Weekly Recap: Ripple's Hidden Road Acquisition, Scammers Clone Broker Exante in the US

Ripple acquired Hidden Road

First things first: Ripple Labs, the crypto firm best known for its longstanding legal tussle with the SEC, is bringing crypto closer to the traditional financial space.

The company acquired Hidden Road for $1.25 billion, marking one of the largest deals in the digital assets sector. This acquisition makes Ripple the first crypto company to own and operate a global, multi-asset prime broker.

“We are at an inflection point for the next phase of digital asset adoption—the US market is effectively open for the first time due to the regulatory overhang of the former SEC coming to an end, and the market is maturing to address the needs of traditional finance,” said Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple .

Prime brokers play a key role in financial markets, including the growing crypto sector, by offering a full range of services such as trading, custody, and lending to major institutions like hedge funds, banks, and private equity firms.

Interestingly, a deeper analysis of this acquisition deal reveals a growing trend of crypto firms increasingly moving away from the traditional banking sector, which has often been skeptical of digital assets.

Scammers clone Broker Exante

Meanwhile, fraudsters are no longer confined just to the digital space. They have gone a step further, even using bank accounts to steal from unsuspecting users.

In one such case, scammers opened a JPMorgan Chase bank account and scammed at least one victim in the United States through a clone of Exante, a brokerage firm that does not even offer services in that country.

According to the (real) Exante, the victim transferred the funds to the scammers via that JPMorgan Chase account. Although it remains unknown how they opened the JPMorgan Chase account, generative artificial intelligence (AI) has become a tool for many fraudsters.

Trustpilot fake review saga

Away from scammers and to the questionable Trustpilot fake reviews and why it is not ending any time soon. FX consultant Anya Aratovskaya delved into this development, which is making waves in the industry, noting how review platforms like Trustpilot sit on a double-edged business model.

There are two sides to the coin: one is the users leaving reviews (aka angry customers or incentivized fans), and the other is the companies being reviewed and paying for visibility.

Trustpilot needs to appear fair and neutral to users while keeping paying companies happy. This includes retention metrics, upsells, sales targets, and more.

Trump tariffs jolt financial markets

Slightly more than a week ago, Trump announced sweeping tariffs, and the volatility the global markets are facing is unprecedented. One company bearing the brunt is eToro.

The fintech giant was forced to pause its preparations for an upcoming public listing on Nasdaq as President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs wiped out $6.6 trillion in two sessions

eToro, headquartered in Israel, filed its F-1 prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week as it prepares to list its shares on Nasdaq under the ticker ETOR.

Even as tariffs affected the markets, some brokers reportedly benefited from the surge in volatility. However, no brokers have officially disclosed the trading volumes they have handled since the tariff-triggered market swings.

Some, however, experienced technical glitches as tariffs pushed the S&P 500 to yearly lows. The German online brokers Trade Republic and ING experienced technical difficulties during this week’s market plunge when both platforms experienced delays due to extraordinary trading volumes.

Interestingly, a section of the market seems to be reaping big despite the chaos: Derivatives. A study by Crisil Coalition Greenwich suggested an increase in derivatives trading activity as investors reposition their portfolios to better withstand volatility.

The boost in Germany's leveraged trading market

Germany's leveraged trading market has reversed course, growing 3% to reach 63,000 active CFD and forex traders in the 12 months to February 2025, according to a new report from market research firm Investment Trends.

“This marks an important turning point for Germany's CFD/FX market,” said Lorenzo Vignati, Associate Research Director at Investment Trends. “The market has weathered a difficult period of contraction, but we're now seeing signs of sustainable recovery.”

But in the neighboring Italy, things are quite different. Despite often being portrayed in Hollywood movies as risk-takers who live on the edge, in the financial markets, the average Italian investor would likely give up investing altogether rather than build a portfolio riskier than a default-free bond.

Colmex Pro reached €200,000 settlement with CySEC

On the regulatory front, Colmex Pro reached a €200,000 settlement with the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) over possible regulatory violations spanning a two-year period.

Nicos Vassiliou, the CEO of Colmex Pro, told financemagnates.com that the agreement "does not constitute an admission of any wrongdoing" and relates to "a historical compliance review" covering a past period.

The settlement addressed potential breaches of the Investment Services and Activities and Regulated Markets Law of 2017 and European Union Regulation No. 600/2014, following a supervisory review conducted by CySEC.