Week in Focus: eToro Makes Strong Nasdaq Debut, CFTC's Case Against My Forex Funds Dismissed

"What’s good for the trader, what’s profitable for the broker"

In our weekly roundup, we start with market analysis. The brokerage industry has long been dominated by opaque pricing, aggressive marketing, and layered middlemen.

Tajinder Virk, the CEO and co-founder of Finvasia Group, shared some insight with FinanceMagnates.com, saying he believes that “the job of a broker is to give you clean access to the market, not bombard you with tools you don’t understand.”

Virk also pointed out the “fundamental disconnect between what’s good for the trader and what’s profitable for the broker. We’re here to reset that.” He wanted to “to build was truly zero-cost—no spreads, no payment-for-order-flow, no hidden markups,” and succeeded to do so with his platform Shoonya, which means “zero” in Sanskrit.

eToro and iFOREX IPOs

In a story that dominated headlines this week, Israeli fintech giant eToro is now a public company. The much-anticipated public listing made huge sums of money for early investors.

One of them is Spark Capital, which scored a massive $530 million gain as trading platform eToro (NASDAQ: ETOR) made a spectacular entrance into public markets on Wednesday.

The stock closed at $67 per share on its debut, well above its $52 IPO price, giving the company a market valuation exceeding $5.5 billion and delivering a 29-fold return on Spark's original $19 million investment made 15 years ago.

Ahead of the listing, eToro increased the price of its initial public offering (IPO) to $52 per share. The Israeli company has also decided to offer about 12 million shares in the public offering, up from the earlier plan of 10 million.

Following the success of eToro, another brokerage firm, iForex, is pursuing an IPO on the London Stock Exchange despite losing 20% of clients and seeing profits drop by 75% in two years.

iForex has announced plans now to list on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), seeking to reverse a troubling financial slide. The company is seeking admission to the LSE with a proposed capital raise of around £5 million.

Interestingly, as Britain’s IPO drought drags on, the Treasury is trying to charm Revolut, Monzo, and other fintech darlings into listing in London instead of flying the fintech coop.

Treasury officials have reportedly held talks with Revolut and Monzo, ClearScore and OakNorth in an increasingly desperate effort to keep them in London.

Court dismisses My Forex Funds lawsuit

Away from the IPO craze, a U.S. federal judge has dismissed the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) complaint against Traders Global Group Inc., the parent company of My Forex Funds.

The court also approved a sanctions motion against the regulator. The sanctions resulted from a recommendation by Special Master Jose L. Linares, who urged the court to dismiss the case with prejudice and impose penalties on the CFTC.

Wow!!!! The recommendation is already out in @MyForexFunds vs @cftc.

MFF won!

The judge recommended that charges be dismissed and the CFTC has to pay all of MFF’s court fees! pic.twitter.com/2imSLCAf8N

— MD Financial Skills (@MDiamondFinance) May 14, 2025

In a dramatic twist, the CFTC's lead attorney, Ashley Burden, earlier admitted that he was “careless and sloppy” during the investigation into its lawsuit against the proprietary trading platform My Forex Funds and its CEO, Murtuza Kazmi, according to recent court filings by both the regulator and the prop trading firm.

This week in numbers: Capital.com, IG Group, VT Markets, and Trading 212 UK

Capital.com, a provider of contracts for differences (CFDs) trading services, ended the first three months of 2025 with $656 billion in client trading volumes, an 11% increase from the previous quarter. Of the total trading volume, 53 per cent came from clients in the Middle East, followed by 24 per cent from European traders.

As highlighted by Christoforus Soutzis, CEO of Capital.com Europe, the rise in trading activity between January and March was “driven by increased market volatility, macroeconomic uncertainty, and renewed interest in key markets like the Nasdaq 100 Index and gold.”

Also doing great, IG Group (LON: IGG) expects to close the ongoing fiscal year 2025 with revenue and adjusted profit that “meet or slightly exceed the upper end of the current range” of market expectations.

Meanwhile, VT Markets, which offers trading services with CFDs, handled $720 billion in trading volume in April 2025, marking its “strongest-ever” monthly figure. The increase in trading demand came amid an industry-wide trend, as trading platforms benefited from tariff-driven volatility.

In the UK, Trading 212, a retail broker, more than doubled its advertising and marketing expenses in 2024, spending over £39.5 million. In the previous year, the company spent £18 million on the same, meaning there was a year-over-year increase of about 120 per cent.

Coinbase to debut on S&P 500

In the crypto space, Coinbase plans to join the S&P 500 index this month. The index tracks the largest 500 publicly listed companies in the US across various sectors, including finance, tech, healthcare, and more. Coinbase will be listed under the financials sector.

Coinbase just became the first and only crypto company to join the S&P 500.

This milestone represents what the true believers, from retail investors to institutional investors to our employees and partners, knew all along.

Crypto is here to stay. https://t.co/MnMRCX8pMg

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) May 12, 2025

The cryptocurrency exchange will replace Discover Financial Services, which is being acquired by Capital One. Recently, it agreed to acquire the crypto options platform Deribit in a $2.9 billion deal.

And even as the US crypto exchange plans expansion, security remains a challenge, a factor cutting across the industry. A cyberattack that exploited insider access this week, stole sensitive customer data and issued a $20 million ransom demand, which Coinbase refuses to pay.

US-China trade results unclear

Lastly, while President Trump touts a "total reset" in the China trade deal, specifics remain elusive; meanwhile, a Qatari gift of a "flying palace" stirs bipartisan backlash.

BREAKING: U.S. Announces China Trade Deal in Geneva pic.twitter.com/JjgvYAvAGe

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 11, 2025

In a move that has left economists and policy analysts scratching their heads, President Trump has now announced a "total reset" in trade relations with China following discussions in Geneva.