eToroX, the blockchain arm of European brokerage eToro, opened its crypto exchange this week. The platform launches with eight fiat-stablecoins—eToroX tokens pegged to the New Zealand Dollar, Japanese
eToroX, the blockchain arm of European brokerage eToro, opened its crypto exchange this week. The platform launches with eight fiat-stablecoins—eToroX tokens pegged to the New Zealand Dollar, Japanese Yen, Swiss Franc, US Dollar, Euro, Pound Sterling, Australian Dollar, and Canadian Dollar—alongside six cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Dash, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin. This combination creates 37 trading pairs.
Doron Rosenblum, eToroX's managing director, told the market Tuesday: "In the coming weeks and months, we will add more cryptoassets, stablecoins and tokens to the exchange and will work with other exchanges to encourage them to list our growing range of stablecoins."
eToro was founded in Tel Aviv and worked with blockchain starting in 2012 through Colored Coins, a method for representing real-world assets on the Bitcoin blockchain—deeds, stocks, bonds, futures, and intellectual property. The company became one of the first regulated brokerages to offer crypto trading when it added Bitcoin in 2014. Today, the platform supports 15 crypto-assets and multiple crypto CopyPortfolios—trading strategies curated by eToro's own analysts.
The company acquired Firmo, a Danish startup, last month. Firmo developed a platform for deploying financial contracts across blockchains. eToro is also an investor in CoinDash, which builds a blockchain platform combining portfolio management and social trading capabilities.
Yoni Assia, eToro's CEO and co-founder, discussed the company's blockchain push. "This is the future of finance. Blockchain will eventually 'eat' traditional financial services through tokenization. Cryptoassets are just the first step on this journey and we are excited to explore the opportunities offered by tokenization with the launch of our exchange."
eToro formed the subsidiary last year to execute the company's blockchain vision and build products around tokenized assets. eToroX obtained its blockchain technology license from Gibraltar's Financial Services Commission in December 2018.
Assia concluded: "We believe that we will see the greatest transfer of wealth ever as financial services move onto the blockchain. The blockchain brings transparency and a new paradigm for asset ownership. In time, we will see the tokenization of all traditional asset classes, as well as the emergence of new asset classes such as tokenized art, property or even intellectual property."
