Will Crypto Tycoons Threaten Traditional Brokers?

In recent years, we have seen enormous growth in the cryptocurrency industry. Several crypto brokers have become financial giants on a global scale. Some of them are reportedly seeking to expand their businesses into sectors of the trading industry other than cryptocurrencies. With the most recent decline in Bitcoin price and widely expected ‘crypto winter’, this process can be sped up.

One of the crypto exchanges that is reportedly looking into the stock trading sector is FTX. The US arm of FTX is going to launch a stock trading platform and has already opened a waitlist in February. The interest of the exchange in stock trading must be serious as their CEO keeps investing in one of the leaders of the new wave of stock brokers, Robinhood. As it was revealed in May, Sam Bankman-Fried, the billionaire Founder and CEO of the crypto exchange, FTX, has taken a 7.6 percent stake in the American online broker, Robinhood. But, there are bigger crypto exchanges than FTX. One of them is Binance.

How Much Money Do the Biggest Crypto Exchanges Have?

According to the different information available on the internet, in 2020, Binance had a revenue of $5.5 billion. Just one year later, in 2021, this firm already had a staggering revenue of $20 billion. That is an increase of four times the amount of business than the year before. To give an idea as to how large these numbers are, let's remind you that the revenue of IG, the biggest UK CFD company and one of the biggest companies in the world, was $0.9 billion in 2020 and over a billion in 2021.

After the explosive growth phase, the cryptocurrency industry will have to undergo the next stages of the business cycle typical for all firms and industries. It will have to face a period of stabilization and maybe even stagnation and consolidation. This all will force hungry crypto exchanges to seek new paths of growth.

Will Crypto Exchanges Want to Expand Beyond Crypto?

These numbers are impressive, and they show that crypto exchanges have the resources to expand into other trading sectors. Should the trading industry fear that? In an interview with Finance Magnates, Benjamin Bilski, the Founder & CEO of NAGA Group said he is not afraid and would welcome such a move.

Bilski commented: “I welcome this move. The market is very large and I think more players means more drive, competitiveness and ultimately improvement.”

Just recently, the Australian subsidiary of Binance announced the launch of cryptocurrency contracts for differences (CFDs), targeted at wholesale traders in the country. These over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives are offered under an Australian Financial Services (AFS) license.

To get the full article and the bigger picture on the future of the FX/CFD crypto industry, get our Latest Quarterly Intelligence Report