FX week in review: Fan Token CFDs, Exness founder invests in NAGA.com
Which Retail FX broker became the first to launch trading in Fan Token CFDs? (And, what exactly are Fan Tokens?).
Which co-founder of Exness just participated in a major, multi-million dollar financing round by NAGA Group?
What deal did the Cboe ink with leading Spot FX market maker XTX Markets?
Which longtime senior Swissquote executive has moved to Saxo Bank to become CEO of Saxo MENA?
Which former Head of Sales – China for Saxo Bank joined Vantage FX?
Answers to these questions and a whole lot more appeared first or exclusively this week at FNG. Some of the most read and commented-on FX industry news stories to appear over the past seven days on FNG included:
Exclusive: Skilling adds Fan Token CFD trading. FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned that CySEC licensed Retail FX and CFDs broker Skilling has launched CFD trading on Fan Tokens. In a social media post, Skilling CEO Michael Kamerman noted that its offering is a first for the CFD trading industry. Fan Tokens are a type of cryptocurrency, specifically a type of non-fungible token (NFT). Created by Socios.com, Fan Tokens are issued by popular sports clubs (to now, mainly top European soccer teams) and allow holders to vote on mostly minor decisions related to their clubs. They also come with promised special team-related rewards and prizes. Essentially, Fan Tokens are a way to give fans a way to trade on the popularity of sports teams, without having actual ownership that would come with “real” shares in the team.
NAGA Group raises €22.7 million as Apeiron takes big stake. Reported First at FNG… Social trading focused Retail FX and CFDs broker NAGA Group AG (FRA:N4G), which operates the NAGA.com website, has announced its second major financing of 2021, raising €22.7 million (USD 26.7 million) in new equity capital from Apeiron Investment Group Ltd, which will become a new strategic and long-term investor in NAGA. Apeiron is the private investment company of entrepreneur and investor Christian Angermayer and Igor Lychagov, founder of Exness, one of the largest Retail FX brokerage firms. Hauck & Aufhäuser acted as sole bookrunner in the transaction. Earlier this year, as was exclusively reported at the time by FNG, NAGA raised €8 million from PIPE investor Yorkville.
Cboe FX to launch hosted algo service with XTX Markets. Cboe Global Markets (Cboe:CBOE) has announced that its institutional foreign exchange unit Cboe FX Markets is launching a hosted algo execution service, in collaboration with leading electronic liquidity provider XTX Markets, the largest market maker in Spot FX. This service will help enable Cboe FX participants to access the XTX Markets Execution Algo (‘XTX Algo’), which is designed to alleviate implementation shortfall, via the Cboe FX ECN. Cboe FX has been granted exclusive rights over use of the XTX Algo in the anonymous ECN space and this service is available for execution of the most actively traded pairs in the spot FX market.
Exclusive: GKFX UK reduces loss in 2020 to £2.9M. FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned via regulatory filings that FCA regulated FX and CFDs broker GKFX Financial Services Ltd has sharply cut its losses in 2020, although the company continues to downsize and see reduced revenues. After reporting a near £9 million loss in 2019, GKFX UK saw a loss of £2.9 million in 2020. Revenues fell from £3.6 million in 2019 to £2.7 million in 2020 – revenues at GKFX UK were as high as £94 million in 2016 and £60 million in 2017. Revenues at GKFX UK are generated predominantly through a volume rebate with a counterparty that is related to the company by common ownership.
Top FX industry executive moves reported at FNG this week included:
❑ Saxo Bank hires Swissquote Singapore CEO Damian Hitchen to head MENA.
❑ Vantage FX hires Saxo China alum Eoh You Loong to drive APAC activities.
❑ Equiti Capital adds CFO Sheetal Chouhan to its Board of Directors.
❑ Broadway Technology names Dan Romanelli Head of Relationships.
❑ FlowBank hires Natixis exec Esty Dwek as CIO.