World retail FX remained extremely concentrated in 2025, with
Japan’s DMM Securities as soon as once more rising because the clear quantity chief. DMM Securities was the highest retail FX dealer globally, primarily based on Finance
Magnates Intelligence knowledge targeted solely on FX buying and selling volumes.
Singapore Summit: Meet the most important APAC brokers (and people you continue to do not!).
The Japanese agency recorded a mean month-to-month quantity of
$1.463 trillion for the yr, with exercise peaking within the first half of 2025,
when month-to-month volumes had been near $1.69 trillion. This marks one more yr by which DMM Securities has held
the primary spot within the world FX rankings.
Whereas the hole between main Japanese corporations is narrowing, the second-ranked dealer averaged $1.367 trillion in month-to-month FX quantity in 2025.
Poland’s FX/CFD merchants surge 50%
Elsewhere, Poland’s retail FX and CFD market grew quickly final yr, with the variety of energetic merchants rising by about 50% to roughly 370,000, in accordance with knowledge from the Polish Monetary Supervision Authority (KNF). Over the identical interval, shoppers collectively misplaced a document 2.68 billion zlotys, underscoring the excessive danger hooked up to leveraged OTC derivatives.
The KNF report, which covers the total spectrum of OTC merchandise supplied by Polish-licensed brokers, discovered that complete losses had been practically 4 instances bigger than complete income generated by profitable shoppers. Round 102,919 energetic shoppers ended the yr in revenue, whereas 266,818 recorded a internet loss, that means greater than 72% of merchants misplaced cash general.
XTB is estimated to have as much as 12,000 CFD accounts in France, the place the nationwide regulator is taken into account one of the crucial energetic in
the European Union.
The dealer not too long ago
signed a high-profile sponsorship take care of Paris La Défense Area, Europe’s
largest indoor venue, signalling that France is a key strategic marketplace for XTB
in 2026. France stays the EU’s second-largest economic system, with GDP per
capita projected to exceed 51,000 {dollars} this yr.
Why persistence wins in unstable markets
Market volatility is inevitable, however making an attempt to foretell its
ups and downs hardly ever works. Paul Golden argues that traders who stay calmand keep invested have a tendency to attain stronger long-term outcomes than those that
react impulsively.
He highlights 2025’s robust dividend payouts and elevated
buying and selling in oil and crypto markets as proof that persistence can repay even when
circumstances shift quickly.
Golden additionally cites knowledge from Schroders’ Duncan Lamont displaying
that world equities have seen double-digit declines in most years since 1972, but, traditionally, annual beneficial properties have greater than
offset these drops. The lesson is simple: market corrections are
regular, however recoveries are sometimes swift, and disciplined traders who keep the
course seize the largest rewards.
CySEC warns EU on smartphone-fueled risk-taking
Within the regulatory entrance, CySEC Vice Chairman Panikkos Vakkou warned that the explosion of smartphone investing apps, mixed with
aggressive advertising and marketing, is encouraging younger and inexperienced traders to take
on dangers they could not absolutely perceive.
He argues that the EU’s deliberate Financial savings and Funding Union
ought to go additional by explicitly banning the gamification of investing, akin to
game-like options and reward mechanisms that may nudge customers towards
speculative merchandise.
His newest warning builds on CySEC’s earlier stance: in
2022, the regulator launched an investor safety marketing campaign concentrating on
gamification and the function of social media “finfluencers” in selling complicated,
high-risk merchandise to youthful audiences.
Gibraltar licenses first prediction market operator
Gibraltar granted its first license to a prediction market operator at a time when rising UK playing taxes are placing strain on the territory’s conventional distant gaming sector. The license, issued on March 26 to Predict Road Ltd, was introduced by Minister for Justice, Commerce and Trade Nigel Feetham, who highlighted prediction markets as a possible new progress space for Gibraltar.
Predict Road describes itself because the “official prediction market associate” of the 2026 FIFA World Cup and runs its platform on infrastructure offered by a blockchain firm primarily based in Abu Dhabi. The transfer alerts Gibraltar’s effort to diversify its playing and fintech ecosystem by attracting revolutionary operators in rising niches akin to prediction markets.
CFTC sues states over prediction market overreach
Within the US, the CFTC has turned a simmering jurisdictional dispute over prediction markets right into a full-scale authorized battle with state regulators. The regulator filed lawsuits towards Arizona, Connecticut, and Illinois, alleging that the states unlawfully interfered with markets that fall beneath federal oversight.
I’ve some large information to announce… pic.twitter.com/3OBNTaOnIL
— Mike Selig (@ChairmanSelig) February 17, 2026
The CFTC says the states tried to limit or regulate designated contract markets that already function with its approval. The regulator argues that the Commodity Change Act provides it unique authority to oversee occasion contracts, together with these tied to outcomes akin to elections or firm efficiency.
On the similar time, greater than 40 lawmakers led by Senator Elizabeth Warren are urgent federal regulators to crack down on insider buying and selling in prediction markets. It urged the CFTC and the Workplace of Authorities Ethics in a proper letter to concern clear steerage reminding federal staff that utilizing private authorities data to commerce on these platforms is against the law.
Australia passes AFSL invoice to manage crypto platforms
And within the crypto rules area, Australia’s Parliament handed laws bringing digital asset platforms and tokenized custody suppliers beneath the nation’s present monetary providers licensing regime. The transfer formally locations a variety of crypto-related providers inside the similar regulatory perimeter as conventional monetary merchandise.
In 2025, the Australian Securities and Investments Fee clarified that stablecoins, wrapped tokens and tokenized securities are handled as monetary merchandise beneath present legislation, that means many suppliers should now maintain a license.
Topstep buys The Futures Desk
On the similar time, Topstep acquired The Futures Desk in a bid to strengthen its futures buying and selling training and expertise capabilities. The proprietary buying and selling agency mentioned the deal helps its objective of growing extra disciplined merchants by means of enhanced instruments, teaching and analysis applications.
The corporate plans to combine The Futures Desk’s buying and selling expertise into its TopstepX platform. It will present merchants with further instruments for growth and efficiency monitoring.
Prop corporations curb gold buying and selling
In the meantime, Philip H. van den Berg, Co-Founder and CEO of Rhodium FX, says extra proprietary buying and selling corporations are beginning to prohibit gold buying and selling for his or her funded accounts. Talking on a Thentick podcast, he described this as a rising structural concern for the retail prop buying and selling business.
He argued that gold’s record-breaking rally has made it unusually straightforward for retail merchants to develop into persistently worthwhile, exposing weaknesses in lots of corporations’ payout fashions. As gold hit successive all-time highs, extra merchants handed evaluations and reached payout levels, difficult enterprise fashions that depend on most merchants failing or dropping out earlier than important withdrawals.
Retail traders eye SpaceX
Lastly, Wall Road’s largest funding banks, together with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Financial institution of America and UBS, are competing for underwriting roles on SpaceX’s deliberate preliminary public providing.
Elon Musk’s area firm is getting ready to lift about $75 billion from public markets. The IPO is predicted to worth SpaceX between $1.25 trillion and $1.75 trillion. That will make it the most important share providing in capital markets historical past, with a fundraising goal reportedly round 3 times larger than Saudi Aramco’s document IPO.
World retail FX remained extremely concentrated in 2025, with
Japan’s DMM Securities as soon as once more rising because the clear quantity chief. DMM Securities was the highest retail FX dealer globally, primarily based on Finance
Magnates Intelligence knowledge targeted solely on FX buying and selling volumes.
Singapore Summit: Meet the most important APAC brokers (and people you continue to do not!).
The Japanese agency recorded a mean month-to-month quantity of
$1.463 trillion for the yr, with exercise peaking within the first half of 2025,
when month-to-month volumes had been near $1.69 trillion. This marks one more yr by which DMM Securities has held
the primary spot within the world FX rankings.
Whereas the hole between main Japanese corporations is narrowing, the second-ranked dealer averaged $1.367 trillion in month-to-month FX quantity in 2025.
Poland’s FX/CFD merchants surge 50%
Elsewhere, Poland’s retail FX and CFD market grew quickly final yr, with the variety of energetic merchants rising by about 50% to roughly 370,000, in accordance with knowledge from the Polish Monetary Supervision Authority (KNF). Over the identical interval, shoppers collectively misplaced a document 2.68 billion zlotys, underscoring the excessive danger hooked up to leveraged OTC derivatives.
The KNF report, which covers the total spectrum of OTC merchandise supplied by Polish-licensed brokers, discovered that complete losses had been practically 4 instances bigger than complete income generated by profitable shoppers. Round 102,919 energetic shoppers ended the yr in revenue, whereas 266,818 recorded a internet loss, that means greater than 72% of merchants misplaced cash general.
XTB is estimated to have as much as 12,000 CFD accounts in France, the place the nationwide regulator is taken into account one of the crucial energetic in
the European Union.
The dealer not too long ago
signed a high-profile sponsorship take care of Paris La Défense Area, Europe’s
largest indoor venue, signalling that France is a key strategic marketplace for XTB
in 2026. France stays the EU’s second-largest economic system, with GDP per
capita projected to exceed 51,000 {dollars} this yr.
Why persistence wins in unstable markets
Market volatility is inevitable, however making an attempt to foretell its
ups and downs hardly ever works. Paul Golden argues that traders who stay calmand keep invested have a tendency to attain stronger long-term outcomes than those that
react impulsively.
He highlights 2025’s robust dividend payouts and elevated
buying and selling in oil and crypto markets as proof that persistence can repay even when
circumstances shift quickly.
Golden additionally cites knowledge from Schroders’ Duncan Lamont displaying
that world equities have seen double-digit declines in most years since 1972, but, traditionally, annual beneficial properties have greater than
offset these drops. The lesson is simple: market corrections are
regular, however recoveries are sometimes swift, and disciplined traders who keep the
course seize the largest rewards.
CySEC warns EU on smartphone-fueled risk-taking
Within the regulatory entrance, CySEC Vice Chairman Panikkos Vakkou warned that the explosion of smartphone investing apps, mixed with
aggressive advertising and marketing, is encouraging younger and inexperienced traders to take
on dangers they could not absolutely perceive.
He argues that the EU’s deliberate Financial savings and Funding Union
ought to go additional by explicitly banning the gamification of investing, akin to
game-like options and reward mechanisms that may nudge customers towards
speculative merchandise.
His newest warning builds on CySEC’s earlier stance: in
2022, the regulator launched an investor safety marketing campaign concentrating on
gamification and the function of social media “finfluencers” in selling complicated,
high-risk merchandise to youthful audiences.
Gibraltar licenses first prediction market operator
Gibraltar granted its first license to a prediction market operator at a time when rising UK playing taxes are placing strain on the territory’s conventional distant gaming sector. The license, issued on March 26 to Predict Road Ltd, was introduced by Minister for Justice, Commerce and Trade Nigel Feetham, who highlighted prediction markets as a possible new progress space for Gibraltar.
Predict Road describes itself because the “official prediction market associate” of the 2026 FIFA World Cup and runs its platform on infrastructure offered by a blockchain firm primarily based in Abu Dhabi. The transfer alerts Gibraltar’s effort to diversify its playing and fintech ecosystem by attracting revolutionary operators in rising niches akin to prediction markets.
CFTC sues states over prediction market overreach
Within the US, the CFTC has turned a simmering jurisdictional dispute over prediction markets right into a full-scale authorized battle with state regulators. The regulator filed lawsuits towards Arizona, Connecticut, and Illinois, alleging that the states unlawfully interfered with markets that fall beneath federal oversight.
I’ve some large information to announce… pic.twitter.com/3OBNTaOnIL
— Mike Selig (@ChairmanSelig) February 17, 2026
The CFTC says the states tried to limit or regulate designated contract markets that already function with its approval. The regulator argues that the Commodity Change Act provides it unique authority to oversee occasion contracts, together with these tied to outcomes akin to elections or firm efficiency.
On the similar time, greater than 40 lawmakers led by Senator Elizabeth Warren are urgent federal regulators to crack down on insider buying and selling in prediction markets. It urged the CFTC and the Workplace of Authorities Ethics in a proper letter to concern clear steerage reminding federal staff that utilizing private authorities data to commerce on these platforms is against the law.
Australia passes AFSL invoice to manage crypto platforms
And within the crypto rules area, Australia’s Parliament handed laws bringing digital asset platforms and tokenized custody suppliers beneath the nation’s present monetary providers licensing regime. The transfer formally locations a variety of crypto-related providers inside the similar regulatory perimeter as conventional monetary merchandise.
In 2025, the Australian Securities and Investments Fee clarified that stablecoins, wrapped tokens and tokenized securities are handled as monetary merchandise beneath present legislation, that means many suppliers should now maintain a license.
Topstep buys The Futures Desk
On the similar time, Topstep acquired The Futures Desk in a bid to strengthen its futures buying and selling training and expertise capabilities. The proprietary buying and selling agency mentioned the deal helps its objective of growing extra disciplined merchants by means of enhanced instruments, teaching and analysis applications.
The corporate plans to combine The Futures Desk’s buying and selling expertise into its TopstepX platform. It will present merchants with further instruments for growth and efficiency monitoring.
Prop corporations curb gold buying and selling
In the meantime, Philip H. van den Berg, Co-Founder and CEO of Rhodium FX, says extra proprietary buying and selling corporations are beginning to prohibit gold buying and selling for his or her funded accounts. Talking on a Thentick podcast, he described this as a rising structural concern for the retail prop buying and selling business.
He argued that gold’s record-breaking rally has made it unusually straightforward for retail merchants to develop into persistently worthwhile, exposing weaknesses in lots of corporations’ payout fashions. As gold hit successive all-time highs, extra merchants handed evaluations and reached payout levels, difficult enterprise fashions that depend on most merchants failing or dropping out earlier than important withdrawals.
Retail traders eye SpaceX
Lastly, Wall Road’s largest funding banks, together with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Financial institution of America and UBS, are competing for underwriting roles on SpaceX’s deliberate preliminary public providing.
Elon Musk’s area firm is getting ready to lift about $75 billion from public markets. The IPO is predicted to worth SpaceX between $1.25 trillion and $1.75 trillion. That will make it the most important share providing in capital markets historical past, with a fundraising goal reportedly round 3 times larger than Saudi Aramco’s document IPO.
