The week brought a mix of ownership changes, regulatoryaction, financial results and new product launches across the retail tradingand financial services sectors. UK regulation remained a key theme, with theFCA taking further action against CFD firms linked to overseas operations whilenew businesses prepared for changes to the country's crypto regime.London's trading industry is coming home!Brokers also continued to expand into adjacent areas. CMCMarkets is preparing a simulated prop trading service, eToro is moving clientsto an AI-centred application and Capital.com appears to be preparing a UKcrypto operation. Elsewhere, BlackBull Markets postponed its IPO plans andiFOREX reported a first-half loss.The week also highlighted the continued convergence betweentraditional finance and digital assets. The ECB launched its Pontes settlementinfrastructure, BitMEX ended its exchange operations, and developments acrosstokenised securities and blockchain infrastructure continued to narrow thedistinction between crypto and conventional financial markets.LCG Ownership Changes After Three-Year Buyout ProcessFinance Magnates interviewed London Capital Group ManagingDirector MattBasi about the broker’s management buyout, which took nearly three years tocomplete. LCG is now fully owned by its management after Basi and co-directorDave Worsfold acquired the FCA-regulated broker through MBDW Holdings from theestate of collapsed FlowBank. The managers had sought to buy LCG from 2022 butcould not agree on a price with FlowBank. Its bankruptcy in 2024 changed theprocess, with Swiss liquidators required to test the market before accepting abid. MBDW ultimately made the successful offer, although the purchase price wasnot disclosed.The deal includes an upfront cash payment and a further obligationtied to LCG’s profits over the following 24 months, while an intercompanybalance of about £200,000 was also settled.CMC Markets Sets October Launch for Prop Trading ServiceCMC Markets Funded has set 1 October 2026 as the publiclaunch date for its simulated trading evaluation programme. Legal documentsidentify Dubai-based True North Tech as the operator, while CMCMarkets Singapore is described as the programme’s exclusive financial servicesand online brokerage partner. The documents state that CMC Singapore is not theoperator or guarantor, and that its regulatory status does not extend to theprogramme. The trading infrastructure appears linked to MatchTrader, althoughthe terms do not confirm a commercial agreement. The platform has also shownsigns of pre-launch testing, including Trustpilot activity.Participants willtrade simulated accounts, with payouts structured as contractual rewards ratherthan profits from live company capital.BDSwiss Ruling Puts Swiss Branding Under ScrutinyBDSwiss has become the first financial firm to face a Swisscourt ruling under the country’s “Swissness” rules governing claims of Swissorigin. The Bern Commercial Court ordered theretail broker to remove the Swiss cross from its logo and drop “Swiss” from itsname. The case centres on legislation requiring foreign firms using Swissindications in products and advertising to meet specific conditions. Legalexpert Yiannos Georgiades said the ruling highlights requirements around theservices a business actually provides, rather than simply maintaining anaddress in Switzerland. BDSwiss was given a three-month period to comply. Itswebsite now redirects users to BDS Markets, the brand used by itsMauritius-registered business after the closure of its Cyprus operations.BlackBull Postpones IPO Plans to 2027BlackBull Markets has postponed itsplanned initial public offering until 2027, according to a source familiarwith the matter, after the broker’s board decided not to pursue a listing “atthis time”. Co-founder and CEO Michael Walker said the company’s roadshow hadbeen constructive and investor feedback positive, but that the board wanted tofocus on business growth and upcoming milestones. BlackBull had appointedBarrenjoey Capital Partners, UBS and Forsyth Barr for a non-deal roadshow aheadof a possible dual listing in Australia and New Zealand. The broker has sincereported an 85% increase in New Zealand client funds to nearly NZ$100 million.It now processes about US$200 billion in monthly trading volume across morethan 180 countries.FCA Shuts 21 CFD Brokers in Overseas-Linked CrackdownThe UK Financial Conduct Authority has shut down 21CFD providers since 2025 as part of a crackdown on firms with little or nobusiness in Britain but links to overseas operations. The regulator cancelledthe permissions of three other firms, while two more are under investigationover misleading customers. The FCA said the action targets so-called “halo”firms, where UK authorisation can give customers the impression that theyreceive UK regulatory protection when contracting with an overseas entity. Theregulator did not name the firms involved. This follows its earlier findingthat around 20% of local CFD brokers were conducting little or no activity. Asof December 2025, 74 firms were authorised to offer CFDs to UK retail clients.iFOREX Reports First-Half Loss and Plans Cost CutsLondon-listed CFD provider iFOREX reported a first-half netloss of $2.5 million, reversing a $1.2 million profit a year earlier. Revenuefell 2% to $26.9 million in the six months to 30 June. The company attributedthe loss to the stronger Israeli shekel, costs related to its February listingand a charge linked to money owed to clients. iFOREXplans to reduce operating costs by about $500,000 per month from October.Net cash stood at about $6.3 million by mid-September, with roughly $4 millionheld for regulators. Active clients increased 8%, but average revenue per userdeclined 9% as lower volatility reduced activity in some of the company’s coreinstruments.Capital.com Prepares UK Crypto ExpansionCapital.com appears to be preparing apush into the UK crypto market through Capital Vault UK, with the brokerrecruiting a Head of Risk for the business. A LinkedIn job advertisementdescribes Capital Vault UK as the FCA-registered crypto business for CapitalVault Group, although the entity had not appeared on the regulator’s publicregister at the time of publication. UK crypto firms remain subject to theFCA’s anti-money laundering regime, while a broader licensing framework isscheduled to come into effect under the Financial Services and Markets Act inOctober 2027. The hiring activity points to preparations ahead of thatframework. The UK market is becoming more competitive as regulators build awider regime for cryptoasset firms.eToro Begins Migration to AI-Centred Trading AppeToro will begin moving existingclients to its redesigned trading application from 4 October, using aphased rollout. According to a client communication reviewed by FinanceMagnates, accounts, login credentials and portfolios will carry overautomatically, with no requirement to create new profiles or transferpositions. The broker has not disclosed which clients or jurisdictions willmove first. An early-access application labelled “eToro AI” will be retiredonce users are migrated to the updated main app. The redesigned platformincludes revised portfolio displays, expanded asset pages, advanced charts anddifferent viewing modes for portfolios and watchlists. eToro’s AI assistant,Tori, is central to the new interface. The broker has also said the rebuiltapplication should operate faster.ECB Launches Pontes for Tokenised SettlementThe European Central Bank has launched Pontes, anew Eurosystem infrastructure designed to support settlement for tokenisedfinancial transactions using central bank money. The system is initiallyavailable only to credit institutions and will operate during normal Europeanbusiness hours, with 24-hour settlement planned for later stages. Pontes isintended to connect blockchain-based financial markets with central banksettlement, allowing transactions involving tokenised assets to usecentral-bank-backed euros rather than relying solely on stablecoins. The launchforms part of the ECB’s work on distributed-ledger technology and tokenisedmarkets. It also places Europe’s public settlement infrastructure alongsideprivate-sector initiatives in the US, where exchanges and financial firms aredeveloping blockchain-based market infrastructure and tokenised securities.BitMEX Ends Exchange Operations After 11 YearsBitMEX officially ended its exchange operations on 23September, closingan 11-year run after its market share had fallen sharply from its earlierpeak. The exchange, known for pioneering perpetual swap contracts, said userscould still access their accounts and withdraw remaining balances after theshutdown.By the time the closure was announced in July, BitMEX accounted forroughly 0.08% of daily Bitcoin futures volume, or about $84 million a day,according to Finance Magnates’ report. The closure followed senior managementdepartures in June and came after years of regulatory pressure. FinanceMagnates also noted that CoinEx and BitMart had shut down within the precedingtwo months, highlighting a wider reduction in activity among some cryptoexchanges.Crypto and Traditional Finance Continue to ConvergeCrypto platforms are expanding into stocks, derivatives,prediction markets and payments, while banks, exchanges and central banks areadopting blockchain infrastructure. Coinbase is among the clearestexamples, adding products beyond spot crypto and filing with the CFTC to offerperpetual futures on around 50 to 60 US stocks. Meanwhile, the ECB has launchedPontes for blockchain-based settlement using central bank money, while theLondon Stock Exchange is working with Payward, the company behind Kraken, ontokenised UK equities.Coinbase Q2 Revenue Falls 14% as Prediction Markets Revenue Jumps 106%Coinbase reported Q2 2026 total revenue of $1.22 billion, down 19% year over year and 14% quarter over quarter, while transaction revenue fell 21% to $599 million. The company recorded a net loss of $359 million and adjusted EBITDA of $208 million. Crypto spot trading volume declined 24% to $146.4 billion, but Coinbase’s share of total crypto trading volume rose from 9.1% to a record 10.3%.Subscription and services revenue fell 5% to $555 million, representing 48% of net revenue, while revenue outside BTC spot trading accounted for 88%. Prediction markets revenue increased 106% quarter over quarter and exceeded $100 million on an annualized basis. Average USDC held in Coinbase products reached $20 billion.— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) July 30, 2026These developments are bringing crypto and traditionalfinance closer through shared digital infrastructure. For retail investors, theshift could mean more asset classes on a single platform and longer tradinghours, but also different forms of counterparty, liquidity, leverage andregulatory risk.AI Threats Drive Calls for Shared Cyber DefenceAIis increasing the speed and scale of cyber threats facing financial firms,prompting calls for greater cooperation between organisations on cybersecurity.Manasseh Paradesi, CISO at Pepperstone, argues that brokers could improve theirdefences by sharing threat intelligence, testing controls under real-worldconditions and learning from incidents across the industry. His commentarypoints to a broader shift from isolated security programmes towards collectivedefence. The argument comes after a call for collective action on cyber defenceled by OpenAI and supported by more than 100 organisations across technology,cybersecurity, financial services and critical infrastructure. For brokers, thefocus is not only on adding security tools but also on understanding whethercontrols work against evolving threats and reducing duplicated efforts.This article was written by Tareq Sikder at www.financemagnates.com.