Retail FX and CFDs broker Capital.com has announced that total client trading volumes reached more than $1.2 trillion in 2023, or just north of $100 billion monthly. The company said that this is a rise of 53% from a year earlier, and marks the first time client trading volumes have breached the $1trn mark annually since the company’s inception in 2016.

We had recently reported exclusively that Capital.com is shifting the focus of its operations from the UK following the departure of CEO Peter Hetherington, toward the MENA region, the EU, and other regions. Indeed, Capital.com confirmed that MENA region clients already accounted for the company’s largest geo for trading volumes in 2023 (more details below).

Ariel Segev, Group Chief Financial Officer, Capital.com,  said:

“It is a great honour to be recognised as the fastest growing tech company at the DME Fast 50 for the 3rd year in a row. This win demonstrates our tenacity and resilience as a high-growth fintech company and we are extremely lucky to have our headquarters in a dynamic and thriving tech hub such as Cyprus. With its conducive, business-friendly ecosystem, deep talent pool and facilitative legislation, Cyprus is the ideal jurisdiction for tech scale-ups such as ours to supercharge their growth strategies.”

Capital.com added that in Q1 2024, total global trading volumes on the platform reached $337 billion, or $112 billion monthly, up about 12% from last year. Over the same period, the number of active traders on the platform was up 17% from the previous quarter. The vast majority of trading volumes came from clients in the Middle East, followed by Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.

The top two most traded markets by volume on the platform in Q1 2024 were indices and commodities. More than 79% of total volumes traded across the platform in Q1 found its way  into index-related markets, specifically the US Tech 100 (Nasdaq-100), US30, DE40 and the US500.

Daniela Hathorn, Senior Market Analyst, Capital.com, said:

“The hype around semi-conductors was carried into Q1 2024 which helped boost tech stocks and the US Tech companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange. Traders also shifted their mentality in Q1 and started to welcome the resilience in the US economic data, moving away from the ‘good-data-is-bad’ rhetoric that dominated most of 2023. This allowed stocks to move to new highs even if it meant the Federal Reserve was less likely to start cutting rates.”

Over the same period, trading volumes in commodity markets accounted for 58% of total volumes traded, making it the second most heavily traded market by volume on the Capital.com platform. Trading volumes were largely concentrated in gold and crude oil.

“Risk appetite was strong throughout most of the quarter, a key driver of the rally in equities. That said, escalations in geopolitical tensions led investors to diversify their portfolios, causing gold to appreciate over 10% in the first three months of the year as safe-haven demand increased. Meanwhile, continued attacks on Russian refineries and fears about tight supply stemming from the conflict in the Middle East has pushed oil prices higher,” added Hathorn.

About Capital.com

Capital.com operates several licensed subsidiaries involved in online brokerage in the UK, Australia, Cyprus, and the UAE. The company, and its sister brand Currency.com are controlled by British tech entrepreneur Victor Prokopenya.