Fazzaco Weekly Digest: BUX to Sell Its UK Business; Yelopay's Ties to the BoomBill Scam; Crypto Exchanges See Spot Trading Vol Drop in Sept

Tightening regulation is an inevitable trend for the future development of the cryptocurrency industry. A week ago, Australia said it planned to introduce a comprehensive licensing regime for cryptocurrency exchanges to regulate the country’s rapidly growing crypto industry.

Affected by increasingly stringent regulatory systems and a sluggish economic environment, the development of cryptocurrency exchanges has stagnated. Crypto giant Binance suspended its new user registrations in the UK last week, and Stéphanie Cabossioras, the executive director of Binance France, parted ways with the crypto exchange.

According to data collected and compiled by Fazzaco, spot trading volume in the crypto market continued to decline in September, with only one of the top 10 exchanges achieving month-on-month growth.

The gloomy economic climate has also taken a toll on brokers. Last week, European broker BUX planned to sell its UK business and withdraw from the UK retail trading market due to the disappointing financial results in 2022.

In addition, Fazzaco has obtained exclusive access to a list of payment providers that require extra caution to deal with. Further investigation revealed that the person behind Yelopay is the same person behind the BoomBill fraud case that was exposed last year for stealing millions of dollars.

Here are the related details, as well as some of the most read forex, crypto, and fintech news pieces and articles from Fazzaco over the past week.

1. European Broker BUX to Sell Its UK Business Amid Poor Performance​

Following the publication of disappointing financial results in 2022, Europe's leading online broker BUX unveiled its plan to sell its British business, BUX Financial Services Limited (BUX UK), and exit the UK retail trading market.

In the latest Companies House filing, BUX stated that due to the "volatility and turmoil caused on both a global and national scale", as well as the continued impact of the migration of its UK clients to its EU-based entity, the turnover of BUX UK slumped by 83.5% from £9.2 million in 2021 to £1.5 million in 2022, resulting in a loss of £2.26 million in the year.

2. Fazzaco Exclusive: Whistleblower Reveals Yelopay's Ties to the BoomBill Scam

The online payment industry has been plagued by fraud in recent years, causing losses to many merchants and consumers, including forex brokers. Recently, Fazzaco obtained a list of suspicious payment service providers (PSPs) that requires extra caution to deal with from an anonymous source, and the name of Yelopay caught our attention.

After looking into it a bit further, we found out that the person behind Yelopay is the same person behind the BoomBill fraud case that was exposed last year for stealing millions of dollars, according to another source.

3. All Top 10 Crypto Exchanges See Spot Trading Vol Drop in Sept, Except Upbit with 15.4% Rise​

Fazzaco summarized the performance of the top ten cryptocurrency exchanges based on the spot trading volume data throughout September 2023. The data shows that the crypto spot trading continued to decline, and among the top ten exchanges this month, nine fell month-on-month, with the largest decline coming from Binance, which fell 32.3%; only Upbit achieved month-on-month growth this month, with an increase of 15.4%. 

Some analysts believe that lower interest rates and the establishment of a U.S.-based spot crypto ETF may re-boost trading volume, but for the foreseeable future, the trading environment may remain sluggish.

4. Binance Suspends New User Registrations in the UK

Crypto giant Binance announced that it would suspend new user registrations in the UK as of 5 p.m. local time on October 16 to align itself with the country's "stringent financial promotions rules" that took effect on the 8th of this month.

The latest crypto regulations introduced by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) include strict marketing guidelines that explicitly prohibit firms from engaging UK audiences unless registered with the FCA as a cryptoasset firm. To this end, Binance has reached a cooperation Rebuildingsociety.com Limited, an FCA-regulated entity and authorised 'S21 approver' for crypto marketing and communications materials.

5. Australia Proposes New Licensing Regime for Crypto Exchanges​

In a significant move towards regulating the rapidly expanding cryptocurrency industry in Australia, Australia's Treasury has unveiled plans to introduce a comprehensive licensing regime for crypto exchanges.

The initiative is designed to enhance consumer protection, bring much-needed clarity to the digital asset sector, and pave the way for the nation to align with global regulatory standards.

6. Kypros Zoumidou Succeeds Peter Hetherington as CEO of Capital.com

Fazzaco learned that Kypros Zoumidou, the current Chief Commercial Officer of Capital.com, a Forex and CFDs broker, has been named as the new CEO of the company, succeeding Peter Hetherington.

Based on his LinkedIn profile, Kypros joined Capital.com as Managing Director, UK in January 2022. In his new role, he will steer the company towards expansion into emerging markets while prioritising innovative product development and a robust technology infrastructure.

7. DTCC Enters Definitive Agreement to Acquire Blockchain-Based Fintech Securrency​

DTCC, the premier post-trade market infrastructure for the global financial services industry, announced on Thursday (October 19, 2023) that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Securrency Inc. (Securrency), an institutional-grade digital asset infrastructure provider.

The deal is expected to close within the next several weeks.