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
      • TradingPRO's prop firm TradingPLUS website
        TradingPRO officially launches prop trading arm TradingPLUS
      • Funded Unicorn shut down notice on company homepage
        German prop firm Funded Unicorn shuts after “seven-figure loss” from a-book model
      • Trading 212 app
        Exclusive: clients at multiple UK brokers targeted in Ostin pump and dump fraud
    • Tech News
      • Devexperts
        EAERA Integrates with DXtrade to Deliver Seamless Broker CRM Solutions
      • cTrader post IFX Int website
        Spotware concludes a successful iFX expo international with Best Trading Platform Global 2025 award
      • Match-Trader
        Match-Trader launches new interface, will demo at iFX Expo this week
    • Institutional trading
      • Neil Panbari
        CME Group hires Neil Pabari as Head of APAC Retail Sales and Distribution
      • Marco Maggioni Hirose financial executive
        Ex-Finalto, iSAM exec Marco Maggioni joins Hirose Financial prime team
      • simon halliday mas markets
        Scrum time: MAS Group hires ex-England rubgy international as Key Partnerships Adviser
    • Interviews
      • Gareth Hazelden
        Atlantic Capital Markets: Cornwall, Dubai, and a 77k client database
      • Tom Fawcett Onyx Markets
        Building a new UK broker, with Onyx Markets Dealing Head Tom Fawcett
      • Todor Georgiev
        Exclusive: Todor Georgiev on launching prop firm Funded7
  • Analysis
    • Newsletters
      • best forex brokers UK search in Google AI Mode
        Will AI kill forex broker affiliates?
      • Limassol
        Last week in Limassol: 5 takeaways from Cyprus
      • Hugo's Way
        Suicide Squad? Offshore brokers are targeting US clients – and nothing is happening to them
    • Prop Weekly
      • TraxNYC picture from website
        Alpha Prime, diamond dealers, and Million Dollar Traders
      • FTMO
        How much do Alpha Capital, FundedNext, FundingPips, and E8 Markets make?
      • Beijing
        Gold, prop firms and scammers in China
    • Marketing Newsletter
      • Axi branding at Bahia football match
        Brokers are sponsoring EM sports teams
      • Pump those numbers
      • swissqote logo
        Does branding matter?
    • Guest Posts
      • 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
      • Trade Tech Solutions: Revolutionizing Prop Firm Technology Under CEO Edoardo Dalla Torre
  • 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
      • FXIFY Homepage
        What do prop trading firms do?
      • trading chart on a screen
        How do prop firms make money?
      • 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

Will AI kill forex broker affiliates?

June 30, 2025

Last week in Limassol: 5 takeaways from Cyprus

June 23, 2025

Suicide Squad? Offshore brokers are targeting US clients – and nothing is happening to them

June 16, 2025
Add A Comment

Comments are closed.

Latest News

CME Group hires Neil Pabari as Head of APAC Retail Sales and Distribution

Institutional trading July 4, 2025

Panbari joins CME Group after almost 14 years at LSEG Data and Analytics. CME is pushing more non-US retail brokers to add ETDs trading.

Alpha Prime, diamond dealers, and Million Dollar Traders

July 4, 2025

TradingPRO officially launches prop trading arm TradingPLUS

July 4, 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.