FM Contributors at www.financemagnates.com.

Day trading activities in the US might receive a massive boost, as the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday (Thursday) approved a plan to eliminate the Pattern Day Trader (PDT) rule, which requires a minimum $25,000 account balance.The existing PDT rule restricts a trader from making more than four day trades in a five-day period if they hold less than $25,000 in their margin account.How Much Risk Can You Take?The securities regulator proposed a new intraday margin system, which would measure risk in real time instead of counting trades. It would require traders to maintain enough equity based on actual exposure.When implemented, the new rule would cover all margin accounts, not just day traders.The one notable market shift with the elimination of the existing rules and the implementation of the new ones is from “how often you trade” to “how much risk you take.”Today, the SEC approved a major FINRA rule change that eliminates the Pattern Day Trader (PDT) rule and replaces it with a new intraday margin system.https://t.co/QB7FlwCBE6? What’s Being RemovedThe $25,000 minimum account requirement for day traders? What’s Replacing It…— Cobra Trading (@cobra_trading) April 14, 2026A Major Shift in Day Trading RulesThe current PDT rules were issued by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the independent regulator of the brokerage industry, in 2001 after the dot-com crash, when many retail traders lost significantly from trading activities. The goal was to keep a portion of beginner, small-balance investors out of day trading, thus protecting them from taking substantial trading risks.[#highlighted-links#] Now, after the SEC approved the elimination of the PDT rules, FINRA has yet to announce the official start date of the new rules. After the notice from the independent regulator, the new rules will go live in about 45 days, while firms can phase them in over up to 18 months.The new rules are going to change day trading in the US, which has the largest stock market with almost 50 per cent of the global share.Retail traders accounted for roughly 18 per cent of total US equity market volume as of 2024, while active day traders contribute about 12 per cent of daily trading activity. However, about 72 per cent of day traders lose money.The exit ratio among day traders is also high, with 40 per cent quitting within a month, while only 13 per cent remain after three years. Further, only 13 per cent can generate consistent profitability over six months, with less than 1 per cent achieving long-term success over five years. This article was written by Arnab Shome at www.financemagnates.com.

Switch Markets now bundles a free VPS, Trackatrader analytics, AlgoBuilder AI, and PineConnector bridge for all depositing clients.The package targets algorithmic and active traders who need always-on infrastructure, strategy-building tools, and performance tracking at no additional cost.Each tool integrates directly with MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5, giving traders a connected ecosystem from strategy creation to live execution.Switch Markets has recently launched a new trader bundle that gives every depositing client free access to four tools designed for algorithmic and high-frequency strategies. The package includes a dedicated Virtual Private Server (VPS), the Trackatrader analytics platform, AlgoBuilder AI for no-code strategy creation, and a PineConnector bridge that links TradingView alerts to MetaTrader 5. Together, these tools form a complete infrastructure layer, from idea generation and backtesting through to live, automated execution.Most brokers charge separately for these services, and many do not offer them at all. By bundling all four at no cost, Switch Markets positions itself squarely in the growing segment of retail traders who build, test, and deploy systematic strategies rather than trade manually.About Switch MarketsFounded in 2019 and headquartered in Sydney, Switch Markets is a forex and CFD broker that serves traders across more than 100 countries. The broker offers access to over 1,000 instruments, spanning forex pairs, indices, commodities, shares, and digital currencies through the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms.Switch Markets operates two account types: a Standard account with spreads from 1.0 pips and zero commission, and a Pro account with raw spreads from 0.0 pips and a commission of $3.50 per side. The minimum deposit stands at $50, and leverage reaches up to 1:500 for international clients. Client funds are held in segregated accounts with tier-one banks, and negative balance protection is applied to every account.The broker has earned multiple industry awards, including Best Trading Experience Broker and Best MT5 Broker, and maintains a Trustpilot rating above 4.7 from more than 700 verified reviews. With 24/7 customer support via live chat and email, Switch Markets has built a reputation for responsive service and transparent trading conditions.Key Features of the Algorithmic Traders BundleThe new bundle comprises four distinct tools. Each addresses a specific stage of the algo trading workflow, and all four are available to any client who deposits $50 or more.Trading VPSAlgorithmic strategies demand continuous uptime. A single disconnection during a volatile session can turn a profitable trade into a loss. Switch Markets provides every depositing client with a free VPS valued at $497 per year, featuring 99.99% uptime and trade execution latency of just 1 millisecond. The server runs around the clock, keeping Expert Advisors and automated scripts operational even when a trader’s personal hardware is offline. TrackatraderConsistent profitability requires more than a good strategy; it requires knowing where that strategy breaks down. Trackatrader is a trading analytics platform that connects directly to a Switch Markets client’s account and delivers detailed performance reports. Traders can identify strengths and weaknesses across instruments, sessions, and time frames. The platform surfaces patterns that manual journaling often misses. For instance, traders can track your drawdown clusters, win-rate drift, and risk-adjusted return trends. By studying past trades with precision, traders can refine their approach and prepare for changing market conditions.AlgoBuilder AINot every trader who thinks systematically knows how to code. AlgoBuilder AI removes that barrier. The tool allows traders to describe a strategy in plain English, then converts the logic into an executable algorithm. Users can backtest the strategy against historical market data, adjust parameters, and deploy it to a live account when the results meet their criteria. This lowers the entry point for algorithmic trading dramatically because a trader with a clear edge no longer needs to hire a developer or learn MQL5 to automate it.PineConnectorTradingView is among the most widely used charting platforms in retail trading, and many traders build alert-based strategies within its Pine Script environment. PineConnector bridges TradingView and MetaTrader 5, executing trades in a client’s Switch Markets account the moment an alert fires. This eliminates the manual step between signal generation and order placement, which often acts as a gap where slippage, hesitation, and missed entries erode performance. For traders who already rely on TradingView for analysis, PineConnector turns their alerts into live positions without switching platforms.The Backbone for Algo and Active TradersIndividually, each of these tools solves a specific problem. Combined, they form an end-to-end infrastructure for systematic trading. A trader can design a strategy with AlgoBuilder AI, deploy it on a VPS that never sleeps, bridge TradingView signals directly into MetaTrader 5 through PineConnector, and then review every trade with Trackatrader’s analytics without paying a separate subscription for any of it.As more traders adopt algorithmic methods, the brokers that provide the surrounding infrastructure stand to capture the most engaged segment of the market. Switch Markets’ decision to absorb these costs signals a commitment to the algo trading community and a bet that traders who receive professional-grade tools will remain active, loyal clients.The bundle is available immediately to all new and existing Switch Markets clients. Traders who deposit $50 or more gain full access to the VPS, Trackatrader, AlgoBuilder AI, and PineConnector at no additional charge. Details and activation instructions are available on the Switch Markets website. This article was written by FM Contributors at www.financemagnates.com.

American crypto exchange giant Kraken confidentially filed for an initial public offering (IPO) late last year, its co-CEO, Arjun Sethi, revealed during the Semafor World Economy event in Washington, DC. However, the specifics of the IPO, including valuation and offer size, still remain unknown.Singapore Summit: Meet the largest APAC brokers you know (and those you still don't!)The exchange also raised $200 million from Deutsche Börse Group, Bloomberg reported, at a valuation of $13.3 billion, which was below the $20 billion peak valuation it achieved in late 2025. In exchange for the investment, the German exchange group received a 1.5 per cent fully diluted stake in the crypto exchange.Read more: Kraken’s Extortion Claim Points to a Growing Market for Insider AccessAim at an IPO PersistsThe parent company of Kraken has been mulling going public for some time now. It first submitted a confidential draft Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in November 2025.The exchange raised $800 million from investors like Jane Street and Citadel Securities at its peak valuation after that confidential draft filing.However, the company’s IPO plans did not materialise, as reports suggested it paused going public around March due to market conditions. The latest statement from Sethi indicates that the exchange never shelved the plan.[#highlighted-links#] Meanwhile, the revenue of the crypto exchange also jumped 33 per cent in 2025 to reach more than $2.2 billion, which, according to the company, was driven by “a broad-based performance across trading and asset-based businesses.” Of the total revenue, about 47 per cent came from trading activities.Crypto trading activity also increased on the US-based platform, with total transaction volume reaching $2 trillion, a 34 per cent increase. Assets on the platform rose by 11 per cent to $48.2 billion.Expansion Drive ContinuesAlthough headquartered in the US, Kraken also appears to be expanding globally. It obtained a MiFID II licence by acquiring a Cyprus-based broker last year and launched crypto perpetual contracts through the entity for European users.The expansion in products, as well as the offering of tokenised stocks, shows a strong focus on that area. Within months of launch, tokenised stocks on its platform reached more than $5 billion across both centralised and decentralised venues, and the number of users passed 37,000. Both figures are likely higher now. This article was written by Arnab Shome at www.financemagnates.com.

High Roller Technologies, a NYSE-listed global online gaming operator, signed an agreement with Crypto.com to introduce regulated prediction market products in the United States. The deal marks High Roller’s entry into the fast-growing event contract sector and opens new revenue opportunities across finance, sports, and entertainment.Singapore Summit: Meet the largest APAC brokers you know (and those you still don't!).According to third-party estimates, a mature U.S. prediction market could surpass $1 trillion in annual trading volume. The partnership gives High Roller access to the segment through Crypto.com’s regulated derivatives infrastructure.Partnership Expands Regulated Event Trading AccessUnder the agreement, High Roller will offer event contracts provided by Crypto.com, Derivatives North America, which operates as a CFTC-registered exchange and clearinghouse. High Roller plans to register as a CFTC Introducing Broker and work with Crypto.com’s Futures Commission Merchant to distribute these contracts across its consumer platforms.Kris Marszalek, Co-founder and CEO of Crypto.com, said the collaboration aims to “expand access to regulated event contracts in the United States through a differentiated and highly scalable offering.”High Roller CEO Seth Young added that the partnership represents “a significant milestone” in preparing the company’s product and technical foundations for its move into the prediction space. “We believe this agreement gives us a strong position in a market with meaningful long-term potential,” he said.The companies plan to offer event-based trading opportunities covering finance, entertainment, and sports. High Roller expects the partnership to create new income streams and intends to announce updates on product development, branding, and launch timing in the coming months.You may also like: Crypto.com Joins Ripple, Circle and Others in Securing Conditional US Federal Bank CharterCrypto.com already operates prediction markets and recently launched OG, a standalone prediction market platform that offers regulated event contracts to U.S. clients through its existing derivatives infrastructure. The agreement with High Roller Technologies extends the reach of this business by adding a new distribution channel, rather than marking Crypto.com’s first move into prediction markets.Exchanges Race Into Prediction MarketsMajor crypto brands have also used partnerships to speed up their entry into prediction markets in 2026. Binance rolled out in‑app prediction markets through an integration with Predict.fun, embedding a BNB Smart Chain–based protocol directly into the Binance wallet while subsidizing trading and settlement fees to encourage early use. Last month, Gate.io became the first centralized exchange to integrate Polymarket, launching a public beta that lets users access on‑chain prediction markets from within the Gate app, including standard exchange features such as order books and candlestick charts.These deals show a pattern: major exchanges plug into specialized prediction protocols or platforms to offer event contracts quickly and at scale, while focusing their own efforts on distribution, compliance, and user acquisition. This article was written by Jared Kirui at www.financemagnates.com.

Global connectivity provider oneZero Financial Systems has named Alberto Bruno as its new Director of Business Development, marking the latest addition to the firm’s senior leadership lineup. The appointment strengthens oneZero’s Engagement Division, which focuses on helping brokers use marketing analytics to grow their client base and improve retention.Singapore Summit: Meet the largest APAC brokers you know (and those you still don't!).Bruno to Lead Engagement ExpansionBruno, based in Limassol, Cyprus, confirmed the appointment in a post on Tuesday. In his new role, he will lead efforts to expand oneZero’s Engagement solution, a platform that analyzes trading data to guide broker sales and marketing strategies.He will work alongside brokerage partners to demonstrate how the system supports new client acquisition and ongoing relationship management.The Engagement solution complements oneZero’s suite of liquidity, pricing, and risk management technologies. Its analytical tools are designed to convert client behavior data into actionable insights, aligning trading activity with marketing objectives.Fintech Experience Across EuropeBefore joining oneZero, Bruno served as Business Development Manager at PrimeXM, where he oversaw the international growth of bridge and risk management technology. Prior to that, he held senior sales positions at S&P Global and FIS, managing enterprise sales of market data and SaaS products to banks, asset managers, and other institutions.His experience covers complex sales cycles within financial technology, data analytics, and risk management sectors across Europe.Other recent moves: After More Than a Decade at XTX Markets, CTO Joshua Leahy Steps Down, Also as DirectorLate last year, oneZero saw a senior marketing change when Head of Marketing and Communications Talia Geberovich left the firm to launch a consulting business focused on fractional marketing leadership and project support for B2B scale-ups and startups.Among recent expansion plans at oneZero, the firm recently launched its Swap Curve Manager, a centralized FX swap pricing platform for regional banks that consolidates workflows, supports multiple data sources, and integrates with existing pricing engines as part of its wider FX pricing and trading suite. This article was written by Jared Kirui at www.financemagnates.com.

Goldman Sachs has filed for a Bitcoin-linked exchange-traded fund focused on generating income through options strategies, according to an SEC filing. The filing marks what appears to be the bank’s most direct move so far into crypto ETF product structuring.It also adds to a growing set of Bitcoin-linked ETF products available to investors, including retail market participants through regulated fund structures.Singapore Summit: Meet the largest APAC brokers you know (and those you still don't!).Goldman Sachs has previously been reported to be exploring a role as an authorized participant for proposed spot Bitcoin ETFs from issuers including BlackRock and Grayscales. The move would align the bank with other Wall Street firms such as JPMorgan and Jane Street in supporting ETF creation and redemption mechanisms. It reflected a broader shift among major US banks toward indirect participation in cryptocurrency markets via regulated ETF structures.Goldman Files Bitcoin Income ETFThe proposed product, named the Goldman Sachs Bitcoin Premium Income ETF, would not hold Bitcoin directly. Instead, it is designed to gain exposure to Bitcoin through existing spot Bitcoin ETFs and derivative instruments, while using options strategies to generate income from market volatility.The structure is similar to so-called “premium income” ETFs already seen in traditional equity markets, where fund managers sell call options on an underlying asset to collect premiums. In exchange, upside participation in strong price rallies is typically limited.SHOCK: Goldman jumping into the bitcoin ETF game.. with a filing for a Bitcoin Premium Income ETF pic.twitter.com/WszEIrQ2tV— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) April 14, 2026Institutions Shift Toward Bitcoin Yield ProductsIf approved, the ETF would place Goldman among a growing number of traditional financial institutions developing structured products tied to Bitcoin, rather than offering direct spot exposure. The approach reflects a broader shift in the market toward yield-generating crypto-linked instruments as institutional participation expands.Goldman has previously taken indirect exposure to Bitcoin through ETF holdings and derivatives activity. The latest filing represents a more explicit product-level engagement with crypto markets. This article was written by Tareq Sikder at www.financemagnates.com.

GBE Brokers Ltd. has agreed to acquire a large part of the client base and partner network of JFD Group Ltd., which operates under the JFD Brokers brand. The transaction is structured as an asset deal and covers most client accounts and intermediary relationships.Singapore Summit: Meet the largest APAC brokers you know (and those you still don't!).GBE Brokers expanded its international footprint with the opening of a representative office in Dubai. It said the move extends its presence in the Middle East and North Africa region. It added that the office is part of its broader presence across financial centres in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. GBE Brokers also maintains its headquarters in Cyprus and a branch office in Germany.JFD Clients Move to GBEThe deal includes client funds in the eight-figure range and a four-digit number of accounts. Parts of JFD’s existing team are also expected to join GBE Brokers as part of the transition.The companies said clients moving to GBE Brokers will gain access to a wider range of trading platforms. These include MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, and TradingView. The firms also stated that key intermediary relationships will be maintained, with partner structures transferred as part of the agreement.Support for German-speaking clients will be handled from GBE Brokers’ Hamburg office. The company said this setup is intended to provide direct communication, dedicated contacts, and faster response times.GBE Expands MetaTrader Presence in GermanyGBE Brokers stated that client funds are held in segregated accounts at Commerzbank AG. The company added that statutory deposit protection applies under existing regulations, with additional coverage for balances up to €300,000 through Lloyd’s of London.Ben-Florian Henke, owner of GBE Brokers Ltd., said the transaction marks a significant step for the company. He stated that it "strengthens its market leadership as a MetaTrader broker in Germany" This article was written by Tareq Sikder at www.financemagnates.com.

GCEX Group has entered a liquidity partnership with global digital asset market maker Cumberland to strengthen spot crypto trading for institutional and professional clients. The move expands GCEX’s liquidity network and aims to deliver tighter spreads and better execution.Singapore Summit: Meet the largest APAC brokers you know (and those you still don't!)Broader Access to Crypto LiquidityAccording to Tuesday's announcement, Cumberland’s liquidity will now be integrated into GCEX’s trading infrastructure, allowing institutional clients to trade digital assets through GCEX’s regulated prime brokerage framework. Clients can access the liquidity via GCEX’s crypto-native trading platform, XplorSpot, or directly through an API.The deal means a further convergence between traditional FX/CFD brokerage and institutional crypto, as deeper spot liquidity from a market maker like Cumberland can support tighter spreads, lower slippage, and more consistent pricing for crypto-linked CFDs and FX/crypto crosses. This is especially when routed through a regulated prime brokerage stack such as GCEX’s XplorDigital and XplorSpot.GCEX CEO Lars Holst said the demand for institutional-grade digital asset liquidity continues to grow. “Our partnership with Cumberland reflects our commitment to connecting clients with deep and reliable liquidity sources in a regulated and transparent structure,” Holst said.Expanding Institutional Reach in EuropeGCEX offers digital asset and FX brokerage solutions under its XplorDigital suite, which includes tools such as “Crypto in a Box” and “Broker in a Box” to help institutions manage regulation, liquidity, and risk. The company is regulated by the UK’s FCA, Denmark’s FSA, and Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, and it holds a MiCA license in the EU.Related: After GCEX Acquisition, GlobalBlock Launches Digital Asset Services for UK ClientsSeveral recent partnerships show a similar push to blend crypto, FX and CFDs. GCEX itself has already teamed up with DV Chain to boost institutional crypto liquidity for CFDs and spot trading via XplorSpot.Rauan Khassan at TradingView recently observed that many FX and CFD traders move naturally into crypto and use similar strategies across all three markets, which pushes brokers to integrate crypto alongside existing multi‑asset offerings.“What we are seeing is a pattern of high migration between FX CFD and crypto traders, i.e., the user profile, the trading type of that audience is quite highly overlapping,” Khassan told Finance Magnates in the past.Shift Toward Integrated FX–CFD–Crypto OfferingsSimilarly, Hong Kong prime broker LTP partnered with UK fintech Gold-i to distribute combined crypto and FX liquidity through the MatrixNET platform, giving brokers and funds unified access via a single FIX API.Read more: “There is High Migration Between FX/CFD and Crypto Traders”: TradingView’s Rauan KhassanOn the infrastructure side, FalconX expanded its integration with Talos so institutions can access deep FX liquidity alongside digital assets, including synthetic crypto‑fiat pairs, inside the same trading stack. These deals sit alongside longer-running collaborations such as GCEX’s integration with Centroid Solutions, which routes GCEX’s FX and crypto liquidity to Centroid’s global broker client base. This article was written by Jared Kirui at www.financemagnates.com.

You can harden infrastructure. You can't fully harden people. According to Kraken, the extortion attempt it recently disclosed is not a one-off. The exchange says it is linked to broader criminal recruitment campaigns targeting insiders across crypto, gaming, and telecoms — and that it is working with industry partners and law enforcement to disrupt them. Singapore Summit: Meet the largest APAC brokers you know (and those you still don't!)The case began with videos of internal systems circulating on dark web forums, which attackers allegedly used to pressure the company into paying a ransom. The incident itself was contained: no systems were compromised, no client funds were at risk. Two cases of support-level access exposed data linked to around 2,000 accounts. For security practitioners, the takeaway was straightforward.Yet another example of a help desk employee being an insider threat.This is currently a top playbook methodology for threat actors. Either target/compromise or coerce support staff who have privileged access.I consider this priority 1 for any security team until solved. https://t.co/7CZ4UWzDS1— Matt Johansen (@mattjay) April 13, 2026 The more relevant question is whether this reflects a pattern that extends well beyond Kraken — and how these recruitment operations actually work. The Record So Far The cases are not isolated. Across several major platforms, the common thread is the same: attackers relied on access that already existed rather than finding a way in from outside. At Coinbase in 2022, a product manager used confidential knowledge of upcoming token listings to front-run trades on at least 14 occasions. No systems were breached. The advantage came entirely from privileged information treated as a personal trading edge.The scheme was identified not by internal controls but by an external observer who noticed a wallet buying tokens shortly before they appeared on the exchange. In 2025, Coinbase disclosed a separate incident in which attackers bribed overseas customer support contractors to extract user data from internal systems those staff were authorised to access. The stolen data — names, phone numbers, government IDs, masked Social Security numbers, account balances — was enough to run convincing impersonation attacks. In at least one case, a user lost more than $2 million. Cyber criminals bribed and recruited rogue overseas support agents to pull personal data on <1% of Coinbase MTUs. No passwords, private keys, or funds were exposed. Prime accounts are untouched. We will reimburse impacted customers. More here: https://t.co/SidVn59JCV— Coinbase ?️ (@coinbase) May 15, 2025The breach ran undetected for months. Attackers demanded a $20 million ransom; Coinbase refused and offered a matching bounty for information leading to the perpetrators. The total cost is estimated at $180 million to $400 million in remediation and legal exposure. At Binance in December 2025, an employee used advance knowledge of an upcoming announcement to trade ahead of the market. The gap between the token appearing on-chain and the employee's post was sixty seconds. It was caught by on-chain analysts outside the company, not by internal monitoring. Binance suspended the employee, referred the case to law enforcement, and paid $100,000 to the whistleblowers who first reported it.Investigation of Employee Misconduct IncidentOn December 7, 2025, Binance’s internal audit department received a report alleging that a Binance employee had used insider information to post on official social media and improperly obtain personal gain. We immediately launched an…— Binance Futures (@BinanceFutures) December 8, 2025 Outside crypto, the same model runs through telecoms. Carrier employees have been offered flat payments — documented cases range from around $300 to $10,000 per action — to facilitate SIM swaps that hand attackers control of a target's phone number and, by extension, any account protected by SMS authentication. In March 2025, T-Mobile was ordered to pay $33 million in arbitration after an insider-facilitated swap enabled the theft of a customer's cryptocurrency holdings. Across these cases, the pattern holds. No zero-days, no network intrusions. The access was already there. The pattern has not gone unnoticed by the market. In previous incidents, user reactions have focused more on systemic weaknesses in access control. In some cases incidents also triggered a more alarmist response among some industry voices.I am a long time investor in and champion of @coinbase. Something that has to be said though - this hack - which includes home addresses and account balances - will lead to people dying. It probably has already. The human cost, denominated in misery, is much larger than the $400m… pic.twitter.com/ruSYKAGH7x— Michael Arrington ?‍☠️ (@arrington) May 19, 2025 How Insider Recruitment Works Threat intelligence reporting from ZeroFox points to a recruitment pipeline that is becoming more structured. In one documented campaign, actors explicitly targeted employees at major platforms including Coinbase, Binance and Robinhood, publishing recruitment criteria and contact instructions on underground forums. Initial outreach surfaces on dark web forums or in closed Telegram and Discord channels. Posts name specific companies and specific roles — customer support agents, compliance staff, contractors, outsourced service providers. From there, conversations move to private encrypted channels. Before any payment is discussed, a prospective insider is typically asked to provide proof of access: screenshots, short recordings, or sample data pulls. What is being purchased depends on the target. Sometimes it is raw tool access. Sometimes it is more specific — customer records, account metadata, the ability to watch internal workflows in real time. Partial visibility is often sufficient to support follow-on phishing, targeted fraud, or extortion based on threatened data exposure. According to research from Check Point, compensation for one-time access or specific data typically falls between $3,000 and $15,000, depending on privilege level.Intermediaries who recruit insiders have been paid around $5,000 per placement, plus a cut of profits — sometimes as high as 15% — generated through that access.Some of the datasets used for outreach reportedly contain hundreds of millions of contact records, according to ZeroFox. The cost of acquisition is low relative to the potential return. That is the core of why the model scales.In some cases, relatively small payments have enabled access that later resulted in multi-million dollar losses or gains, depending on how that access was used.The framing of insider access as a primary attack vector is already shared across security and crypto circles.This Kraken incident highlights the *critical* insider threat vector. While the CSO's stance on not paying is commendable, the real work begins now. Focus on incident response, forensic analysis, and hardening internal systems against future compromise. Zero Trust principles are…— Ran Geva (@rangeva) April 14, 2026 Why Crypto is Exposed Crypto platforms combine several features that create particular vulnerability here. They run continuously, with distributed teams across time zones. Customer support is large, frequently fragmented, and often outsourced. Internal tools need to be accessible enough to resolve issues at speed — which pulls against the kind of access controls that would limit exposure. The assets are liquid. Transactions are irreversible. And even when funds are not directly reachable, the data — balances, transaction history, identity documents — has independent value in downstream fraud. The support layer is not the most privileged environment on any platform. But it is one of the hardest to lock down without degrading the service it is meant to provide. What Firms are Changing Exchanges and brokers are shifting toward limiting what insiders can do inside systems. Support roles are being scoped down to narrower data views, with explicit separation between read access and anything that could affect funds. Permissions are session-based and time-limited rather than persistent. No single role is intended to hold end-to-end control over a sensitive operation. Behavioural monitoring has moved beyond login tracking. This includes monitoring large data queries, repeated access to high-value accounts, and unusual navigation patterns — often with session recording in workflows that touch sensitive data. The incidents that prompted these changes, in several cases, ran undetected for months despite all access being technically authorised. Contractors and outsourced teams face tighter defaults and more frequent review. Some firms have begun monitoring dark web forums and encrypted channels for signs that their staff are being actively recruited. The goal is to ensure that legitimate access, in the wrong hands, can do as little as possible. Kraken's incident did not produce a breach. But it points to something more structural. For attackers, the question is now about finding someone who is already inside. This article was written by Tanya Chepkova at www.financemagnates.com.

Saxo Bank reported its financial results for 2025, showing higher client activity and record client assets. The bank said it achieved an adjusted net profit of EUR 120 million for the year.Singapore Summit: Meet the largest APAC brokers you know (and those you still don't!).J. Safra Sarasin Takes Majority ControlAlongside the financial results, the company also pointed to a major ownership change that took shape during the period. In 2025, the J. Safra Sarasin Group signed an agreement with the previous shareholders to acquire a majority stake in Saxo Bank. The transaction was completed on 2 March 2026. After the deal closed, Saxo Bank appointed Daniel Belfer as its new chief executive officer. Founder Kim Fournais became chairman of the board of directors.Saxo Bank Sees Strong Client Expansion On the financial performance, total client assets rose to EUR 133 billion in 2025, compared with EUR 114 billion in 2024. The number of clients increased to 1,523,000, up from 1,286,000 a year earlier. The bank also reported total income of EUR 664 million, compared with EUR 626 million in 2024. Net profit fell to EUR 72 million from EUR 135 million.Adjusted net profit stood at EUR 120 million, compared with EUR 144 million. Total equity was EUR 837 million, slightly down from EUR 839 million. The capital ratio decreased to 25%, from 29%.Saxo Bank said it reached more than 1.5 million clients and recorded its highest level of end clients and client assets.Commenting on the results, Group CFO Mads Dorf Petersen said 2025 was “another busy year” for Saxo Bank. He said the financial results “remained solid” and that the bank saw “strong growth” in clients and client assets, ending the year “at record levels.”He also referred to the ownership change, saying Saxo Bank looks towards 2026 “excited to work with our new majority shareholder” while its “strategic focus remains unchanged.” This article was written by Tareq Sikder at www.financemagnates.com.

Bitget has launched CFD Copy Trading, expanding its offering into traditional financial markets and allowing users to automatically follow professional traders across forex, commodities, and indices from within its platform. The company said the feature is part of its push to connect crypto trading with broader asset classes under a single account structure.Singapore Summit: Meet the largest APAC brokers you know (and those you still don't!).Copy trading has accounted for around 6 to 20 per cent of total trading volume at brokerages in recent years, according to Brokeree Solutions. The firm said brokers actively running copy trading campaigns can reach 10 to 20 per cent of volume in 2024. It also noted a 16 per cent rise in demand for copy trading technology and more than 50 broker launches last year.Bitget Launches CFD Copy TradingThe launch comes after Bitget said its CFD business recently surpassed $6 billion in single-day trading volume. The company linked the increase to heightened volatility across global markets, including movements in gold, oil, major currency pairs, and equity indices.It also said more crypto-native users have been seeking exposure to non-crypto markets as macroeconomic conditions become more interconnected.Bitget said access to these markets remains uneven for retail users who do not actively follow macroeconomic developments or trade across multiple asset classes.The CFD Copy Trading product is designed to reduce that gap by allowing users to mirror strategies from selected traders starting from 50 USDT. It uses the same copy trading framework already applied to the company’s futures and spot products.MT5-Based CFD Copy Trading System“More users are paying attention to macro movements because the opportunity set has widened beyond crypto alone,” said Gracy Chen, chief executive officer of Bitget. She said copy trading is intended to lower execution barriers for users who want exposure to global markets without building trading expertise from scratch.The product is built on Bitget’s MT5-integrated CFD infrastructure. The company said account creation and withdrawal processing are completed in under three seconds through an automated system. It also introduced a High-Water Mark profit-sharing model, under which traders earn a share of profits only when follower accounts reach a new net profit high after recovering previous losses.Bitget said performance data, including return on investment, follower counts, and profit-sharing figures, will update hourly. Profit-sharing settlements are processed daily. Eligible traders can receive up to 30% of profits, depending on account structure and VIP status. This article was written by Tareq Sikder at www.financemagnates.com.

XTB shareholders appear entirely unbothered by one of the largest fines Poland's financial regulator has ever handed to a local brokerage house. A day after the Komisja Nadzoru Finansowego (KNF) disclosed a PLN 20 million ($5.5 million) penalty for MiFID II breaches in XTB's client onboarding process, the stock climbed another 0.7% today (Tuesday) to test a fresh all-time high of 109.28 zlotys, extending a rally that has carried it more than 20% higher since the start of the year and pushed the company's market value above 12 billion zlotys.Singapore Summit: Meet the largest APAC brokers you know (and those you still don't!)The penalty, disclosed by KNF yesterday (Monday), is the second multi-million-zloty sanction the Polish regulator has imposed on XTB in less than a decade. It covers how the broker screened retail clients and defined target groups for Contracts for Difference between January 2022 and September 2023, as Finance Magnates reported. KNF said the practices caused XTB to operate in a manner it described as unreliable and unprofessional.XTB Says Decision Is Not Final and Not Immediately EnforceableIn a Polish-language statement sent to local media after the ruling, XTB said the KNF decision relates primarily to its target-group determination process and new-client onboarding, including the registration form in use from January 2022 through September 2023. The company said both the form and the onboarding mechanism have already been revised in line with the regulator's guidelines."The KNF decision is not final. XTB is currently analyzing the content of its justification in detail in order to decide on possible further legal steps," the broker said in the statement, translated from Polish. XTB added that because the regulator did not attach an immediate enforceability clause to the ruling, the company "will not be obliged to pay any penalty before the decision becomes final."That distinction matters in Poland's administrative system, where broker fines can stay tied up in the courts for years.Previous KNF Case Took Nearly a Decade to CloseThe muted market reaction suggests investors remember what happened the last time KNF went after XTB, a case that ran for close to a decade and never produced the kind of knockout blow some activists had pushed for.That earlier saga centered on XTB's use of an asymmetric "deviation" parameter in its instant-execution order model between January 2014 and May 2015, which KNF said breached best-execution rules by passing negative slippage to clients while keeping positive moves for the broker. The regulator and Polish prosecutors went public with their findings in November 2017, triggering a drop of more than 35% in XTB's share price and forcing a temporary trading halt on the Warsaw bourse. KNF imposed a PLN 9.9 million ($2.7 million) penalty in September 2018, which XTB contested twice.The Voivodship Administrative Court in Warsaw dismissed the first appeal, and in early 2023 Poland's Supreme Administrative Court rejected XTB's cassation appeal, making the 2018 ruling final roughly five years after it was issued and eight years after the disputed conduct. XTB publicly conceded the case at that point, saying that although it considered the decision unfair, it recognized the verdict and was ending its battle to have it revoked. XTB shares actually rose after the 2023 court decision, as investors had long since priced in the loss.One of KNF's Biggest Broker Penalties as Regulator Sharpens Its TeethAt 20 million zlotys, the new penalty ranks among the largest KNF has imposed on a domestic brokerage in recent years. In March 2026, the regulator fined Santander Bank Polska a combined 21.1 million zlotys over eight separate breaches tied to investment services, which market watchers read as a sign Warsaw's supervisor has stiffened its stance toward financial firms operating in Poland.Retail CFD oversight has also hardened elsewhere in Europe. Spain's CNMV bans CFD advertising to retail investors, a restriction XTB has already had to work around despite Spain accounting for roughly 10% of its revenue. The UK's Financial Conduct Authority made ESMA's 2018 leverage caps permanent, Belgium has outlawed leveraged CFDs and rolling spot FX marketed through electronic platforms to retail clients, and Germany's BaFin has restricted certain CFD structures on consumer-protection grounds.KNF pointed in its announcement to its own annual retail forex studies, which show that between 70% and 80% of active clients lose money on CFDs and similar leveraged products. Protecting retail investors from improper sales practices, the regulator said, remains its priority.Fine Dwarfed by Earnings Expectations for Record 2026The financial hit from the penalty is modest against XTB's current earnings trajectory. Noble Securities analysts forecast full-year 2026 net profit of around 1 billion zlotys for the broker, a level that would be a record, as Finance Magnates reported earlier this year. BM mBank analyst Mikolaj Lemanczyk projects first-quarter 2026 net profit alone at roughly 455 million zlotys, with revenue climbing about 64% year-over-year to 951.7 million zlotys on heavy trading activity in gold, commodities, and metals.XTB is scheduled to publish preliminary first-quarter figures later in April. The broker, which has tested successive all-time highs over the past two weeks following the rollout of options trading in Germany and Spain, ended 2025 with more than 2 million clients globally and added 525,452 new Polish accounts over the past twelve months, according to KDPW data.For now, the market appears to be doing the same math Warsaw brokers have grown used to over the past decade. A single-digit-basis-point hit to expected earnings, years of potential appeals, and a product set that investors view as firing on all cylinders have kept the KNF announcement in the background of what continues to be one of the Warsaw exchange's strongest 2026 performers. This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.