- The FTX exchange will allow customers to trade stocks and exchange-traded funds on its trading app through its new service called FTX Stock.
- Users will be able to fund their accounts with the USDC stablecoin, as well as bank transfers.
- FTX noted that the offering will feature free brokerage accounts, commission-free trading, and will also feature fractional shares, in addition to the fact that no minimum account balance will be required to trade.
Digital asset exchange houses and other businesses are increasingly diversifying their services in an effort to attract more users, in addition to having new revenue streams.
About, US FTXthe crypto exchange that allows the purchase, sale and storage of virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and the commercialization of other crypto products such as NFT, announced that from Thursday, May 19, a small number of its clients will have the opportunity to use one of its new services, to trade stocks and ETFs, thus becoming the first native crypto exchange to offer the stock service within its interface.
FTXStocks.
According to an interview for The Wall Street Journalthe president of FTX.US, Brett Harrison, stated that the exchange was working to add stock trading in January and in February opened the waiting list for the new service called FTX Stocks.
In accordance with DecryptheUsers will be able to add funds to their account through the USDC stablecoin and with bank transfers.
Although this new service is currently available to a select group of clients, who were selected from the waiting list, FTX hopes to be able to offer this service to all its users in the United States in the coming months.
FTX noted that the offering will feature “no-fee brokerage accounts in addition to commission-free trading.”. In the same way, the consortium indicated that It will also have fractional shares, in addition to the plus that a minimum account balance will not be necessary to be able to negotiate.
FTX and Robinhood
For those who are more aware of the various movements of the market and the actions carried out by exchanges, this service will surely seem strangely familiar to those offered by Robinhood, since the company pioneered several of these features in the world of trading. of actions.
But this is not just about the similarities, since recently Sam Bankman-Fried, the owner of the parent company of FTX US, disclosed that he took almost 8 percent of the shares of Robin Hoodwhich quickly generated a series of rumors in the community about the approach of a possible merger or acquisition.
PFOF
FTX US noted that its new stock offering will not, at least in the short term, generate cash for the company with payment for order flow (PFOF), which by the way, has been the backbone of Robinhood’s business model for the last 24 months.
“We don’t necessarily have to see a profit on the first dayHarrison said.
It is important to keep in mind that PFOF entails the grouping of client orders, to later route them to an external market maker such as Citadel Securities, which is in charge of carrying out the orders, in addition to paying a fee for do it.
While some users have pointed out that such a practice is helpful to small merchants, as it gives them the opportunity to benefit from bulk order prices, critics and analysts in the community have indicated that PFOF can be misleading or even unfair.
Either way, it’s not an issue to worry about at the moment, as PFOF is currently out of the game, due to Harrison pointing out that FTX US today is not on a quest to make the Stocks feature profitable.
Instead, he pointed out that this service will serve as a type of complement to the firm’s main digital asset offerings, in addition to being a type of hook to attract and retain more clients.
Now, the most interesting thing will be to see how much of a boost the addition of shares will give to FTXUS, since with this service, the firm will try to match the game with its competitors Coinbase and Kraken.
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