eToro, the social trading and assets brokerage firm which offers complicated and highly risky CFDs that do not hold the underlying assets, has added Ethereum to its trading platform. Yoni Assia, co-founder and CEO of eToro, told Finance Magnates:

“We are very proud to add Ethereum to our platform, as a regulated financial institution we have to make sure there is sufficient liquidity and pricing for every asset we add to the platform, and today with a market cap of over 1B USD we see more and more interest from our traders worldwide to trade and invest in Ethereum.”

Six million users trade on eToro, with around 4,000 eth investors. By comparison, bitcoin, which was added on eToro in 2014, has around 6,000 investors while the popular trading pair of eur/usd has around 10,000.

On the other hand, bitcoin has over a million followers while Eur/USD has more than ten million. Eth, so being added just a few days ago, has around 3,300, but it is the only digital currency, after bitcoin, to be offered on the platform.

eToro operates on complicated CFDs. When you “buy” or “sell” eth, you’re not actually buying anything, but simply speculating on the price movement, which can be detached from the underlying asset.

The platform is regulated by Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority, but is aimed at sophisticated investors, requiring answers to a number of questions to establish trading knowledge levels.

That’s because CFDs can be very risky and you may lose even more than your deposit. Moreover, the spread appears very high, at 400 pips, while margins are offered at just 2x, far less than some other, but unregulated, trading platforms.

Somewhat uniquely, eToro has a social aspect to trading. You can copy the movements of other traders and even invest in a Copy Fund, as well as share news or technical analysis.

On the news front, eth has had plenty recently. The currency is just a dollar away from its all-time high with its market cap now nearing $2 billion. It appears to be gaining considerable interest in South Korea, a country known for its strong gaming community.

Due to its smart contracts capabilities, there have been suggestions ethereum’s blockchain can aid in preventing cheating and increasing transparency in gaming. A prototype won the Thomson Reuter’s HackETHon back in September. As I reported then:

“The winner is football on the blockchain – FantETHy – “a fantasy sports game implemented in smart contracts that run on Ethereum allowing users to create their own fantasy leagues,” says David Acton, member of the winning team.”

There are suggestions a Sony representative mentioned ethereum at a gamer’s conference, which may indicate they are probably testing the technology and might explain the sudden rise of interest in South Korea.

Image from Ethereum.