$100m Investment and Adopting Cryptocurrency – Best Stories of the Week

Best Stories of the Week

The strong trend towards the full adoption of cryptocurrencies by the online trading industry continued making major headlines last week. In addition to this, we saw a massive investment in one brokerage, overseas expansion by another, and much more.

Crypto FX
On Monday we reported that Ibinex, the first cryptocurrency exchange certified by the independent self-regulatory organisation The Financial Commission (FinaCom), is again approaching online brokers with white label solutions.
We also reported that B2Broker, an aggregator and provider of turnkey, cloud, and liquidity solutions for the FX industry, is planning to launch an ICO (Initial Coin Offering) for B2BX – an institutional cryptocurrency exchange.

The following day IS Risk Analytics announced that it will be offering broker clients an exclusive Bitcoin price feed that will be available 24 hours a day, 5.5 days per week.
Later in the week we reported from the field about Bitcoin Change, a new venture by the team behind payments services provider Zotapay.

$100 million
On Tuesday we reported that Cyprus-headquartered brokerage IronFX has secured a major investment from a family office in the Middle East.
“Our ability to attract sizable investment and the quality and reputation of out new international partners demonstrates the significant strides made by the Company over the past years, as well as its current position and future outlook. It also signifies an important foreign direct investment and a vote of confidence in the Cyprus financial sector,” stated CEO Kashioris.

Monex
On Wednesday we exclusively reported that Monex will use the ASIC license of its IBFX subsidiary acquired together with TradeStation in 2011 to deliver a globally oriented brokerage solution in Australia.

The new unit of Monex in Australia will be headed by Alex Douglas. The operations are expected to begin in October this year. Finance Magnates exclusively spoke to the CEO of Monex Group, Oki Matsumoto, who provided some insight into the rationale of delivering this new product to the Australian market.

Last gasp by last look
On Thursday we reported that XTX Markets, the non-bank liquidity provider for the FX industry, is making a big step to further boost the company’s position among major competing banks. The firm is committing to a new last look model it calls ‘Zero Hold Time’.

The co-CEO of XTX Markets, Zar Amrolia, explained: “With recent improvements in technology and market data, we believe that it is hard to justify the use of a latency buffer in pricing. All direct counterparties of XTX Markets now enter into transactions either on a ‘Non Last Look’ or a ‘Zero Hold Time’ basis with no latency buffer.”

Even more cryptocurrency
On Friday we exclusively reported that Tradologic is preparing a brokerage suite designed to accommodate the needs of traders of cryptocurrencies. The product is in the advanced stages of development with the company preparing for an imminent launch.

Sources with knowledge of the matter shared with us that the Krypton Software suite will provide firms with an entire ecosystem for brokers to build a blockchain-based brokerage.