eToro enters the U.S. crypto market
Online trading platform eToro has brought its cryptocurrency trading service to the United States according to a TechCrunch report. At launch, the eToroUS platform does not cover the entire U.S., but is limited to 30 states. For now, eToroUS only supports cryptocurrency investing and trading.
Alongside the trading platform, eToro has also launched its cryptocurrency wallet, which currently supports Bitcoin BTC, -0.07%, Ethereum ETH, -0.76%, Ripple XRP, -1.34%, Litecoin LTC, -1.86%, Bitcoin Cash BCH, -1.51% and Stellar Lumens XLM, 4.01%. This is a very welcome development for eToro users, as the wallet gives them the option to actually withdraw cryptocurrencies instead of cashing out their holdings for fiat currency. This functionality, however, is not available to all eToro users but is limited to users with Gold status and above.
The eToroUS platform itself supports 13 different cryptocurrencies, although you won’t find any exotic altcoins as all supported coins except for Zcash (22nd) are among the 20 largest cryptocurrencies by market cap.
Stiff competition
With its move into the U.S. crypto space, eToro is set to face some stiff competition from the likes of Coinbase, Circle, Robinhood and, to a lesser extent due to only supporting BTC, Square’s Cash App.
Perhaps eToro’s unique social features will help it gain a foothold in the market - eToro bills itself as a “social trading” platform because it allows users to follow and copy trades and portfolios made by more experienced traders.
The next step in eToro’s involvement in the cryptocurrency market is the launch of eToroX, a fully-featured crypto-to-crypto exchange that will list tokenized versions of assets such as currencies and commodities in addition to “traditional” cryptocurrencies. In an interview with Breaker, eToro CEO Yoni Assia said he expects eToroX to be launched at the beginning of Q2. EtoroX will serve customers globally.