NCET, Gary Gensler, Israeli Arrests, FX Revenues, XRP Whales: Editor’s Pick

October 10, 2021

It’s that time of the week when we take a look back at the news stories that dominated the worlds of Forex, Fintech, and Crypto, in our best of the week segment.

XRP Whale Moves 20 Million Coins to Bitso Exchange

The trading week kicked off with news of a big XRP transaction. Finance Magnates reported on Monday, one transaction worth $20.3 million that involved the movement of 20 million XRP coins to the cryptocurrency exchange Bitso.

In a separate transfer, an XRP millionaire wallet executed a transaction worth $10.2 million on 1 October 2021

Guy Grinberg One of 26 Named in Israel FX/Crypto Raid

Making waves on Wednesday morning was the news that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Israel Police raided a Tel Aviv-based company and arrested 26 Israelis for their suspected involvement in running organized financial fraud. They were suspected to be part of a fraudulent cryptocurrency investment scheme.

The raids started Tuesday night went on till early morning on Wednesday. The details of the company raided and the people arrested were unknown in initial reports. However, a day later, two names of the arrested suspects surfaced -Guy Grinberg and Snir Moshe Hananya.

US Justice Department Announces National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Thursday that it has created a National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) to tackle cryptocurrency crimes.

Under the supervision of the Assistant Attorney, General Kenneth A. Polite Jr., the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team will investigate the criminal activities of virtual currency exchanges and money-laundering infrastructure actors.

The NCET will provide support in tracing and the recovery of cryptocurrency assets lost to fraud and extortion, including digital payments to ransomware groups.

Global Kapital Enters South Africa Acquiring Financial Firm Maru

KIG BV, the Dutch subsidiary of the Global Kapital Group (GKG), has acquired the South Africa-based financial service provider, Maru Asset Managers, which is licensed by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA).

With this acquisition announced on Monday, the brokerage group has entered the lucrative South African market, the second-largest economy of Africa.

OANDA Europe 2020 Revenue Jumps 148%, Turns £4.6M in Profits

OANDA Europe Limited, the UK arm of the global brokerage group, disclosed its financial results for fiscal 2020, which ended December 31. The FCA-regulated operation witnessed a massive jump in the yearly revenue and ended the year at a profit.

According to the latest Companies House filing, the revenue of the brokerage operator from the UK business came in at £29.2 million, which is almost 148 percent higher than the previous year’s figures of £11.8 million.

Though the administrative expense went up along with the skyrocketing revenue, the UK company generated £5.6 million in operating profits, compared to a loss of £3.5 million in the previous year. The net profit of the company stood at £4.56 million for the 12 months.

Read more on the OANDA Europe revenue jump here.

Plus500 Raises FY21 Revenue Expectation amid Q3 Performance

Plus500, the London-listed forex and CFDs broker, provided a trading update on Monday, stating that it has ‘delivered further positive momentum’ in the performance in the third quarter of 2021. Thus, the company is now expecting higher FY2021 revenue and EBITDA than the current compiled analysts’ consensus forecasts.

According to the current consensus forecast, the broker is expected to generate $555.8 million for the entire FY21, along with an EBITDA of $277.9 million and an EBITDA margin of 50 percent.

Read more on the Plus500 Revenue expectations here.

Cryptocurrency Ban Would Be Up to Congress, Says Gary Gensler

Gary Gensler, the Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), this week expressed his views about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency assets in a discussion with the House Committee on Financial Services.

Gensler said that the US will not follow China’s lead in banning cryptocurrencies completely. He added that any decision regarding a crypto ban would be up to Congress. “Our approach is really quite different,” Gensler said in the latest discussion.

“We are really working with the authority they (Congress) have given us. I have said this before, I think many of these tokens do meet the test of being investment contracts or a note or some other form of a security,” the SEC Chairman added.

Read more on Gary Gensler’s Bitcoin views here.

PrimeXM’s Trading Volume for September 2021 Hits $1.23 Trillion

PrimeXM released its trading volume report for September 2021 on Monday, highlighting that it hit a new milestone for its monthly trading volume. The FX technology provider reached $1.23 trillion in trading volume for the period across its four major data centers.

The record represented a surge of 31% on a yearly basis, and it crossed the previous peak reached in March 2020. Additionally, the average daily volume (ADV) for September was $44.78 billion, which was the month where PrimeXM hit an all-time high in daily trading volume on September 28 with a turnover of $85.25 billion. The total number of trades for the period was 30.37 million, which represented an increase of 12% on a monthly basis.

Read more on PrimeXM’s trading volumes here.

Binance Trading Volumes Skyrocket in September despite Regulatory Tussles

Binance reported a surge in its trading volumes despite the global crackdown announced by regulators against the company in a number of jurisdictions.

Binance’s spot crypto trading volumes accounted for $789 billion in September, which is up from the figure seen in July of $454 billion. Moreover, derivatives volumes jumped around 25% to hit the $1.7 trillion threshold

Read more on Binance’s Trading volumes here.

CMC Markets Expects £126 Million in H1 FY22 Operating Income

CMC Markets plc (LSE: CMCX) published a pre-close trading update for the first six months, from April through September, of the fiscal year 2022. The brokerage is expecting to generate a net operating income of approximately £126 million.

This came only a month after the London-headquartered global broker lowered its expectation for the entire year’s revenue, keeping it between the range of £250 million and £280 million, which is much lower than the previous expectation level of more than £330 million.

The leverage gross client income in the six months period is expected to come in at around £127 million, compared to £174 million in the same period last year.

Read more on CMC Markets Trading Update here.

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