Author: David Kimberley

Lucid Trading spends nothing on marketing. So how do they get more traffic than any other prop firm in the industry?

David Shayer and Mansoor Mushtaq are both set to leave the UK entity of Vantage.

Find out how using cTrader Leads can support your brokerage firm’s growth.

The Financial Conduct Authority has finalized a new short selling framework that pushes back reporting deadlines and replaces named positions with aggregated data. The regime takes effect July 13, 2026.

Spotware announces an integration with Pelican Network, enabling brokers to launch copy trading with immediate depth, live activity and long-term scalability.

CLEO has connected its trader-facing platform with Gold-i’s liquidity management system to give prop firms a unified stack for challenge tracking, risk control, and realistic execution simulation.

The French online broker’s consolidated revenue rose to €22.1 million in Q1 2026, driven by a 20.2% jump in executed retail orders as equity market volatility prompted increased trading activity.

Moneta Funded has introduced a time-limited evaluation format that delivers fixed payouts within 1 to 8 hours, replacing multi-week assessment cycles with immediate result-based trading.

The Financial Conduct Authority opened a formal consultation on Thursday to define which crypto activities will fall under UK regulation. Firms can apply for authorisation from September 2026, with the new regime beginning in October 2027.

Trading tech executive Qu Zhao joins IG Group as Head of Japan after roles at moomoo Securities, Tinder, and BIGO. The appointment signals a shift in strategy from rebuild to customer growth in a maturing market.

Trading 212 monetises its business through CFDs. But it also market makes in commission-free stocks.

The new broker looks like an attempt to capture more mobile trading volume under a more ‘fintech’-style brand.

The exchange is running a two-week, four-track promotional campaign around its Genius token listing, with most of the reward pool reserved for new users.

The deal adds MPC-based, seed-phrase-free wallet technology to eToro’s crypto stack and signals ambitions in tokenized assets and on-chain trading models.

The broker’s CEO said the funding ensures the company can continue with a solid capital base.

The only white-label prediction markets platform with LMSR pricing and Central Limit Order Book execution built into a single unified engine, giving businesses launching in this space an infrastructure advantage their competitors cannot easily replicate.

The crypto exchange’s Q1 2026 report shows growth well beyond spot crypto, with gold, silver, crude oil, AI tools, and prediction markets all feeding a broader on-platform retention strategy.

OGBC Group founder Jayden Wei’s early-stage backing of the crypto infrastructure fund has produced its first liquidity event, less than six months after C1 Fund’s own NYSE debut.

Digital prime broker GCEX has integrated Cumberland’s spot crypto liquidity into its execution infrastructure, giving institutional clients access through its MiCA-regulated platform.

German exchange operator is buying a 1.5% fully diluted stake in the crypto platform’s parent company through a secondary transaction, deepening a partnership first announced in December 2025.

The broker opened an in-platform marketplace and developer toolkit on Tuesday, letting outside builders create, publish, and run trading and analytics applications natively inside eToro.

JustMarkets joins eToro and Tradu, who are already able to offer VASP services in the Seychelles.

Axi UK also owes the brokerage’s SVG entity $390m.

The UK arm of the broker also received £22.9m in income from a related entity, taking net income to £18m.

The AFM says AI can amplify market manipulation without explicit coordination and that information itself has become a vulnerability, as the regulator sharpens supervision of algorithmic trading and AI use.

The Frankfurt-based exchange group is co-investing with private markets asset manager 7RIDGE to strengthen its custom indexing capabilities through MerQube’s cloud-native platform.

OSE launched USD/JPY, EUR/JPY and CNH/JPY futures alongside ‘Pocket’ gold and platinum contracts sized at 100 grams, targeting both institutional hedgers and retail investors on a single venue.

The European regulator has released standardized templates and instructions for EMIR 3’s Active Account Requirement, giving in-scope firms a fixed reporting timetable and a first filing window that spans more than a year of clearing activity.

Vantage will halt all PAMM services for UK customers on May 13th.

XTB will be able to engage in market making and offer managed investment products by holding the two licenses.

The Ontario Securities Commission has opened enforcement proceedings against Emerita Resources Corp. and six individuals, alleging the fraudulent diversion of a Brazilian lithium asset into a newly formed company and years of misleading disclosure on a Spanish zinc project.

The Swiss issuer cross-listed staking-linked and newer-token products on Deutsche Börse’s exchange, extending a lineup that generated over $4.6 billion in turnover during 2025.

Cyprus-based fintech infrastructure provider bundles regulated fiat banking with centralized exchange engine into a single-vendor deployment, pitching orchestration over component assembly.

FTMO pays out to approximately 3.7% of traders in order to make its profit margin.

The federal regulator filed for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order in Arizona, escalating a preemption battle over whether states can apply gambling laws to CFTC-regulated event contracts.

The brokerage group found ‘Is [broker] a scam?’ is the most common AI search prompt, signalling a shift away from review sites toward synthesized trust checks.

Switzerland’s financial regulator has published a supervisory notice on digital fraud risks, citing weaknesses in operational risk management and anti-money-laundering prevention across the banking sector.

Gibraltar licensed its first prediction market operator under the 2005 Gambling Act, and FIFA created a new commercial category to pair the platform with the World Cup 2026.

Bitwise’s seventh European staking ETP targets the HYPE token with a 0.85% TER and 1% target net staking reward, landing six weeks after CoinShares listed a rival product with a 0% management fee.

ATFX Connect’s Q2 report looks at growing volatility in commodities, precious metals, and currencies.

Companies using Gold-i’s bridging product will be able to tap into Scope Prime’s leading crypto CFD liquidity.

FundingRock will use Spotware’s cTrader platform to provide funded trading services to its customers.

Spotware introduces cTrader Leads, a new programme that helps brokers attract prospective traders through cTrader products, and drive conversion to live trading at no extra cost.

ETF issuer Defiance ETFs listed XAIL on Cboe Exchange on Wednesday, giving active traders 200% daily exposure to a concentrated basket of companies directly involved in the commercial space economy.

The crypto exchange is using Beeks Exchange Cloud to power a managed colocation offering aimed at both institutional and individual traders, bringing crypto venue infrastructure closer to traditional low-latency market norms.

Crypto exchange MEXC has promoted its chief operating officer to the top job, packaging the move with a rebrand and plans to expand into MT5-based assets, prediction markets and equities.

The broker signed a service provider agreement with MBME Pay on Thursday, giving UAE clients a physical cash-funding route into trading accounts via a nationwide kiosk network.

TradeCore plans on launching an all in one platform for brokers – from CRM to trading platform.

Ahmmed spent the last few years with OneRoyal, overseeing the broker’s efforts in Asia and Oman.

International trading volumes at the world’s largest derivatives exchange rose 30% year-on-year, with every major asset class and every region outside the US setting all-time quarterly records.

The Australian regulator said it took down 90% more phishing and investment scam sites than the previous year, warning that AI-generated videos, fake endorsements and cloaking tactics are making scam funnels harder to detect.

Sebbata joins the firm from Capital.com, where he was Head of M&A and Corporate Development.

Lewis was most recently working for FUNNELCROSS – a marketing agency he founded in 2020.

The derivatives exchange plans to list AVAX and SUI futures on May 4, adding to an altcoin lineup that already includes Cardano, Chainlink and Stellar contracts.

Cboe Global Markets reported a string of monthly and quarterly records in March 2026, led by a 28.6% year-over-year jump in index options and an all-time high in FX spot trading.

Brokerage group XM will give traders unlimited cashback, which is fully withdrawable.

Estonian entity’s voluntary Tier 2 bond repurchase drew orders from 99 investors, well below the 13,535-bond cap, as the company tidies its balance sheet ahead of a planned licence withdrawal.

Melbourne-based financial adviser David Lofthouse has been banned for three years after ASIC found he advised six clients to place at least 75% of their super into the Shield Master Fund.

The crypto exchange says the reserve will sit on top of its Proof of Reserves framework, but has not yet disclosed the fund’s trigger conditions, custody structure, or governance rules.

Crypto exchange Bitget has launched a dedicated sub-account for its AI agent, GetClaw, allowing it to execute live trades autonomously, the latest step in a three-month infrastructure push.

Online broker Axi started a live education series targeting beginner traders across Latin America on Monday, blending technical instruction with behavioural coaching in a bid to build trust with novice clients in the region.

Leverate’s MT4/5 Hosting and Broker Review service continuously tracks server performance KPIs and recommends hosting locations based on real trader distribution, giving operators a measurable edge on execution and retention.

IC is one of the largest FX/CFD brokers in the world. It’s an amazing broker for pure-play traders as it offers arguably the best gold and FX spreads in the trading industry, with great technology and execution to back that up.

FundedNext is often regarded as a top 3 prop firm, which this figure would match with.

The UK FCA-authorised digital securities venue adds a high-profile regulated banking infrastructure figure as it builds out its tokenised assets marketplace and participates in the Bank of England and FCA Digital Securities Sandbox.

Futures prop firm Tradeify has added Australian cricketer Travis Head to its growing sports ambassador roster, with branding set to appear on his bat across all competitions.

Australia’s corporate regulator has disqualified Ashod Balanian from managing corporations over governance failures at three companies tied to a cryptocurrency fund, citing non-cooperation with liquidators and unlicensed operations.

Companies can use Match-Trader to offer prediction markets as a standalone product or as part of a wider offering of forex and prop trading.

The trading platform has activated cryptoasset trading for New Yorkers, closing a long-standing gap in its US product rollout. The licenses underpinning the launch were secured back in 2023.

Dubai-based forex and CFD broker FP Trading has introduced client asset insurance underwritten through the Lloyd’s market, citing protection against fraud and internal misconduct. Key policy details remain undisclosed.

Chicago-based Topstep has acquired proprietary futures trading firm The Futures Desk, bringing its co-founders and technology in-house to strengthen trader development tools on TopstepX.

Combined cash-market turnover across Xetra and Frankfurt rose roughly 24% from February but was only marginally above the year-earlier figure, suggesting a seasonal pickup rather than a shift in trajectory.

Traders can win up to $888 from their gold trading activity in April on Versus Trade.

Webull UK is joining several peers with no fee trades in an increasingly competitive UK stock market.

NinjaTrader joins IG, Freetrade, and several other retail brokers using Adclear to automate finprom compliance.

The Krak Metal Mastercard requires a 30-day average balance of at least £50,000 or €50,000 across Kraken’s platforms, offering 2% cashback and fee-free foreign exchange spending.

We talk to IC Funded General Manager Petros Kalaitzis about what the group has planned for its revamped prop firm.

cTrader reaches 2,000 Trustpilot reviews, reflecting strong user feedback, growing global recognition and continued focus on a high-quality trading experience.

The brokerage group reported revene of £25.3m for 2025, a sizeable increase on 2024.

The retail broker published preliminary platform activity figures covering March 1 through March 27, offering investors an early look at equities, options, crypto and event contract volumes ahead of Q1 earnings.

A consent order from the Southern District of New York resolves the CFTC’s civil case against Peken Global Limited, imposing a $500,000 penalty and a permanent injunction tied to foreign board of trade registration.

The London payments firm said Asia-Pacific processing volume climbed 71% year over year, alongside a third straight year of 50% net revenue growth. The update comes as Checkout.com scales hiring across key hubs and positions for AI-led checkout protocols.

Austin was one of several long-time IG executives to move to Capital.com over the last few years.

“At XM, our focus is not on short-term wins but on the long-term responsibility we hold toward our global traders,” said the Group co-CEO of XM Menelaos Menelaou.

The Australian regulator found the Victorian adviser impersonated other advisers, used template advice and outsourced key advice steps to an unlicensed third party, in a case that overlaps with ASIC’s broader crackdown on lead-generation-driven super switching.

The US has become a popular hub for financial gaming – even if CFDs are still prohibited.

The exchange operator’s latest direct cash investment, plus anticipated secondary purchases, completes its obligations under the investment arrangement announced in October 2025.

Oztures Trading Pty Ltd misclassified more than 85% of its Australian client base as wholesale investors over nine months, exposing 524 retail clients to high-risk crypto derivatives and resulting in more than A$12 million in losses and fees.

The order follows a show cause notice from November 2025 and adds to a regulatory record that includes a 2019 adjudication tied to trading in Pawansut Holdings Limited.

FTMO has suddenly switched how it defines its payouts. We look at why.

Dunn has worked at IG Group for more than two decades and held a number of senior trading roles.

cTrader Store Affiliate Programme gives partners two independent revenue
streams instead of one, expanding conversion opportunities beyond the broker signup without
disrupting their existing setup.

The new platform connects companies with retail investors.

The new product allows the company’s B2B clients to access gold trading outside of normal market hours.

Brokers and prop firms offering C2C can now give their clients access to TradingView charts.

Biggs is filling the role that ex-Trading Director Adam Blemings vacated at the start of this year.

Scope Markets is a respected FX/CFD broker that was first launched in 2014. We like the broker’s attractive pricing, range of markets, and strong corporate governance.

India’s securities regulator has moved the TradeTron crackdown from notices to formal enforcement.

The liquidity provider has also already surpassed that figure in its current financial year.

The CFTC’s Division of Market Oversight expanded its post-Brexit no-action framework on Tuesday, adding two more UK trading facilities to the eligible venues list in Staff Letter 24-11.