Swiss based Dukascopy Bank has become the latest forex broker to offer contract for difference services (CFDs) with cryptocurrencies. The bank announced Tuesday that it had added CFD contracts for Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin.
Dukascopy Bank will use the MetaTrader 4 platform for these cryptocurrency trading services. There will also be the possibility to trade CFD’s in both demonstration mode and live mode. The bank explained that unlike the traditional purchase of cryptocurrencies, CFD positions can be traded without actually owning the coins.
The bank was at pains to point out that this actually eliminates cybersecurity risk. Traders can also take both short and long positions on these crypto assets. The three coins are listed against the US dollar.
Another interesting feature is the offering of increased leverage for traders of 1:5 whilst Dukascopy Europe clients will get a maximum leverage of 1:2.
Bleak Cryptocurrency Market Situation
With the current bleak situation in the crypto market, there seems to be no reduction in appetite for traders to profit out of the situation. Dukascopy also hinted that leverage positions can actually be larger than the amount of crypto held. This is a good thing for traders who have a larger appetite for risk.
Short positions have definitely yielded rich pickings of late with most coins down well over 30% over a matter of days with the decline seemingly here to stay in the short term.
The forex broker has added crypto services after several of its competitors in the field decided to take the plunge and offer crypto trading. This appears to further legitimize crypto amongst the big financial players.
It appears that the high volatility of cryptocurrencies also enables traders to take up more positions. This results in improved revenues for the broker and is certainly the case with Dukascopy Bank. Another competitor, Saxo Bank recently launched a similar crypto service for its clients.
Crypto Bearish But Broker Business Booming
As previously indicated, the crypto market is going through a sustained bearish phase with the vast majority of coins having lost a considerable amount of their value. Bitcoin and Ethereum are down by at least 50% of their all-time highs. Others such as Ravencoin (RVN) and Bittorrent (BTT) have seen drops of almost 90%.
Retail traders have definitely provided a boom to Dukascopy’s fledgling business over the past year. In fact, operating income shot up to a staggering CHF 40.1 million over 2020. This figure is a new record although it is expected to be beaten this year as more retail traders come in on the back of the cryptocurrency rush.
CFD crypto trading is no longer available to UK-based traders and investors.
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Gerald Fenech
