Forex Capital Markets (FXCM), a London-based global foreign exchange brokerage has joined the bitcoin bandwagon just like some of its competitors in the forex and financial services industry including Admiral Markets, ICM Capital and others, reported Finance Magnates on October 1, 2018.
FXCM Bitcoin CFD
According to sources close to the matter, FXCM Group has now added bitcoin contracts-for-difference (CFD) to the list of its financial product offerings.
The firm has reportedly said that its BTC/USD contracts-for-difference (CFD) will be available to clients in the UK, Australia, and South Africa.
For the uninitiated, CFD is a form of derivative trading that makes it possible for traders to take advantage of the price movement of financial products such as indices, commodities, shares, and now, bitcoin, without holding the underlying assets.
Several highly reputed financial services firms like City Index brands, ICM Capital, Admiral Markets and a host of others have since integrated DLT-based virtual currencies into their product offerings, rendering clients bitcoin trading services in the form of cryptocurrency futures contracts, over-the-counter (OTC) derivative trading and more.
FXCM, on the other hand, has just woken up to the revolution and is now hoping to make the most of the burgeoning digital asset class.
Per Finance Magnates, it appears the firm has chosen to offer clients Bitcoin CFDs instead of other forms of cryptoassets trading services due to the super volatile nature of the real cryptocurrency markets.
Since CFD traders can speculate on the price of bitcoin without having to hold the coins, they still have an opportunity to make profits even when the price is crashing.
FXCM to Add More Cryptos Shortly
As reported by BTCManager earlier in December 2017, the world’s first bitcoin futures contracts were launched by the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), which is the largest U.S options exchange with an annual trading volume of 1.27 billion contracts.
Since that time, other firms have also created their bitcoin and altcoin-linked futures contracts.
In May 2018, BTCManager informed that Crypto Facilities, a UK-based trading platform regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) had launched ether futures contracts.
“The Ethereum network is the pre-eminent blockchain for smart contracts, and we believe this new trading instrument will lure more investors and bring greater liquidity to the marketplace,” said Crypto Facilities CEO, Timo Schlaefer at the time.
With blockchain-powered digital currencies slowly but steadily going mainstream, it is expected that the FXCM team would integrate other digital currencies like ether shortly.
