Ethereum Archives - The Industry Spread

Australian Independent Reserve Wins Digital Currency Exchange of the Year

August 1, 2019 by Ricardo Esteves Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: AUSTRAC, Bitcoin, crypto, Cryptocurrencies, Ethereum, Independent Reserve, Litecoin, Ripple

Independent Reserve, the leading Bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange in Australia, has been awarded Digital Currency Exchange of the Year at this year’s inaugural Australian Blockchain Industry Awards.

The executive team, comprised by Lasanka Perera (COO), Adrian Przelozny (CEO and founder) and Roman Stefanidi (CTO), has worked to make significant progress with a succession of strategic partnerships and business growth for the crypto exchange.

Adrian Przelozny, CEO and founder of Independent Reserve, commented: “It’s a real privilege to stand alongside some of the incredible innovators in this year’s Australian Blockchain Industry Awards. Winning Digital Currency Exchange of the Year is testament to the hard work and consistent effort our team has put in to making Independent Reserve the top tier exchange that it is today. I’m extremely proud of what we’ve achieved so far, and I look forward to progressing this further. With cryptocurrency markets growing at a rapid rate across the world, it’s essential that we’re continually evolving our business and trading features on the platform to keep up with the pace of change.

In early 2019, Independent Reserve became the first operator within the crypto ecosystem in Australia to offer insurance coverage against theft or loss of any cryptocurrency that is held in an Independent Reserve trading account. The firm’s client base amounts to 100,000 users spread across Australia and New Zealand and services around 8,000 self-managed super funds (SMSFs).

The exchange also partnered with KPMG, the multinational professional services network and one of the Big Four accounting organizations, to create a crypto tax calculator developed by KPMG which plugs directly into users’ Independent Reserve accounts, allowing traders to estimate tax obligations on their portfolio.

Chief executive Przelozny added that the Australian-based crypto exchange launched in November 2018 , a blockchain innovation hub and coworking space in Sydney. Independent Reserve was founded in 2013 and allows Australians to buy, sell and invest in Bitcoin (XBT), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP) and other digital currencies, through its proprietary, institutional grade trading platform.

Independent Reserve counts with Mike Tilley (ex -CEO of Challenger Financial and Chairman of Latitude Financial), Martin Rogers (KTM Ventures) and Steve James (Seer Asset Management) as investors and board members. The operator collaborates with Australian financial watchdogs, such as AUSTRAC, to develop AML/CTF regulatory frameworks for the industry. Its pro-regulation stance has led the exchange to be an audited, gold Certified member of the Australian Digital Commerce Association (ADCA), which represents the cryptocurrency industry in Australia.

CMC Markets Creates And Launches Three Crypto Indices

June 27, 2019 by industryspread Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: Bitcoin, Blockchain, CMC Markets, Crypto Index, Crypto Indices, Cryptocurrencies, digital currency, Ethereum, Ripple, trading

CMC Markets has introduced three new crypto indices to its trading offering, each made up of a different group of cryptocurrencies, as diversification provides broad exposure and mitigates risk of volatility in specific coins. ‘All Crypto Index’, ‘Major Crypto Index’ and ‘Emerging Crypto Index’ are now available for trading.

The leading retail FX and CFD provider has rolled out to its customers the ability to spread bet and trade CFDs on three new cryptocurrency indices bespoke to CMC, which gives the company full control over composition and absolute transparency in terms of pricing. The firm claims its crypto index spreads will be tighter than those of the individual underlying coins.

CMC Markets’ Major Crypto Index includes leading cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, ripple, bitcoin cash, ethereum and litecoin, while the Emerging Crypto Index is based on dash, EOS, monero, NEO, stellar lumens, cardano and TRON. The All Crypto Index combines all of the above constituents and uses a bespoke weighting methodology to avoid dominance by any one coin.

David Fineberg, Group Commercial Director at CMC Markets
David Fineberg, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, commented:
“Cryptocurrencies are moving back into focus for many traders, given the price action seen in the first few months of the year. These new indices allow CMC Markets’ clients to gain exposure to a bundle of different coins, while doing this as a single transaction means order minimums and trading costs are also kept low. Our proprietary Next Generation trading platform ensures that we can easily cater to client demand with innovative products like this and will continue to ensure we are offering access to instruments which are most appealing for today’s trading community.”

The broker has recently updated its cryptocurrency offering to include seven new digital currencies – taking the total number of coins to twelve – and lowered the margins for professional clients across all their original cryptocurrencies as well as spreads for both retail and professional clients across all their original cryptocurrencies.

In April 2019, CMC Markets announced the ability to spread bet and trade CFDs on the US Fang Plus index, thus exposing customers to a balanced portfolio of highly-traded growth stocks from next-generation technology companies, including Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Alibaba and Baidu.

Just ahead of releasing full-year results for FY 2019, CMC Markets announced a trading update on its overall performance, having noted a great reduction in client trading activity and challenging market conditions in the fourth quarter of 2018 heavily influenced by the implementation of the ESMA intervention measures on 1st August 2018. This measure has made a negative impact on revenue generation: down by 37 percent YoY at £110 million.

Please feel free to let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Decentralized Exchanges Provide Data Protection But Regulatory Morass

June 21, 2019 by Michael Volpe Leave a Comment Filed Under: Feature Articles Tagged: Binance, Blockchain, DEX, Ethereum, ICO, IRS, SEC

The Futures Industry Association (FIA) held their most recent webinar entitled: The Next Progression of Derivatives Markets – Distributed Ledger Technologies and Decentralized Exchanges.

The webinar was hosted by attorneys from Perkins Coie.

Traditionally, cryptocurrency have been traded on centralized exchanges (CEX).

CEX was defined in the webinar in one slide as, “an exchange platform operated by a third party intermediary that is part of the transaction flow (e.g. as an escrow like intermediary). Such an exchange is custodial in that you must deposit your digital assets into an exchange account.”

A decentralized exchange (DEX) “is typically a non-custodial exchange where the user maintains their digital assets in their own digital wallet and simply utilizes to the exchange to execute peer-to-peer transactions.”

A CEX operates similarly to a clearinghouse, which steps in between a buyer and seller to guarantee all transactions.

On the other hand, CEX are vulnerable to cyberattacks.

In May 2019, Binance announced that hackers had stolen approximately $40 million worth of bitcoin on its centralized exchange.

Here is part of a story in wired.

“BINANCE IS ONE of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchanges. As of Tuesday, it’s now also the scene of a major cryptocurrency theft. In what the company calls a “large-scale security breach,” hackers stole not only 7,000 bitcoin—equivalent to over $40 million—but also some user two-factor authentication codes and API tokens.

“Theft has long been endemic to cryptocurrency; hackers stole more than $356 million from exchanges and infrastructure in the first three months of 2019 alone.”

Binance rolled out a decentralized exchange in April 2019.

Here is how a DEX might operate, according to a slide.

“Alex places an offer by submitting a transaction to a blockchain smart contract. Blake places a bid by submitting a transaction to a blockchain smart contract, and either a smart contract matches these parties or one of the parties selects their counter party from an off chain order book and facilitates the transfer of digital assets among them entirely on chain.”

A smart contract, a slide noted, is, “a computer protocol- an algorithm, that can self-execute, self-enforce, self-verify, and self-constrain the performance of its instruments.”

This decentralized process ensures against hacking.

“There will be not be any intermediaries moving those funds at any point in time. It will be either by you holding, as the maker, or the taker holding the funds, and that as long as the blockchain is functioning as it’s intended to, that synchronicity in will ensure that there will not be that leak in the chain where the funds could be taken by a hacker.” Said Andrew Cross of Perkins Coie, explaining how DEX virtually guarantees against hacking.

While the technology holds great promise, the regulation surrounding it continues to be murky.

In one slide, they identified numerous regulators who have expressed interest in oversight: the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), FINCEN, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), OFAC, FSOC, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), and other state agencies.

As a slide noted, all these regulatory cooks in the kitchen have made the regulatory framework murky.

“Nevertheless, there is very little in terms of law or regulation on the books relating to these technologies and few have issued helpful guidance,” the slide noted.

Furthermore, some may be under the assumption that DEX is simply software and, thus, not obligated to be properly registered with an appropriate regulator.

This is an inaccurate assumption, The SEC notes that a trading platform is “a market place or facilities for binging together purchaers and sellers of securities or for otherwise performing with respect to securities the functions commonly performed by an exchange.”

One DEX found out the hard way, EtherDelta Order. Here is part of an SEC press release.

“According to the SEC’s order, EtherDelta is an online platform for secondary market trading of ERC20 tokens, a type of blockchain-based token commonly issued in Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). The order found that Coburn caused EtherDelta to operate as an unregistered national securities exchange.

“EtherDelta provided a marketplace for bringing together buyers and sellers for digital asset securities through the combined use of an order book, a website that displayed orders, and a ‘smart contract’ run on the Ethereum blockchain. EtherDelta’s smart contract was coded to validate the order messages, confirm the terms and conditions of orders, execute paired orders, and direct the distributed ledger to be updated to reflect a trade.”

Furthermore, transactions which are off book. Another slide provided an example.

“Ale places an offer and it is listed in an off-chain order book. Blake places a bid in the order, the matched transactions is broadcasted by the platform to a smart contract that facilitates the transfer of digital assets among them on-chain.”

The next slide showed the complex regulatory framework of this type of transaction.

The consequences may just be the stunting of financial technology innovation.

“The policy and regulatory response to FinTech has been tepid in stark contrast to the mania for anything in token form. Although many U.S. regulators, including the CFTC, have created FinTech hubs to engage technologists, legal practitioners, and investors, most of these efforts have yet to move us beyond contemplation… As we ponder our priorities, ongoing regulatory uncertainty may be leading firms to delay the launch of new innovations or to choose not to launch them in the U.S.—a potential economic and national security risk none of us should discount.” Said CFTC Commissioner Rostin Behnam.

Roboforex Joins Belarus ARFIN to Consolidate Eastern Expansion

May 30, 2019 by Ricardo Esteves Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: ESMA, Ethereum, Litecoin, Neo, Roboforex

RoboForex BY, the Belarus-based retail FX broker that is affiliated with Belize-regulated broker RoboForex, has joined the Financial Market Development Association (ARFIN), which requires the brokerage firm to comply with the Rules of Market and Professional Conduct, including principles of transparency and fair practice.

The broker house stated that their decision to expand to Belarus was in part due to existing popularity for their products in Belarus and Commonwealth of Independent States which is made up of 10 post-Soviet republics in Eurasia region. The move is also a reaction to ESMA’s recent restrictions on leverage.

The Financial Market Development Association is a non-commercial union of organizations based in the Republic of Belarus founded in 2013 in order to unite companies that operate on the OTC Forex market.

The Belarus affiliate has received a license of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus in April 2019, which grants the firm an authorization to offer Cent, Standard, ECN, and Affiliate account services to residents of Belarus and other countries. The trading offering includes access to 97 Forex trading instruments, Metals, Commodities, Indices, and CFDs on stocks, which will be available through the most popular trading terminal in the world, MetaTrader 4.Andrei Dziarnovich, Chief Executive Officer at RoboForex BY, commented: “A month ago, we received the license of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus. Now, we’re joining ARFIN, the association, which protects interests of clients and expands civilized trading on the Forex market in the first place. All these steps are driven by our intentions to provide quality and competitive services on global financial markets.”

The parent company, RoboForex Ltd, has been providing its services since 2009 and holds brokerage license IFSC/60/271/TS from financial authorities in Belize.

The company has recently announced that clients may deposit funds into their BTC accounts by the means of other currencies, with the sum deposited in alternate cryptocurrency being automatically converted at the real-time according to the prevailing exchange at the time of depositing. RoboForex will be allowing deposit cryptocurrencies in BTC accounts with 40 different cryptocurrencies including the most popular ones: Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, NEO, LiteCoin and others. Bucking the trend, the broker announced leverage of up to 1:50 for clients involved in cryptocurrency trading. This launch comes amidst when the whole fx industry across the European Union is grappling with reduced leverage on the account of the new regulatory crackdown.

LiquidShare to Use ConsenSys’ Blockchain on Post-Trade Settlement

May 17, 2019 by Ricardo Esteves Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: Blockchain, ConsenSys, digital currency, equities markets, Ethereum, financial industry, LiquidShare, market, Post-Trade Settlement, transaction, transparency

LiquidShare has entered into a partnership with ConsenSys’ PegaSys team in order to bring blockchain into its European post-trade settlement infrastructure for shares in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Over the past year, LiquidShare has worked to produce a private and permissioned platform built on Ethereum with the business logic coded in smart contracts to model their cash, security, and delivery versus payment mechanisms. The usage of the blockchain allows a peer-to-peer to settlement between custodian nodes for listed and non-listed shares, removing friction costs and providing transparency to SMEs.

LiquidShare successfully executed pilots with 15 financial institutions, including BNP Paribas and Société Générale as custodians, at the end of 2018. The platform is now live on parent company Euronext’s markets and connects to asset managers’, broker-dealers’ and custodians’ information systems, enabling them to more easily invest in and process listed and non-listed European SMEs.

PegaSys is developing a Java-based enterprise version of the Ethereum client, Pantheon, with a focus on transaction throughput, privacy, and specialized validation features. LiquidShare intends to take advantage of Pantheon’s advanced enterprise features and enter its production phase at the end of 2019. All LiquidShare services will be fully compatible with Ethereum, a central point in the open source blockchain community, which is pioneering the asset tokenization and digitization space.

Thibaud de Maintenant, CEO of LiquidShare
Thibaud de Maintenant, CEO of LiquidShare, commented:
“We have very stringent requirements in terms of performance, privacy and security as we are building a regulated entity operating a private blockchain to register and settle in the private and public markets. PegaSys’ blockchain offering will help us achieve scalability and finality in this stringent regulatory environment.”
Daniel Heyman, PegaSys Program Director, said:
“We are building the gold-standard for enterprise blockchain that can support multiple use cases in a private blockchain, and also have the possibility of leveraging the advantages of the public Ethereum blockchain.
Joe Lubin, Founder at ConsenSys
LiquidShare is one of the most advanced use cases in the financial industry, and we are excited to work with them on bringing production systems to market.”
Joe Lubin, Founder at ConsenSys, commented:
“LiquidShare is an industry-changing technology for equities markets and a powerful example of Ethereum’s enterprise-readiness. The collaboration with PegaSys shows the power of Pantheon, its enterprise features, and the growing interest in using an Enterprise Ethereum built for mainnet compatibility.”

Asian Markets Mixed, ASX 200 Snaps a Four-Session Positive Streak

April 29, 2019 by Nikolas Papas Leave a Comment Filed Under: Market News - European Open Tagged: bankof canada, Bitcoin, Bitfinex, Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies, economy, Ethereum, EUR-USD, Iran sanctions, monetary policy, RBA, trading platform

Asian stocks finished mixed for one more day after a strong GDP figure from the USA on Friday and Europe continues to struggle under the weight of weaker economic data and political uncertainty. The Hang Seng benchmark in Hong Kong finished 0.90 percent higher at 29,875. Japanese markets are closed for 10 consecutive days. The Shanghai Composite is underperforming, finishing 0.77 percent lower at 3,067 and in Singapore, the FTSE Straits Times index finished 1.46 percent higher at 3,405. Australian equities came under pressure on Monday, held down by falls in the Financial, Energy, Telco, and Industrials sectors. The ASX 200 lost 26 points or 0.4% to 6,359, snapping a four-session positive streak which saw the market hit an 11 year high.

European session started with gains as traders focused on a steady stream of corporate results from US corporate heavyweights and better Q1 GDP reading from the USA. DAX30 is 0.35 percent higher to 12,358, CAC40 is 0.30 percent higher at 5,585 while FTSE100 in London is 0.07 percent lower at 7,433 and the FTSE MIB in Milan is trading 0.41 percent higher at 21,826.

In commodities markets, crude oil continues the correction lower from five-month high giving up one dollar at 62.97 as markets digest the US additional sanctions on Iran. Oil industry analysts expect that the sanctions could potentially remove up to 1.2 million barrels of oil per day from international markets. The near-term upside target that we have at the 65.00 figure has materialized, and now the $67 area is the next target as the bullish momentum builds up. Brent oil is also trading lower at $71,82 per barrel. Gold bearish momentum is still intact but the precious metal rebounds from previous week low adding 3 dollars to 1283 hitting the low at $1281. XAUUSD technical picture is negative, and now the support stands at the 200-day moving average down to $1250, which if broken can accelerate the downward move to 1200 as sellers are in full control. Strong resistance stands at the $1300 round figure and then at the 50-day moving average around $1303.

In cryptocurrencies market, bitcoin (BTCUSD) whose market capitalization accounts for more than half of all other cryptocurrencies combined, consolidates above the 5,000 mark after it lost over 300 dollars from high at $5,600 (five-month high. The New York Attorney General has taken on Friday action against Bitfinex and crushed crypto investor’s sentiment. Hong Kong-based iFinex Inc., which operates the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange and owns Tether Ltd., has been commingling client and corporate funds to cover up the missing funds, which occurred in mid-2018 and hadn’t been disclosed publicly. The daily low for BTC was at 5,104 and daily high at 5,179. BTCUSD immediate support stands at the 200-day moving average at 5,091 while the next strong support stands at the $5,000 level and then at the daily low at 4,937. On the upside, strong resistance stands at 5600 the recent high. Ethereum (ETHUSD) is lower for the second day at 152 but holding above the 50-day moving average at 138, facing the immediate resistance at 185 the 200-day moving average, while Litecoin (LTCUSD) trades at 67.72 down 4 dollars from Friday level. The cryptocurrencies market cap holds above $160.0B.

On the Lookout:

The International Monetary Fund in its latest review on the Saudi Arabian economy for this year noted that the country needs oil at least at $85 to balance the budget.

In Australia, for the second consecutive quarterly survey, Victoria and NSW share the title of the best-performing economy.

The big focus on the US macro front will be the US personal income, and spending data is released along with the Dallas Federal Reserve manufacturing index.

Trading Perspective: In fx markets, the US dollar holds to recent gains for the fourth straight day at 97.89 figure supported by stronger US GDP. A stronger US dollar will likely increase the US trade deficit, adding risk that Trump administration continues to target those nations with a significant trade surplus with the US (China – Germany – Europe). The Aussie dollar continues the rebound from previous week low and trades at 0.7048 as cash rate futures now see a 71.0% probability of a rate cut in the next RBA meeting coming in two weeks. Kiwi trades flat in a narrow trading range at 0.6660.

GBPUSD Daily Chart

GBPUSD is trading 0.22 percent higher at 1.2944 area, after hitting the two-month lows in the previous week and started a slow recovery above 1.29. On the downside, major support will be found at 1.2880 the low from the previous week and then at 1.2830 the support line from February. On the flipside, immediate resistance stands at 1.2961 the 200-day moving average.

In GBP futures markets noted open interest increased by around 3K contracts on Friday, while volume advanced more than 2.1K contracts.

EURUSD made a new 22 month low at 1.1115 last Thursday as sellers are in full control. The pair made the Asian high at 1.1165 and the low at 1.1144. Immediate support can be found at 1.1115 the yearly low, and further bids will emerge at 1.11 round figure. On the upside, the 100-hour moving average is the immediate resistance at 1.1174 while more offers will emerge at 1.1212 the 200-hour moving average.

In Euro futures markets, traders added nearly 1.7K contracts to their open interest positions on Friday from Thursday’s final 511,041 contracts. The volume went up by almost 28K contracts, reversing the previous drop.

EURUSD Hourly (H1) Chart

USDJPY continues its consolidation around 111.75 zone after failing to hold above 112 level that managed to break last week. Today the pair hit the low at 111.53 and the high at 111.77. Major support for the pair stands at 111.51 the 200-day moving average and then at 111 round figure if the pair manages to break below the 100-day simple moving average at 111.10. Immediate resistance for the pair stands at 112.18 the April 2019 high.

In JPY futures markets, the open interest shrunk by around 5.5K contracts on Friday, according to advanced data from CME Group. Volume followed suit, down by nearly 5.5K contracts after three consecutive daily builds.

USDCAD consolidates lower, from 16 weeks high, after dovish Bank of Canada and trades at 1.3465. The pair will find immediate support at the 100-hour moving average around 1.3432 while extra support stands at 1.3396 and the 200-day moving average which if breached will drive prices down to 1.33 key support. On the upside, immediate resistance stands at 1.3570 a break of which can escalate the rebound towards 1.3630.

Spotware Launches cTrader Package for Startup Forex Brokers

April 18, 2019 by Ricardo Esteves Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Coinmarketcap, Cryptocurrencies, Cryptocurrency exchange, ctrader, cXchange, Ethereum, FX and CFD brokers, ICO, Spotware Systems, trading platform, White Label solutions

cTrader

The platform allows startup brokers to stay in control of trading operations via a powerful admin panel, where they can manage trading settings and clients, use marketing tools, generate transparent reports and conduct risk management.

Spotware Systems, the creator of leading retail FX trading platform cTrader, has announced the launch of a fully supported solution for startup retail forex FX and CFD brokers, including access to global infrastructure and hosting in LD5, ongoing technical support from Spotware and regular updates with new features.

James Glyde, Chief Commercial Officer at Spotware Systems, commented:

“Brokers can reach their clients from any part of the world, thanks to our global infrastructure network and the localization of platform into 22 languages. With more than 100 experts in-house, cTrader is very flexible and able to adjust to traders’ demands and industry trends allowing brokers to stay ahead of the competition. Due to its ultra-scalable and open architecture, the solution is fast to install, easy to scale and integrate with third-party providers. This ensures fast time to market and saves a number of costs that can be spent elsewhere.”

Spotware’s offering includes an “All in One Platform”, where the cTrader trading platform provides any type of trader with advanced trading, charting and technical analysis tools for manual trading, algorithmic trading features, copy trading service suitable for PAMM managers, and a native IB Program.

The cTrader platform is translated into 22 languages, which opens a number of markets for the new players within the trading industry who choose Spotware. cTrader’s open and scalable architecture is easily connectable to any liquidity providers and 3rd party apps.

Spotware has recently announced the launch of a new breed of turnkey White Label solutions which feature additional tools such as extended Client office and a cryptocurrency offering.

The fintech firm launched cXchange to help businesses launching their own cryptocurrency exchange with everything needed out-of-the-box. The company appointed Alexander Geralis as Chief Product Officer to oversee the product’s development and raise awareness of the digital asset exchange solution on the international arena.

Pre-integrated with Coinmarketcap, so that Spotware customers can be listed the day they reach the required 24h trading volume, cXchange features all the top market-cap cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum and Ripple, with the possibility of adding a large range of popular ICOs and Tokens without extra cost.

CMC Markets Adds Seven Cryptocurrencies, Cuts Spreads by 50%

April 16, 2019 by Ricardo Esteves Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: Bitcoin, Cardano, CFD broker, CMC Markets, cryptocurrency, Cryptocurrency exchange, Dash, EOS, Ethereum, investment, Litecoin, Monero, Neo, Ripple, trading platform, Tron

CMC Markets

CMC Markets has updated its cryptocurrency offering to include seven new digital currencies – taking the total number of coins available to trade to twelve – and has lowered the margins for professional clients across all their original cryptocurrencies as well as spreads for both retail and professional clients across all their original cryptocurrencies.

The UK FCA-regulated broker, one of the world’s leading contracts for different (CFD) providers, has announced the ability to spread bet and trade CFDs on Dash, EOS, Monero, NEO, Stellar, Cardano, and TRON. Customers were already able to spread bet and trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and Ripple.

As the cryptocurrency market grows in volumes and awareness, competition within the industry tends to tighten. To face the new competitors, CMC Markets has decided to also lower the spreads on their previously tradable cryptocurrency CFDs by an average of 50 percent.

David Fineberg, Group Commercial Director at CMC Markets

David Fineberg, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, commented:

“Recently we have seen that cryptocurrencies are being rediscovered by traders. The volatility seen in early 2018 has subsided making them a less risky, and increasingly attractive, asset class. By expanding our offering, we are now able to satisfy our customers’ desires for alternatives to the original Bitcoin and Ethereum. Not only is the number of tradable crypto-CFDs impressive, but we have also improved the trading conditions for our clients by providing some of the lowest spreads in the industry*.”

Established in 1989, CMC Markets serves retail and institutional clients through regulated offices and branches in 15 countries, with a significant presence in the UK, Australia, Germany, and Singapore. While its financial spread betting offering is available only in the UK and Ireland for legal reasons, the broker enables clients to trade up to 10,000 financial instruments across shares, indices, foreign currencies, commodities and treasuries through CFDs.

The broker first launched cryptocurrency spread bets and CFDs to its professional client base in March 2018. In August 2018, CMC Markets expanded the offering across its retail client base, also allowing clients to take a position on the original Bitcoin and Ethereum cryptocurrencies paired against the US dollar.

Asian Stocks Mixed, Oil Consolidates at Five Month High

April 4, 2019 by Nikolas Papas Leave a Comment Filed Under: Market News - European Open Tagged: Bitcoin, Brexit, Brexit votes, Brokers, China-US trade negotiations, Cryptocurrencies, economy, Ethereum, EUR-USD, Litecoin, monetary policy, RBA, Sino-U.S. trade talks, trading platform

Asian stocks finished mixed close to seven-month highs as reports favored the US-China trade deal, and PM Theresa May said she would seek another Brexit extension, voicing her opposition to a no-deal Brexit and called for urgent talks with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to break the deadlock. In Japan, the Nikkei225 main index added 0.05 percent to 21,724, the Hang Seng benchmark in Hong Kong finished 0.17 percent lower at 29,936. The Shanghai Composite outperformed for one more day, finishing 0.94 percent higher at 3,246, and in Singapore, the FTSE Straits Times index gained 0.15 percent higher at 3,316. Australian equities retreated from seven-month highs on Thursday, and in the process ended a seven-session winning streak. The index closed the session with a loss of 52 points or 0.83% to close at 6232

In commodities markets, Light Crude Oil consolidates to five-month high at 62.60, holding it’s 200-day moving average as the United States is considering additional sanction on Iran and shrugs off the bearish US inventory report released yesterday, Brent oil trades lower at $69.94/barrel. Gold continues the consolidation at $1291 area. XAUUSD technical picture is neutral, and now immediate support stands at 100-day moving average at $1277, which can accelerate the downward move down to new YTD lows at the 200-day moving average at $1247. Strong resistance now stands at the $1300 round figure and then at the 50-day moving average, expect the bears to defend $1307 with full force.

Cautious vibes spill over to the European session mirroring mixed Asian equities markets as investors watch the developments surrounding Brexit and news that US and China are moving close to a final trade agreement, DAX30 gains 0.15 percent to 11,970, CAC40 is 0.25 percent lower at 5,455 while FTSE100 in London is 0.43 lower at 7,386 and the FTSE MIB in Milan is trading 0.36 percent lower at 21,679.

In cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin (BTCUSD) consolidates at recent highs and trades at 4,900, and it is now facing the key 200-day moving average at $5,233. Bitcoin will find resistance at the 50-hour moving average at 4,514. The rally in BTC triggered bids across the industry with Ethereum (ETHUSD) trading now at 165 and Litecoin (LTCUSD) jumping to 79.90.

On the Lookout: China-US relations will be in focus today after it emerged overnight that US President Trump will meet with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He as trade talks between the two nations continue in Washington. In Brexit talks between Prime Minister Theresa May and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn were said to have been “constructive”, with more meetings to follow.

In Germany macro figures, the new industrial orders for February dropped by a painful 4.2% MoM, from a slightly upwardly-revised 2.1% MoM drop in January. Bloomberg reports that Italy will cut 2019 GDP growth forecast to 0.1% from 1.0%.

Trading Perspective: It is a quiet day in forex markets, AUDUSD is trading 0.01 percent higher at 0.7114 after RBA kept interest rates unchanged. Kiwi continues the rebound from the losses yesterday at 0.6770. US dollar index gets some bids in early European morning at 96.78.

GBPUSD Hourly (H1) Chart

GBPUSD is trading 0.14 percent lower to 1.3142 as investors digest the news from the UK as MPs narrowly voted in favour of asking May to request an extension to avoid a no-deal Brexit. On the downside, major support will be found at 1.3133 at the 50-hour moving average while more protection can be found at the 50-day moving average around 1.3098. On the flipside, immediate resistance stands at 1.3195 the high from Asian session, and from there major resistance can be found at 1.3232 while 1.3382 the yearly high will be met with strong supply.

In GBP futures markets, open interest went down by more than 2K contracts on Wednesday from the previous day. In the same line, volume dropped by around 17.7K contracts.

EURUSD holds above 1.12 trading with 0.06 percent loses at 1.1226 but below the horizontal support line of the three-month trading range. The pair needs to break above 1.13 to give bulls a breath and then approach the 50-day moving average at 1.1329 to establish short term bullish momentum. Immediate support can be found at the 100-hour moving average around 1.1215.

In Euro futures markets, open interest scaled back their open interest positions by more than 2K contracts on Wednesday from Thursday’s final 497,717 contracts. Volume, instead rose for the first time after four consecutive daily drops, this time by around 14.4K contracts.

USDJPY is down 0.06 percent lower to the 111,42 zone having hit the low at 111.32. Major support for the pair stands at 111 round figure if the pair manages to break below the 100-day simple moving average at 111.10. Immediate resistance for the pair stands at 112.06 the March 2019 high.

Open interest in JPY futures markets rose by nearly 7.7K contracts on Wednesday, while volume also increased by almost 25.2K contracts, reversing two consecutive daily drops.

USDJPY Daily Chart

IronX Announces Public Launch of Crypto Exchange

March 29, 2019 by Ricardo Esteves Leave a Comment Filed Under: Industry News Tagged: Bitcoin, Crypto Exchange, cryptocurrency, Dimitris Hatzis, EmurgoHK, EOS, Ethereum, Eurobank, Eurobank EFG, FIU, IronFX, IronFX Group, Middle East

IronX, the cryptocurrency exchange developed by retail forex broker IronFX Group and EmurgoHK – the creator of the Cardano digital currency – has announced its official Limited Public Launch on March 28. Upon registration and KYC approval, customers will automatically earn 10 IRX.

Dimitris Hatzis, Chief Executive Officer at IronX, said: “IronX’s goal is not to only grow the number of cryptocurrencies and fiats available for trade but to also provide high-quality customer support, with security as our core focus. We want everyone looking to trade in cryptocurrencies, from newcomers to experienced traders to do so with confidence in a safe trading environment.”

The IronX platform allows trading in both fiat (USD, EUR, and JPY) and cryptocurrencies (BTC, ETH, IRX, PMA, ADA, EOS, LTC, NEO, XLM, XRP and XTZ). Customers who choose to pay trading fees with IRX will benefit from a 50 percent discount.

Crypto Exchange

Traders at IronX can count with the renowned IronFX brand for reassurance that the crypto trading platform features competitive exchange rates, a vast number of order types including market, limit and stop, and easy fiat-to-crypto conversion,Comprehensive customer coverage, exclusive service offerings and 50% discount for trading fees paid with IRX.

Additionally, a referral program was set up to boost the trading firm’s onboarding numbers. IronX announced that bonus on the referral trading fees include:

● 20% if they hold less than 12,500 IRX ($5,000)

● 40% if they hold 12,500 IRX ($5,000)

● 50% if they hold 25,000 IRX ($10,000)

The fully regulated cryptocurrency trading exchange sold 67.6 million tokens in a Private Sale by Invitation, with a market value of $22.3 million. Their Public Token Sale began last week and is still ongoing.

The exchange has a full regulatory licence from the Estonian Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and security audit conducted by the leaders in blockchain security Hosho and Hacken.

Dimitris Hatzis was announced Chief Executive Officer of IronX in late 2018. Hatzis is a trading industry veteran and the current Group Chief Operating Officer at IronFX, to where he joined in 2013. Prior to that, he played several executive roles in investment banking, including head of leverage finance at Eurobank EFG, and head of regional investment banking at Eurobank, both jobs located in Athens, Greece.

In August 2017, IronFX raised $100 million investment from a Middle East family office through a fund based in Singapore. The company planned to use the funds to expand its markets of coverage and launch additional brands, as well as to acquire existing brands and books of business.