Close Menu
  • News
    • Broker News
    • Tech News
    • Institutional trading
    • Interviews
  • Analysis
    • Newsletters
    • Prop Weekly
    • Marketing Newsletter
    • Guest Posts
  • Learn
    • Start a broker
    • FX CFD Licensing
    • Liquidity
    • Regulations
  • About
    • What is TradeInformer
    • Who runs TradeInformer?
    • Contact
  • Subscribe
LinkedIn WhatsApp YouTube
TradeInformer
Subscribe
  • News
    • Broker News
      • Exness branded youtube thumbnail for india
        Exness stops onboarding clients in India
      • crypto.com arena
        Exclusive: Crypto.com hires Leven Li to head MENA compliance
      • Damon Sze topwealthtrading managing director
        Ex-Hantec COO Damon Sze joins TopWealthTrading as Managing Director
    • Tech News
      • Fortress Core Connect and Shufti Pro branding
        Fortress Core Connect partners with Shufti Pro for AML/KYC technology
      • Team Force Technologies logo
        TeamForce Technologies integrates tech stack with cTrader platform
      • Trade Tech Solutions branding on black background
        Reward systems: The Game-Changer in prop trading technology
    • Institutional trading
      • Hilbert Group
        TradeLocker owner Deus X Capital invests $31m in Hilbert Group’s crypto treasury programme
      • ATFX Duke of Edinburgh
        ATFX Connect Joins the Duke of Edinburgh Cup City of London Qualifier 
      • Fortress Core Connect
        Fortress Core Connect gets FSCA License, strengthening local footprint in South Africa
    • Interviews
      • Yiota Hadjilouka from cTrader speaking at a panel at iFX Expo 2025
        Spotware COO: Almost 50% of new traders download cTrader Store products
      • Sam Eder, founder of broker MarketMates
        MarketMates Founder on prop, getting an ASIC license, and helping clients succeed
      • Gareth Hazelden
        Atlantic Capital Markets: Cornwall, Dubai, and a 77k client database
  • Analysis
    • Newsletters
      • Taxi in New Delhi
        Plus500 options, India, event contracts, and MAGA
      • best forex brokers UK search in Google AI Mode
        Will AI kill forex broker affiliates?
      • Limassol
        Last week in Limassol: 5 takeaways from Cyprus
    • Prop Weekly
      • Instant Funding $5,000 free challenge giveaway advertising
        Instant Funding $5,000 giveaway – 5,000 accounts, $500,000 in marketing spend
      • Trader Thomas Hartmann, owner of prop firm Funded Unicorn
        Did Funded Unicorn just cut and run with traders’ money?
      • TraxNYC picture from website
        Alpha Prime, diamond dealers, and Million Dollar Traders
    • Marketing Newsletter
      • Axi branding at Bahia football match
        Brokers are sponsoring EM sports teams
      • Pump those numbers
      • swissqote logo
        Does branding matter?
    • Guest Posts
      • Stanislav Galandzovskyi paid marketing specialist
        Where prop firms should (and shouldn’t) be looking next for growth
      • XM prizes
        XM Is Giving $500,000 in Prizes to Worldwide Partners
      • PropShield Centroid Solutions
        Centroid Solutions Announces PropShield: A Centralized Intelligence Platform to Protect the Integrity of Prop Trading Challenges
  • Learn
    • Start a broker
      • FTMO office
        How to start a prop firm for funded traders
      • Start a forex business (that isn’t a broker)
      • St Vincent and the Grenadines
        Cheapest country to start a forex broker
    • FX CFD Licensing
      • Mauritius airport
        FX/CFD license in Mauritius
      • Seychelles island
        Start a FX/CFD broker in the Seychelles
      • Labuan FSA
        Start a forex broker in Labuan
    • Liquidity
      • trading chart on a screen
        How do prop firms make money?
      • FXIFY Homepage
        What do prop trading firms do?
      • metatrader application on phone
        STP vs A-book for FX/CFD brokers
  • About
    • What is TradeInformer
    • Who runs TradeInformer?
    • Contact
YouTube LinkedIn WhatsApp
TradeInformer
YouTube LinkedIn WhatsApp
Subscribe
Home » Binance is heading to Cyprus

Binance is heading to Cyprus

August 8, 20226 Mins Read Newsletters
Share
Twitter LinkedIn Copy Link Telegram WhatsApp

In March of this year FTX acquired a CySEC licence to operate in Europe. They have since started offering a CFD-like product called Spot+ and futures trading to clients in Europe.

As a former colleague pointed out, this was probably because you cannot passport spot crypto trading across Europe as no licence exists to do so. However, you can passport across Europe with a derivatives licence.

Now it seems that Binance is stepping up to do something similar. The exchange has set up an entity in Cyprus and is purportedly going through the process of getting regulatory approval from CySEC. 

The exchange’s Cypriot entity lists Jonathan Farnell as a director. Farnell, who is based in the UK, was previously a compliance director at eToro and joined Binance in April of this year. 

That same month, Demetra Charalambous, previously eToro EU’s head of finance, joined the exchange with him. She is based in Cyprus and, as with Farnell, her role seems geared towards the regulatory side of things.

Far away on the other side of the world, Binance received a licence in Australia at the end of last month to start offering CFD trading to institutions and professional investors. It’s unlikely the company will only want to act as a liquidity provider in the country and so it’s probably the case that they’ll ultimately look to get licensed to attract retail clients too.

At the same time as Binance was getting its ASIC licence, FTX’s US division launched cash equities trading and confirmed it would be looking to launch options trading as well. The company claims it won’t be relying on payment for order flow to make money, but given the tiny fees they’re charging it seems plausible they’re making a book on that flow themselves.

The moves the two crypto exchanges are making into other products are still tentative or at an early stage. It’s possible neither company will bother making any serious move into the CFD space, for example. Nonetheless, brokers in the CFD sector should pay attention to the steps they’re taking.

The reason for that is there is an increasing overlap between the two sectors. With some exceptions, the major CFD providers are increasingly branching out into new products, like crypto, share dealing, and options trading. But as the above illustrates, companies that started life as crypto exchanges are doing the same thing.

If we take IG as an example, its US division will probably be in direct competition with FTX if the latter does end up adding options trading. Given the US is arguably IG’s biggest opportunity for growing revenue, it is hard to imagine their team in the Land of the Free isn’t aware of what Sam Bankman-Fried is up to, even if the FTX CEO does pretend to just be a crypto dork.

Then there is the possibility that these companies do move into the products that CFD providers have traditionally hocked. The speed with FTX has added stock trading, for example, is remarkable. When you consider how much money Binance and FTX are likely to have, the brand recognition they’ve accrued, and the vast numbers of clients they can shift over to other products, this is quite a daunting prospect. Ignore them at your peril!

The start-up facade

There’s a saying in Russian that lies have short legs. In the startup world, lies have longer legs as long as interest rates stay low. To illustrate this point, we can look at a couple of recent announcements.

The first came from Revolut, with the neobank claiming it had launched as a bank in Ireland and hit 1.9m customers in the small country. The first claim was misleading given that it’s actually regulated as a bank in Lithuania and was just passporting into the country.

The other point about customers was more interesting. Ireland currently has a population of just over 5m. However, only about 3.8m people are over the age of 18 and thus able to open an account with Revolut.

If Revolut has 1.9m users in the country, that would mean about half of Ireland’s adult population uses the app. When you factor in the 5% – 10% of adults that don’t have smartphones, and so can’t access the app, then the 1.9m figure looks even more impressive.

This is not implausible but it is remarkably high and does make you wonder how Revolut defines ‘user’. Luckily we can learn the answer to this question from their latest set of accounts…

“A customer is a person or business who has accepted Revolut’s terms and conditions.”

This is a bit like me setting up a physical shop and 1,000 people come in and buy nothing. When my friend asks me how it’s going, I can say, “absolutely amazing, I had 1,000 customers today.” 

It’s a similar story with new commission-free broker Lightyear, which recently announced it was ‘expanding’ into 19 new countries in Europe. Readers may notice a remarkable coincidence here which is that there are also 19 countries that use the euro and these also happen to be the same countries that Lightyear is expanding into. 

So what actually happened was Lightyear launched euro denominated accounts and expanded into 19 countries it was already able to access via passporting rights.

I don’t want to be totally down on these companies – I use Revolut and think it’s a great app. But it doesn’t matter how many customers you have or markets you expand into if the cost of doing so exceeds the amount of money it generates.

This sort of dishonest behaviour seems largely geared towards building hype and increasing valuations. In an era of cheap money, with the ever elusive promise of profit driven by ‘scale’ lying somewhere on the horizon, this was arguably a strategy that worked. As rates rise and cheap financing dries up, it makes less and less sense. You can keep running but in the end the truth will catch up with you.

Stuff that happened

  • CME is launching more crypto derivatives
  • IG’s CEO did an interview
  • Ronni Bollerup Butler (cool name) became head of electronic trading at Saxo
Binance Cyprus Lightyear Revolut
Previous ArticleHalal headaches
Next Article Can anyone beat IG on turbos?

Related Posts

Plus500 options, India, event contracts, and MAGA

July 14, 2025

Will AI kill forex broker affiliates?

June 30, 2025

Last week in Limassol: 5 takeaways from Cyprus

June 23, 2025
Add A Comment

Comments are closed.

Latest News

Instant Funding $5,000 giveaway – 5,000 accounts, $500,000 in marketing spend

Prop Weekly July 18, 2025

Instant Funding is giving away unlimited free $5k challenges until it gets 5,000 funded accounts. Here’s why they’re doing it and how it works.

Spotware COO: Almost 50% of new traders download cTrader Store products

July 18, 2025

Exness stops onboarding clients in India

July 17, 2025
YouTube LinkedIn WhatsApp
  • News
    • Newsletters
    • Interviews
    • Broker News
    • Tech News
    • Guest Posts
  • Learn
    • Start a broker
    • FX CFD Licensing
    • Liquidity
  • About
    • What is TradeInformer
    • Who runs TradeInformer?
    • Contact
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
  • Follow
    • LinkedIn
    • YouTube
    • WhatsApp
© 2025 TradeInformer

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

Ad Blocker Enabled!
Ad Blocker Enabled!
Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors. Please support us by disabling your Ad Blocker.