Global FX brokerage FXCM Group has become the latest retail trading venue to launch access to Bitcoin trading. The move comes a bit late but follows an ongoing trend by brokerages and service providers to adopt cryptocurrencies.

On Thursday, FXCM publicly revealed the newest product offering for clients of its brands in UK, Australia, and South Africa, having launched the contracts-for-difference (CFD) for Bitcoin paired against the US dollar.

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2017 and 2018 have largely been the years of crypto, with retail brokerages rapidly integrating digital currencies into their offerings. FXCM has now joined the crowd, implementing a comprehensive Bitcoin offering into its existing services suite.

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There has also been rapid growth among UK-based CFDs and spread betting providers looking to cash in ‎on the meteoric rise of cryptocurrency – including Admiral Markets, Plus500, ICM Capital, ‎and many others.

FXCM’s big rivals, including GAIN Capital’s FOREX.com and City Index brands, also offer an expanded Crypto suite to its ‎customers in the U.K., Europe, Australia, and Singapore. Their clients can trade the ‎cryptocurrency pairs either as an over-the-counter (OTC) derivative or as a future, with ‎access to limited leverage and the ability to take both long ‎and short positions. ‎Other brokers offer their client base the crypto coins a spread bet, giving them the added advantage of tax-free profits when trading the digital asset.

FXCM likely turned to CFDs as a ‎way of offering cryptocurrency trading due to the difficulty in hedging positions in the real ‎markets which always makes this derivative type a prime alternative to many underlying ‎assets.‎

The introduction of CFD trading on Bitcoin marks the first stage of FXCM’s decisive move into the surging cryptocurrency arena, with the release of other cryptocurrencies could take place in the near future.