Dukascopy Swiss-Based Forex Bank Launches Ether CFDs

Swiss-based forex broker and crypto-friendly bank, Dukascopy have announced the launch of its Ether contracts for differences (CFDs) after successfully adding Bitcoin CFDs to its product offerings earlier in the year, according to a Finance Magnates report on October 9, 2018.

Dukascopy Bank Joins Crypto Bandwagon
Per sources close to the matter, Geneva-based retail forex broker, Dukascopy Bank has added Ether CFDs to its existing cryptocurrency offerings. With the latest development, all Dukascopy’s self-trading accounts will have access to its Ether CFD offering.

Dukascopy Bank has reportedly made it clear that its ETH/USD CFDs comes with a maximum leverage of 1:3, but its European subsidiary, Dukascopy Europe will offer clients the new crypto financial instrument at a leverage of 1:2 in line with ESMA directives.

Earlier in March 2018, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) formulated measures to limit the risks of binary options and CFDs on retail investors in the European Union, significantly restricting the leverages on cryptocurrency instruments to 1:2.

“The agreed measures ESMA is announcing today will guarantee greater investor protection across the EU by ensuring a common minimum level of protection for retail investors,” said the Chair of ESMA’s Board of Directors, Steven Maijoor at the time.

Dukascopy’s 1:3 leverage on its ETH/USD CFDs product is only possible because Switzerland is not a formal member of the EU.

Rollovers Apply to Crypto CFDs, Dedicated Crypto Gateway on the way
In addition to offering clients excellent leverages, Dukascopy has also reportedly hinted it would apply its overnight leverage policy to crypto CFDs as obtainable on other traditional CFD options on its platform.

The crypto-friendly bank will also offer various rollover rates to give clients higher trading profits and better overnight conditions.

At a time when a significant number of financial institutions in Swiss have refused to open their doors to crypto-linked startups, Dukascopy has fully embraced the gospel of distributed ledger technology (DLT) and cryptos.

Per Finance Magnates, the bank is looking to create a crypto gateway to allow customers who use mobile banking to seamlessly carry out free internal cryptocurrency transfers among themselves while also being able to deposit and withdraw cryptoassets from their Dukascopy bank accounts.

Dukascopy Bank Awaits FINMA Approval to Launch Stablecoin
At a time when stablecoins are gaining traction in the cryptoverse, the bank is also seeking approval from Swiss regulators to enable it to launch its cryptocurrencies called Dukascoins and Dukasnotes. Dukascopy plans to make Dukascoins its native altcoin while Dukasnotes will serve as a stablecoin.

If all goes according to plan, FINMA won’t find it hard approving Dukascopy’s filing as the regulator has a relatively crypto-friendly stance. As reported by BTCManager on October 9, 2018, FINMA awarded its license to Crypto Fund AG to operate in the region as a regulated asset manager.