Bitcoin, eToro SPAC, Russian FX Crackdown, Ripple SEC: Editor’s Pick

June 6, 2021

In a stable week for news, let’s take a look back at the biggest news stories from the worlds of forex, fintech and crypto, in our best of the week segment.

Bitcoin Millionaires Accelerate BTC Accumulation

Bitcoin, the world’s most valuable digital asset, reported a significant drop in the last 3 weeks as the price of BTC touched a low of nearly $31,000 on 23 May. However, the latest dip in Bitcoin has failed to stop crypto millionaires from BTC accumulation.

According to the latest data published by Santiment, one of the leading cryptocurrency analytics and tracking firms, large Bitcoin addresses holding between 100 and 10,000 BTC have added approximately 30,000 BTC in the last 7 days.

Read more on the Bitcoin millionaires BTC accumulation here.

Bitcoin’s Next Moves Could Be Crucial: What’s the Future for BTC?

Staying with Bitcoin, in a Finance Magnates analysis, we discussed what caused the May price drop, how BTC derives Its value and what the future holds for the granddaddy of digital currencies.

With expert insights from David Russell, VP of Market Intelligence at TradeStation Group and Adam Kedem, CMO of Bitcoin logic layer startup Kirobo, this is a must-read analysis of Bitcoin

Read more on Bitcoin’s next move here.

We Don’t Want Panic over Dogecoin Prices, Says Brian Brooks

Brian Brooks, former Acting Comptroller of the Currency at the USOCC, shared his views recently about Dogecoin and other cryptocurrency assets.

Brooks is serving as the CEO of Binance US and his latest comments about Dogecoin came after the world’s 7th largest cryptocurrency lost nearly 30% of its value in the last 7 days

Read what Brian Brooks has to say on Dogecoin here.

Crackdown? Russian Central Bank Blacklists Top Foreign FX Brokers

As Finance Magnates reported, the Central Bank of Russia, the country’s top financial regulator, has published a long list of foreign financial services companies on Tuesday that are blacklisted from operating in the country.

The list includes names of 1,820 companies offering financial services, around 500 of which are forex brokers including some big internationally licensed entities, like Interactive Brokers, Swissquote, Forex Club, FxOpen and Alpari, raises questions.

Additionally, the list includes many cryptocurrency trading platforms and companies offering binary options.

Read more on the Russian FX crackdown here.

XRP Remained Popular among Institutional Investors Last Week

XRP investment products saw a jump in weekly cryptocurrency inflows according to the latest report published by CoinShares. Additionally, the asset manager highlighted the growing popularity of Cardano and Polkadot.

In its latest digital asset fund flows report, CoinShares mentioned that the overall cryptocurrency investment products attracted $74 million worth of inflows last week after record outflows of $151 million in the previous two weeks. XRP investment products attracted a total of $4.5 million worth of inflows last week, compared to $3.8 million in Polkadot.

Read more on XRP’s popularity among Institutional investors here.

eToro Submits Draft Registration for Its SPAC Merger

Israeli brokerage, eToro has filed a draft registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its merger with FinTech Acquisition Corp. V, a blank check company.

Announced on Wednesday, this is the first official filing of the broker relating to the upcoming merger with the US financial markets regulator. However, it was only a draft registration statement on Form F-4 and not a prospectus for public listing.

eToro Adds 3.1 Million New Traders in Q1 2021

Staying with eToro, the retail trading platform soon to be going public, has revealed that it added 3.1 million new clients in the first quarter of 2021, which is up from the 1 million users it onboarded in the same quarter in the prior year.

The quarterly number appears more impressive compared with the 2020 figures when the broker opened 5.2 million new accounts in the whole year. The latest numbers have put the total count of traders on the platform at 20.6 million.

Additionally, trading activities on the platform skyrocketed as the platform reported a 233 percent year-over-year increase in trade execution for the quarter, which touched 210 million.

Read more on eToro’s 2021 Traders Count here.

US Court Denies SEC Access to Ripple’s Legal Communications

Ripple received another favourable ruling in its legal battle against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as Judge Sarah Netburn recently denied the US financial markets regulator access to the blockchain firm’s legal communications.

The regulator filed a motion at the beginning of this month seeking access to ‘all communications constituting, transmitting, or discussing any legal advice Ripple sought or received as to whether its offers and sales of XRP were or would be subject to federal securities laws’.

Read more on the latest Ripple SEC news here.

NFT Transaction Volume Plummets 90%: Has the NFT Bubble Burst?

NFTs did not escape May’s crypto market crashes. Was the correction healthy for NFT markets? Finance Magnates discusses.