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Weekly Recap – MFF Founder Breaks Silence: “We Had been Blindsided”; Is the Retail-Institutional Hole Narrowing?

Weekly Recap – MFF Founder Breaks Silence: “We Had been Blindsided”; Is the Retail-Institutional Hole Narrowing?


MFF founder recounts struggles after CFTC freeze

In an unique interview with Finance Magnates
following the abrupt shutdown of My Foreign exchange Funds (MFF) in 2023, CEO and
founder Murtuza Kazmi detailed the monetary and emotional toll of the CFTC’s enforcement motion.

The regulator’s sudden asset freeze worn out considered one of
the biggest gamers within the prop buying and selling area in a single day, chopping off funds
to merchants and workers alike.

Reflecting on the saga, Kazmi insisted that MFF “would
have gained the case regardless” and argued that the alleged misconduct by
regulators unfairly destroyed market confidence.

FundingTicks prop agency winds down

There is no such thing as a doubt prop buying and selling corporations are underneath rising pressure. This week, FundingTicks introduced plans to wind down its operations as a part of what it calls a “strategic plan” to redirect
assets towards areas that present larger long-term worth for purchasers and
companions.

The announcement follows a wave of backlash final 12 months,
when FundingTicks launched controversial rule modifications for its merchants. These
included a one-minute minimal commerce maintain for scalping methods, harder day by day
revenue targets, and decrease revenue splits.

Plus500 halts new CFD onboarding in Spain

Struggles are additionally seen within the CFD area. Plus500 stopped opening new CFD buying and selling accounts for residents in Spain. This step comes in opposition to the backdrop of Spain imposing
a few of Europe’s hardest guidelines on how corporations can promote and distribute CFDs to
non-professional purchasers.

Regulators within the nation closely limit
advertising and marketing, bonuses, and high-leverage choices, pushing suppliers to reassess
whether or not buying new retail CFD clients in Spain stays viable.

Tickmill posts 40% leap in volumes

Nevertheless, not all is doom and gloom. Tickmill
closed 2025 on a powerful observe, processing $2.36 trillion in shopper buying and selling
quantity throughout 123 million trades over the 12 months.

Common month-to-month volumes climbed 40% in contrast with 2024,
whereas the overall variety of trades executed rose 24%. December 2025 was the
dealer’s busiest month, with shopper turnover reaching $300 billion,
highlighting a year-end surge in market engagement.

XTB volumes surge 76%

Additionally hovering, XTB’s Polish purchasers traded 16 billion zlotysin securities on the Warsaw Inventory Alternate in 2025, a 76.3% leap from the prior
12 months that also trailed the agency’s 115% surge in account numbers.

That development left XTB controlling about 33% of all Polish
brokerage accounts however only one.7% of WSE buying and selling quantity, in keeping with market
knowledge cited by monetary day by day Parkiet.

XTB Monetary Efficiency and Forecasts

Heading into its preliminary fourth-quarter outcomes, the public-listed dealer expects a rebound, as analysts at Noble Securities forecast a 205 million zloty
internet revenue for This fall 2025, lifting estimated full-year earnings to 673 million
zlotys.

cTrader quantity doubles

Tech suppliers are additionally seeing stable development. Spotware reported a 105% year-on-year leap in reside USD buying and selling volumes on its cTrader platform in 2025, because the variety of merchants utilizing the venue climbed previous 11 million. The expansion underscores cTrader’s strengthening place within the multi-asset buying and selling platform area.

Over the identical interval, the fintech expanded past its flagship platform by launching a liquidity bridge, rising its market providing and embedding AI throughout core operations. It additionally onboarded 104 new purchasers, deepening its attain amongst each brokers and proprietary buying and selling corporations.

eToro leads Australia’s CFD market

Down underneath, eToro controls 45 p.c of present CFD merchants, whereas Capital.com captured 14 p.c of newly opened CFD accounts,
the best share amongst brokers, in keeping with ASIC.

The market itself is extremely concentrated, with solely a
handful of brokers taking many of the enterprise. After eToro, Plus500’s
Australian unit holds 12 p.c, IG 8 p.c, and Pepperstone and CMC Markets
7 p.c every, leaving little room for smaller rivals.

Nevertheless, the regulator is tightening the grip. ASIC secured about AU$40 million (US$27 million) in refunds for greater than 38,000 retail CFD buyers after a evaluate of the sector. It discovered that over half the CFD brokers within the nation both supplied “margin reductions” to retail merchants or breached different obligations.

“InstiTail” buying and selling positive aspects momentum

In the meantime, brokers are more and more giving retail merchants entry to instruments and ideas that had been as soon as the protect of institutional
desks, narrowing a few of the sensible gaps between the 2 segments.

With margins underneath stress globally, retail and
institutional gamers have sturdy incentives to standardize expertise, share
infrastructure and develop volumes. Nevertheless, key variations persist round latency
necessities, how steadiness sheets are deployed, and the extent of customization
anticipated on pricing, danger and workflow.

How Singapore establishments rethink crypto

Can crypto actually earn a everlasting place alongside FX in institutional portfolios? Institutional merchants in Singapore are taking a more in-depth take a look at this. Nevertheless, important hurdles nonetheless should be cleared.

Questions round liquidity depth, counterparty danger and operational readiness proceed to carry some corporations again. Regulators, in the meantime, draw a agency line between the 2 markets.

FX is ruled by lengthy‑standing capital markets and banking guidelines, whereas crypto falls underneath the Fee Companies Act and associated Financial Authority of Singapore frameworks for digital fee tokens, preserving digital property in a separate regulatory bucket.

Shareholder activism: loud in US, quiet in Europe

Away from this business, shareholder activism reached a document stage in 2025, with 255 campaigns launched worldwide, surpassing the
earlier peak in 2018.

Extra buyers than ever now see activism as a option to pressure
change and unlock worth at listed corporations, providing a supply of alpha simply as
conventional stock-picking continues to lose floor to passive methods and
indexing.

But this surge has not been evenly unfold throughout markets. In
Europe, shareholder activism fell by virtually 20 p.c in 2025, dropping to its
lowest stage in a decade and highlighting a stark distinction with the extra
assertive US panorama.

Davos 2026: tokenization is “the secret”

Discussions on digital property on the World Financial Discussion board
have advanced past hypothesis to concentrate on tangible, real-world functions.

This 12 months’s narrative mirrored a extra mature stage within the
business’s growth, the place implementation, reasonably than ideology, dominated
the agenda. International monetary leaders described tokenization and
stablecoins because the defining developments of 2026, signaling a shift towards
institutional adoption.

Gold leads buying and selling exercise at Axi

In the meantime, current volatility in treasured metals is reshaping the market panorama. Gold has emerged because the main buying and selling instrument at
Australian dealer Axi, underscoring a wider development throughout the CFD sector as
merchants flock to the heightened volatility in treasured metals.

The steel surged to a document excessive of about $4,888 per ounce
earlier this week earlier than easing to round $4,836. After rising 65% in 2025,
gold has already gained one other 12% within the opening weeks of 2026, extending its
exceptional rally.

In institutional liquidity, sticking to “enterprise as normal”will be dangerous when market circumstances bear main modifications. For a very long time, the business has seen gold (XAU) and
silver (XAG) pricing, spreads, and financing prices as largely mounted.

However the
newest strikes in treasured metals aren’t simply one other market development—they signify
a elementary change in how these markets perform.

This text was written by Jared Kirui at www.financemagnates.com.



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