UK-based trading platform eToro is making changes.
Earlier this month, it was jubilantly announced that eToro is moving back into the American market after some hiatus.
Last year, the exchange had American-based operations going before drawing back. Various observers including these Quora posters explain why the exchange stopped taking American clients, responding to the question post (pre-announcement) “Why isn’t eToro open in the USA?”
“Very specifically because SEC regulation does not allow brokers to provide CFD (contract for difference) instruments for US residents,l” answered Robert Soos at BrokerChooser. “This means no regulated broker will accept retail clients from the USA to trade CFDs so in this sense it is not only eToro that cannot serve US residents.”
“Because the US likes to babysit it’s (sic) citizens and decide what is toxic or not for you to invest in,” added private investor Frank Amato. “This is not just limited to eToro and their CFD products, it is pretty much any foreign financial institution. They will look at your passport and RUN. Most US citizens don’t realize or notice this, but if you live as an Expat in a foreign country, it will become very apparent [due to the US policy to tax it’s citizens on worldwide income].”
The CFDs Amato mentions are “contracts for difference” – derivatives based on value chronologies, that eToro uses to facilitate trades.
The American ban on CFDs does not have approval from some quarters.
“I find this incredible. U.S. citizens blocked out a market that the rest of the developed world has access to,” wrote Jon Matonis back in 2012. “Of course, I am speaking about the CFD market. … it is a marketplace where regular people can trade the markets of the large trading houses without the same capital requirements. So, basically it is a form of democratized financial trading for the masses.”
All of this debate notwithstanding, eToro seems to have decided that now is the time to get back into the American market and expand its basket of cryptocurrencies.
Today, reporting by Helen Partz at Cointelegraph is showing eToro is announcing the listing of Tron, one of the top dozen cryptocurrencies in the field.
Tron (TRX), run by Justin Sun and the Tron Foundation, is known for building decentralized apps and aspiring to help build a “decentralized Internet.” Past projects include interesting digital wagering platforms and other efforts that exemplify gamification of the blockchain.
By moving into America and expanding its listings, eToro seems to be signaling that it’s ready to take the bull by the horns.
“EToro, which reportedly became the first platform to offer fiat trading of Binance Coin, an internal token operated by major global exchange Binance, has over 10 million users,” Partz writes.
The company is also looking at trends in the market – later in the piece, Partz reports that an observed study showed half of millennial traders favor digital currency exchanges over traditional stock market holdings.
