Weekly Report: Plus500 Client Deposits Double as MultiBank’s Revenue Jumps 20%; Are Regional Banks Ready for Crypto?

IG CEO made $4.5M in FY25

This week’s recap highlights interesting figures in executive pay in the CFD brokerage sector. IG Group CEO Breon Corcoran became the second-highest-paid chief among London-listed CFD brokers in fiscal 2025, earning about £3.35 million ($4.46 million).

Comparatively, Plus500 CEO David Zruia topped the list with $4.97 million, while CMC Markets’ Lord Peter Cruddas received £1.1 million ($1.5 million).

Despite Cruddas’ comparatively lower salary, his nearly 60% ownership in CMC Markets brought him around £14.5 million ($19.68 million) in dividends last year.

Plus500 customer deposits jump over 100%

At the same time, Plus500 delivered solid first-half results, with revenue rising 4% year-on-year to $415.1 million despite challenging market conditions. Net profit inched up to $149.6 million from $148.8 million.

The London-listed trading platform continued to diversify beyond its core contracts-for-difference offering, while customer deposits more than doubled to over $3 billion.

Meanwhile, nearly nine out of ten contracts for differences trades at Plus500 were made on a phone or tablet in the first half of 2025, accounting for 89% of the broker’s OTC revenue. This was well above the industry average of 55.5% for Q2 2025.

Besides the numbers, the company is seeking a licence in Chile, having already established a local entity in the country.The move followed its entry into the US retail futures market and the recent acquisition of an OTC Canadian licence.

eToro revenue jumps

Still in a week dominated by earnings reports, eToro posted mixed results in its first earnings release as a public company. Net contribution rose 26% year-on-year in Q2 2025, while net income remained at about $30 million.

User assets grew to $17.5 billion and added 460,000 funded accounts during the quarter. Interesting, eToro shares fell 8.3% on Tuesday after the Israeli trading platform posted mixed second-quarter results.

The decline was mainly driven by a near twofold drop in net profit from the previous quarter and management guidance that weakened investor sentiment.

Swissquote’s revenue and profits rise

Miles away, Swissquote ended the first half of 2025 with net revenue of CHF 358.2 million ($444.2 million) and a pre-tax profit of CHF 185.2 million ($229.6 million), marking year-on-year increases of 13% and 9.1%, respectively.

Net profit came in at CHF 158.2 million ($196.2 million), up 9.4%. The company raised its full-year pre-tax profit forecast to CHF 365 million ($452.6 million) from CHF 355 million ($440.2 million) and increased its revenue target to CHF 700 million from CHF 675 million.

MultiBank Group

MultiBank Group reported revenue of $209 million and profit of $170 million for the first half of 2025, a 20% increase in revenue compared to the same period last year.

In April, the company set a single-day trading record by processing $56 billion in transactions, supported by high client activity across its global platforms.

More positive results from NAGA Group

Also this week, NAGA reported revenue of EUR32.2 million for the first half of 2025, up 2% from EUR 31.6 million a year earlier. EBITDA increased 8% to EUR 3.0 million despite higher marketing expenses.

The Hamburg-based company continued to invest in expanding its “financial superapp” user base, maintaining the growth seen in 2024, when it posted full-year revenue of EUR 62 million.

Regional banks bet on crypto

Beyond the financial reports, Paul Golden highlighted how crypto has moved further into the financial mainstream in 2025, with a clearer regulatory environment encouraging mid-tier and smaller US financial institutions to explore crypto offerings.

🇺🇸 Eric Trump says, "If the banks don't watch what's coming, they're gonna be extinct in 10 years" if they don’t embrace #Bitcoin and crypto. pic.twitter.com/w42gZpgyxa

— Trending Bitcoin (@BitcoinNews21M) August 4, 2025

Surveys indicated that consumer confidence in regional banks had recovered from the reputational damage caused by the collapses of First Republic Bank, Silicon Valley Bank, and Signature Bank in 2023.

Executive moves of the week

In our executive roundup, B2C2, the crypto market maker owned by Japanese conglomerate SBI, expanded its presence in Southeast Asia by appointing Laura Teo as Singapore Country Head and Head of Sales, APAC.

Equiti Group reshuffled its top ranks, promoting Sartaj Singh to Chief Technology Officer, Rick Fulton to Chief Risk and Audit Officer, and Sean Hong to Chief Financial Officer.

Bitcoin, XRP, Ether price action

Early this week, Bitcoin rose 2.84% to $121,625, driven by strong institutional demand and expectations of a favorable Federal Reserve policy. The move brought the cryptocurrency close to its all-time high, with analysts targeting the $140,000 level.

At the same time, XRP jumped 11% to above $3.25 after the dismissal of the Ripple-SEC settlement case. The second-largest crypto, ether, traded at $4,750 on Thursday, coming within 3% of its $4,865 all-time high set in late 2021.

Apex Financial takes 3% stake in CMC Markets

In the UK, Apex Group acquired a 3.07% stake in London-listed CFDs broker CMC Markets through its Jersey-based trust entity, becoming one of the broker’s top shareholders.

Lord Cruddas, CMC’s founder and CEO, continued to hold over 59% of the company. The filing did not specify the cost, but the market value of the shares on that date was around £21.66 million.

Hirose permanently ends retail CFD onboarding outside Japan

In our exclusive story, Hirose Financial stopped onboarding new retail clients under its UK- and Labuan-regulated entities. A Companies House filing showed that the UK entity planned to shift its focus to B2B market opportunities.

Hirose’s client registration pages for the UK and Labuan entities stated that retail applications were permanently closed. However, another notice on a separate Hirose website, which redirected potential clients to offshore platforms, described the suspension as temporary.

Nvidia and AMD buy back China access

Away from the industry, after months of lost sales, the US allowed Nvidia and AMD to sell AI chips to China in exchange for a portion of the revenue.

Nvidia and AMD had seen billions in potential revenue vanish under the US ban on high-performance chip exports to China. Beijing subtly restricted the use of foreign AI hardware, a move that could reshape the chip market and disadvantage Nvidia and AMD.

Chinese regulators told companies, including Alibaba and ByteDance, to justify their orders of American-made AI chips, especially for projects related to government or national security.