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PayPal Integrate MetaMask to Enable Ethereum Purchases

MetaMask, one of the largest self-custodial wallet providers, has integrated PayPal’s payment system and started allowing US users to purchase crypto directly from within the app.

PayPal and MetaMask

One upshot of the integration is that users will be able to directly seed their crypto wallets with digital assets, rather than having to purchase the cryptocurrency directly inside of PayPal and then being unable to transfer it. Additionally, Metamask users will be able to buy cryptocurrencies right from inside the self-custody wallet.

The alliance between Metamask and PayPal will initially support Ethereum (ETH), with other digital tokens to follow suit shortly.

Lorenzo Santos, Product Manager for MetaMask, said “Once done, the ETH will be available on the balance of the Metamask user, which they can then use to explore the Web3 space, as well as transfer to others. This integration with PayPal will allow our U.S. users to not just buy crypto seamlessly through MetaMask, but also to easily explore the Web3 ecosystem.”

MetaMask

Developed by ConsenSys, MetaMask claims to have nearly 30 million monthly active users. In an effort to diversify payment options for its users, The self-custodial wallet already allows its US users to buy cryptocurrencies directly from their bank accounts with no settlement delays.

“The MetaMask wallet is the primary way millions of users interact with applications that include NFT marketplaces, play and earn games, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, and metaverse worlds,” added Lorenzo Santos.

Meanwhile, PayPal users can withdraw their Bitcoin and Ethereum holdings to external wallets. This means that the buyers can self-custody their coins, which a paramount feature for cryptocurrencies.

The payments giant also enabled the “Checkout with Crypto” feature which allows users to convert their holdings into fiat currencies along with checking out at millions of merchants accepting cryptocurrencies in their wallets. All transactions are settled in the US dollar and converted to the fiat currency for the business at the standard Paypal conversion rates.

PayPal is also looking into the launch of a stock-trading platform for US customers after it hired a brokerage industry veteran to head its “Invest at PayPal” division.

The expansion into the hot retail brokerage industry comes hot on the heels of PayPal’s move to allow its 400 million users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies.

The payment giant apparently sees value in combining trading and crypto transactions with payments as the integration allows customers of its two-sided network, which includes both PayPal and Venmo, to keep or invest their money within the same ecosystem.

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Gold price outlook for 2023 amid fears of inflation and recession

With a largely flat performance in 2022 but fluctuating within a large 20% range, gold has had a wild year so far.

Following the outbreak of the Ukrainian conflict in early March, the precious metal climbed to $2,070/oz, nearing the all-time highs recorded in August 2020. However, after peaking, gold prices fell 22% to $1,615/oz. The primary factor weighing on gold was, of course, the extraordinarily hawkish Federal Reserve, which raised interest rates by a total of 425 basis points from March to December, delivering the quickest rate rise cycle ever.

Gold prices suffered as the US dollar (DXY) strengthened and US Treasury yields rose. In addition, continuous Covid lockdowns in China hindered jewellery demand from one of the world’s largest consumers of precious metals.

After reaching a “triple low” on September 29, October 21, and November 3, gold witnessed a 13% rally until the end of the year, supported by lower-than-anticipated US CPI prints that fueled speculations on a Fed pivot in the next year.

Gold is trading at a premium to its long-term historical association with 10-year US real rates. Gold and the US dollar continue to have a strong negative correlation. In November, large money managers went from net-short to net-long positioning on gold’s futures, thus turning more optimistic.

The best-case scenario for gold in 2023 involves a global slowdown and a shift by central banks toward looser financial conditions, particularly in the United States. A reopening in China may also have a beneficial effect on the bullion market. These events might boost gold prices by at least 10% to $2,000/oz.

If stagflation were to worsen, with a global recession and stickier-than-predicted inflation but central banks holding back further monetary tightening, gold’s price might rise exponentially as investors flee bonds, equities, and currencies all at once, as happened in the 1970s. In this situation, gold would be seen as the “only asset in town” and may be on track to surpass its all-time high of $2,075/oz.

Gold’s worst-case scenario for 2023 is a Fed that defies dovish market expectations, hikes more than expected, and doesn’t ease monetary conditions if a recession occurs. However, the onset of a recession might gradually reduce the negative impact of elevated interest rates, implying that gold may suffer less than it did during the selloff in 2022. See our selection of Brokers for Gold Trading on CFD basis.

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Danske Bank Pays Over $2 Billion in Fraud Charges for Using Estonia Branch to Process Tainted Foreign Money

The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced and settled fraud charges against Danske Bank for misleading investors about its anti-money laundering (AML) compliance program in its Estonian branch and failing to disclose the risks posed by the program’s significant deficiencies.

Image bank

The multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Denmark agreed to pay $413 million ($178.6 million in disgorgement, $55.8 million in prejudgment interest, and $178.6 million in a civil penalty) to settle the SEC’s charges.

The total settlement amount as part of an integrated, global resolution with the SEC, the DoJ, the United States Attorney’s Office for the SDNY, and Denmark’s Special Crime Unit, reached more than $2 billion.

The Justice Department will credit nearly $850 million in payments that Danske Bank makes to resolve related parallel investigations by other domestic and foreign authorities.

Danske Bank Estonia served non-residents with little to no oversight

Danske Bank Estonia had a lucrative business line serving non-resident customers known as the NRP. Danske Bank Estonia attracted NRP customers by ensuring that they could transfer large amounts of money through Danske Bank Estonia with little, if any, oversight.

Danske Bank Estonia employees conspired with NRP customers to shield the true nature of their transactions, including by using shell companies that obscured actual ownership of the funds.

Access to the U.S. financial system via the U.S. banks was critical to Danske Bank and its NRP customers, who relied on access to U.S. banks to process U.S. dollar transactions. Danske Bank Estonia processed $160 billion through U.S. banks on behalf of the NRP.

99% of Estonian branch’s profits depended on high-risk customers including Russians

Danske Bank acquired its Estonian branch in 2007. The US securities regulator says the bank knew or should have known that:

  • a substantial portion of the branch’s customers were engaging in transactions that had a high risk of involving money laundering;
  • its internal risk management procedures were inadequate to prevent such activity;
  • its AML and Know-Your-Customer procedures were not being followed and did not comply with applicable laws and rules.

According to the complaint, from 2009 to 2016, these high-risk customers (none of whom were residents of Estonia) utilized Danske Bank’s services to transact billions of dollars in suspicious transactions through the U.S. and other countries, generating as much as 99 percent of the Estonian branch’s profits.

The SEC claims Danske Bank knew of these high-risk transactions and made materially misleading statements and omissions in its publicly available reports stating that it complied with its AML obligations and that it had effectively managed its AML risks.

The regulator also pointed out that as the full extent of Danske Bank’s AML failures became apparent, its share price dropped precipitously.

Gurbir S. Grewal, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said: “Corporations that raise money from the public must disclose information that is material to investors, who then get to decide what risks they want to take.

That’s the basic bargain of our securities laws and it extends to foreign issuers like Danske Bank, which sought to access our capital markets, even though its securities were not registered with the Commission.

But as alleged in our complaint, Danske Bank repeatedly broke that bargain by misrepresenting to its shareholders, including U.S. investors, that it had strong anti-money laundering controls while hiding its significant control deficiencies and compliance failures.”

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Ethereum Price Continues Going Up, Indicators Suggest Rally To $1,400

Ethereum buyers successfully maintained the $1,220 floor against the US Dollar. This surge of buying activity could possibly launch ETH into a powerful upswing heading beyond $1,300 levels.

Ethereum price chart
  • Ethereum remained well-bid and strong above the $1,220 zone.
  • The price is now trading above $1,250 and the 100 hourly simple moving average.
  • There was a break above a major bearish trend line with resistance near $1,245 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD (data feed via Kraken).
  • The pair is showing positive signs and might eye an upside break above the $1,300 resistance.

Ethereum’s price extended its decline below the $1,250 level. ETH even moved below the $1,240 support level and the 100 hourly simple moving average, similar to bitcoin.

However, the bulls were active near the $1,220 support zone. They defended more losses and slowly ether price moved higher. There was a move above the $1,240 and $1,250 levels. There was a break above the 50% Fib retracement level of the key decline from the $1,304 swing high to $1,220 low.

Besides, there was a break above a major bearish trend line with resistance near $1,245 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD. The pair is now trading above $1,250 and the 100 hourly simple moving average.

A close above the $1,300 resistance might start a fresh increase. The next major resistance is near the $1,320 level, above which ether price could gain bullish momentum for a move to $1,400. Any more gains might send the price toward the $1,450 resistance zone.

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eToro enlarges Instrument range adding 73 new Stocks and ETFs

The leading online social trading broker eToro has recently extended its portfolio of trading instruments by adding 73 stocks and ETFs. The instruments are already available on eToro’s platform for trading.

etoro
eToro

Here’s the list of some of the recently added investment instruments:

  • $OWL (Blue Owl Capital Inc)
  • $LBRDA (Liberty Broadband Corporation)
  • $FWONK (Formula One Group )
  • $KRTX (Karuna Therapeutics, Inc)
  • $SGFY (Signify Health, Inc)
  • $OPCH (Option Care Health, Inc)
  • $LNTH (Lantheus Holdings, Inc)
  • $NOVT (Novanta Inc)
  • $PRVA (Privia Health Group, Inc)
  • $BTU (Peabody Energy Corporation )
  • $ZD (Ziff Davis, Inc)
  • $BECN (Beacon Roofing Supply, Inc)
  • $SMCI (Super Micro Computer, Inc)
  • $PTCT (PTC Therapeutics, Inc)
  • $ENVX (Enovix Corporation)
  • $AMR (Alpha Metallurgical Resources, Inc)
  • $CALM (Cal-Maine Foods, Inc)
  • $CEIX (CONSOL Energy Inc)
  • $NEOG (Neogen Corporation)
  • $VERU (Veru Inc)
  • $SIGA (SIGA Technologies, Inc)

As per usual, the Zero Commission is applicable to newly added stocks and ETFs for users who trade under jurisdictions that allow such policies and conditions, which means that there will be no commission charged for trading stocks and ETFs. Moreover, there are no restrictions on commission-free positions, so you can trade fractional shares as well.

About eToro

Established in 2007, eToro is a famous Israel-based brokerage company that provides over 5,000 instruments to its clients including FX, CFDs, and exchange-traded securities.

eToro was the first to introduce social trading to the world in 2010 through a proprietary platform CopyTrader enabling users to learn and copy trades of more experienced seasoned traders. Today, the broker has expanded its operation in 140 countries boasting over 20 million active users.

For further information read our detailed review article or visit their official website.

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Starling Bank Bans All Crypto-Related Transactions

The bank that currenlty counts over 2.7 million clients is not allowing crypto transactions for its cardholders anymore

crypto

Starling Bank, a UK-based bank that offers financial services to individuals and businesses alike with its cards has just banned all transactions related to crypto activities. The company cited high risk as their reason for this decision.

The challenger bank did not reveal anything officially until one of its customers complained about failed cryptocurrency transactions on social media.

“We always review our position in relation to financial crime. We consider crypto activity to be high-risk. We’ve taken the decision to prevent all card payments to crypto merchants and to implement further restrictions on outgoing and incoming transfers,” Starling Bank wrote in a Tweet.

While Starling banned crypto transactions with all of its cards, several other UK banks imposed restrictions on crypto transactions only with their credit cards. Lloyds, NatWest and Virgin reportedly have not allowed crypto transactions with their credit cards since 2018.

Though Starling did not specify anything, its latest crackdown on crypto might have been influenced by the recent collapse of FTX. The Sam Bankman-Fried-founded cryptocurrency exchange, one of the reputed and aggressively growing crypto startups, collapsed within days due to some controversial and allegedly fraudulent decisions by its former CEO.

The financial market regulators worldwide have become more vigilant after the recent FTX fallout. The Australian and Cypriot authorities suspended licenses for local exchanges while in Bahamian’the watchdogs transferred customer assets held there by entities to government-controlled wallets

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ASIC Suspends FTX’s AFS License

The company is allowed to offer limited services until 19 December.

It has also entered into voluntary administration.

ASIC logo
ASIC

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has suspended the license of FTX Australia Pty Ltd, the local subsidiary of the troubled cryptocurrency exchange, FTX.com, until 15 May 2023. The move came as the entity was placed under voluntary administration on 11 November.

Before ASIC, the financial market regulator in Cyprus suspended the license of the local unit of FTX that allowed the exchange to offer services across the European Economic Area (EEA).

Wednesday’s official announcement detailed that FTX Australia will be permitted to provide limited financial services until 19 December. However, it will be limited to terminating existing derivative contracts with the clients.

FTX Australia was operating in the country with an Australia Financial Services (AFS) license that allowed the company to offer derivatives and foreign exchange contracts to retail and wholesale clients. However, FTX Express did not obtain any license. Now, the two companies have appointed three voluntary administrators, John Mouawad, Scott Langdon, and Rahul Goyal of KordaMentha.

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Interactive Brokers Opens New Office in Ireland

Interactive Brokers just opened a brand-new office in Dublin, Ireland. This move aims to support their Western European clients’ needs better and provide access to new markets with greater ease than ever before.

Interactive Brokers logo
Interactive Brokers

The American broker first established a presence in the country in 2020. It was securing its position in continental Europe after the fallout of Brexit.

Interactive Broker, a global financial firm with offices around the world is headquartered in Connecticut and operates one of its biggest operations here. They have locations such as Canada, the United Kingdom Switzerland, Hungary, India, China (Hong Kong), Japan, Singapore, Australia
among others.

Interactive Brokers

Interactive Brokers has been around since 1978 and they have grown dramatically in the last few years. In fiscal 2017, revenue increased 70% to nearly $1 billion dollars with most of that growth coming from interest income rather than commission-based earnings which only went up 3%.

Interactive Brokers is committed to making trading easier and more accessible for everyone. They recently added support of fractional shares as well as ETFs in Europe, providing traders with an even greater variety of options at their disposal when it comes time make trades!

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Moneta Markets improves copy trading with ZuluTrade integration

Moneta Markets has expanded its social trading offerings by adding ZuluTrade to its trading platform, the broker announced on Friday. The most recent integration comes as Moneta already offers such services with Duplitrade, another popular third-party social trading platform.

Moneta Markets
Moneta Markets

Copy trading trend

Copy trading, which allows traders to copy experts’ trading strategies, has become very popular over the last decade. The industry is estimated to be growing at a compound annual rate of 7.8 percent and is expected to grow from $2.2 billion at the end of 2021 to $3.77 billion by 2028.

ZuluTrade is a very popular copy-trading platform that has partnered with dozens of brokers to enable them to offer copy-trading services to their clients. The platform was founded in 2007 and acquired by Finvasia Group last December for an undisclosed sum, a deal that also included Greece-licensed broker AAAFx.

Headquartered in Greece, ZuluTrade is now focused on expanding its global reach and seeking new regulatory licenses. It’s also pushing to add new features to its existing social trading platform.

Moneta Markets

Founded in 2020, Moneta recently emerged from the Vantage umbrella to become self-employed. The broker received a new regulatory license in Australia while already being regulated in South Africa and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Meanwhile, third-party trading platforms have become wary of late after Apple pulled two MetaTrader apps from the App Store, possibly in response to scammers’ use of the platform. These third-party trading platforms rarely partner with shady brokers who operate without a license or offshore permits.

Moneta Markets has expanded its social trading offerings by adding ZuluTrade to its trading platform, the broker announced on Friday. The most recent integration comes as Moneta already offers such services with Duplitrade, another popular third-party social trading platform.

The broker’s decision to integrate ZuluTrade came after expanding its product range and also improving trading infrastructure and pricing.

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eToro Acquires Portfolio Management Tool BullSheet

The financial terms of the deal are unknown.

Both Bullsheet co-founders joined eToro as employees.

etoro
eToro

eToro announced on Thursday its acquisition of Bullsheet, a provider of portfolio management tools exclusively to eToro users. The platform was developed by two cousins, Filipe Sommer and João Ramalho Carlos.

Bullsheet is a tool specific to eToro users, allowing them to manage investment by analyzing and diversifying portfolios. eToro is now working to integrate BullSheet’s offerings into its platform.

“The Bullsheet story is a great example of the talent and passion within eToro’s global community. It’s the wisdom of the crowd in action,” said eToro’s Co-Founder and CEO, Yoni Assia. “[João and Filipe] created Bullsheet to share the tools they developed as eToro users with other users.”

Read our Detailed eToro Review.

The Co-Founders of BullSheet started the project in 2021 after joining eToro’s Popular Investor program in 2020 as users. Professionally, Sommer is a techie and worked as a Software Engineer at Accenture for three years until July 2022.

Carlos has seven years of experience working in marketing and product-based roles. He initially worked at the Lisbon office of McKinsey as a Business Analyst and later became the Head of Product at Plicca. Additionally, he worked at Naturea Petfoods for more than four years and parted as the Head of Digital Marketing and E-Commerce. On top of that, he was a Performance Marketing Lead at Kenjo for over a year.

Meanwhile, eToro is expanding its global presence aggressively. Furthermore, it gained an in-principal license from Abu Dhabi last month. The broker even acquired Gatsby, commission-free options and stock trading firm in the United States, for $50 million.