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Swissquote Launches Crypto Exchange SQX

The crypto exchange maintains a centralized order book by sourcing liquidity from several hubs.

Its other competitors, like Dukascopy, are already offering wide crypto services.

crypto exchange

Swissquote announced the launch of its much-anticipated cryptocurrency exchange, which has been branded as SQX

The launch came after confirmation from a Swissquote executive late last year about the plans of starting a crypto exchange. However, the company missed the initial deadline for launching the crypto trading platform by June 2022.

SQX is a centralized crypto trading venue and, according to the official press release, it will enhance customers’ experience in the areas of “trading, execution and liquidity.”

It is maintaining a central order book by sourcing and aggregating liquidity from several liquidity hubs.

Swissquote’s CEO, Marc Bürki said: “Swissquote is at the forefront of innovation and was one of the first institutions in Europe with a banking license to offer cryptocurrency trading. The launch of our own crypto exchange is an important step forward in offering our customers deeper liquidity and faster execution.”

Indeed, Swissquote being a Switzerland-headquartered broker operates with a banking license, a mandatory regulation for Swiss brokers.

However, Swissquote is not the only brokerage in the country to jump into the cryptocurrency space. Rather, it has joined local competitors like Dukascopy to offer crypto products. Switzerland’s largest stock exchange, Six Swiss Exchange, has listed several crypto exchange-trades products over the years.

In its initial phase of the crypto exchange, it will offer Bancor Network (BNT). In addition, the company ensured the addition of other crypto assets which are already available on Swissquite to be added on the new crypto exchange.

“In terms of services for institutional clients, SQX also represents an increase in competitiveness when it comes to offering trading and custody services to other banks and brokers,” Bürki added.

Meanwhile, Swissquote reported a 23.1 percent yearly decline in its operating revenue for the first half of 2022 which came in at CHF 204.8 million. Moreover, its net revenue dropped by 24.4 percent. Interestingly, the company also witnessed a 69.2 percent drop in net crypto assets income in the period as the number reached CHF 19.5 million.

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EU Bans Crypto Payments from Russia

EU bans crypto services in Russia and it is one of several new ‘hard-hitting’ measures of the EU against Russia.

The bloc banned seven Russian banks from accessing SWIFT earlier in March

Crypto ban
Crypto ban

The European Union has imposed sanctions that forbid European crypto operations from providing virtually any cryptocurrency services to Russians. Russia will lose access to most of the cryptocurrency services in the European Union.

On September 6, the EU announced its eighth package of sanctions against Russia in response to its ongoing invasion and annexation of Ukraine.

The EU Council describes the new policy as “a full ban of the provision of… wallets, account or custody services to Russian persons and residents, regardless of the total value of those crypto-assets.”

A separate statement published by the European Commission indicates that related restrictions had been put in place before today, but that wallets holding less than €10,000 ($9,800) had been exempt from those sanctions.

Today’s announcement only names “crypto-asset wallets, accounts, or custody services” as services that cannot be offered to Russian users. However, it seems that crypto exchanges, brokerages, and payment services will be covered by the ban as account-based services.

The sanctions package also contains bans unrelated to cryptocurrency. Specifically, it aims to restrict Russian imports and exports, limit the movement of military equipment, and implement a price cap on Russian oil exports.

The EU Commission said that sanctions are “proving effective” in limiting Russia’s ability to manufacture and repair weapons. It also expressed its support for Ukraine.

Russia, for its part, has been attempting to lift its own restrictions on cryptocurrency usage. This week, Russia’s finance ministry announced plans to allow international cryptocurrency settlements for most industries. The country has been open to that possibility since at least May.

It is unclear whether today’s sanctions will limit those plans, as Russia may plan to transact in crypto outside of the EU.

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Spotware Sees a Spike in Demand for cTrader Amid MetaQuotes Delisting

Recently, Spotware Systems announced that the company is currently facing exploding demand for cTrader, especially from large brokers as remains the safest option in the market.

Spotware faces growing demand for cTrader
cTrader by Spotware Systems

Spotware Systems has recently announced that its flagship trading platform cTrader is facing a spiking demand. The increased demand especially comes from large brokers since cTrader has established itself as the safest trading platform in the market.

The demand for cTrader spiked amid the MetaQuotes delisting from iOS. The brokers are concerned about the situation that had popped up around MT4/MT5 as they risk losing customers to competitors offering alternative platforms, such as cTrader.

Spotware Systems is well known in the industry for its “traders first” approach and is one of the safest platforms in the market. Since the inception of cTrader, for more than 12 years, Spotware kicked out multiple bucket shop brokerage companies and companies accepting US clients.

The cTrader platform is designed to keep track of users activity to make it easy for traders and investors alike, each track amendment is recorded and marked separately. It was built to protect users by not allowing the “inject price” function and preventing scam brokers from stop-loss hunting or installing any plugins like “Virtual Dealer”.

“cTrader is hosted on Spotware’s infrastructure and only Spotware employees have access to it. Trade receipts with all necessary information about each trade, including but not limited to chronological events, slippage, and Level 2 market snapshot and execution times are stored and cannot be modified, ensuring trading transparency. All the above features make cTrader less appealing to brokers with malicious intentions.”

John Parnaby, The Head of Technical Support at Spotware

About cTrader

Founded in 2011, cTrader is a leading multi-asset forex and CFD trading platform developed by Spotware Systems, an award-winning financial technology provider based in Cyprus.

The platform is one-of-a-kind and doesn’t engage in fraud and prides itself on 100% transparency providing brokers with exceptional solutions while at the same time catering to the needs of traders.

cTrader offers quite a comprehensive and sophisticated range of tools, including a great variety of charts, over 70 pre-installed technical indicators, cTrader Automate Algo trading solution, Copy trading, Open API, etc.

For further information visit cTrader’s official website – ctrader.com or read their Wikipedia article.

Also, read our review article on 6 best brokers with cTrader.