Crises, Acquisitions, IPOs and Bitcoin all topped our list of the most followed stories in 2013.
2013 was nothing short of a spectacular year in the Forex industry. Forex industry volumes returned after two lackluster years, with our Retail Forex Volume Index hitting an all-time high of $329 billion daily in June, before settling back somewhat in the second half of the year.
Brokers got bought. Brokers shut down. Others raised money. Regulators got tough. Cyprus brokers lived through the bank ‘haircut’ and EU bailout.
2013 was a also an amazing year for us at LeapRate, as our audience more than quintupled during the year and we grew to become the leading and most trusted source of news and information about the forex industry. Our Alexa ranking now places us among the 75,000 most popular websites worldwide, and we’d like to take this New Year’s opportunity to thank all of our readers for the confidence you’ve placed with us.
But in retrospect, we’ll let our articles do the rest of the talking. Come take a walk with us along memory lane, as we look back at some of our most popular, controversial and commented-on articles of 2013, grouped by major topic. What highlights will 2014 bring?
Acquisitions and Financings
- Swissquote acquisition of MIG Bank – $70 million
- Gain Capital buys GFT, rejecting FXCM takeover
- Plus500 IPO successful – company raises $25M, shareholders sell $50M
- Hong Kong forex broker KVB Kunlun completes IPO
Regulation and Punishment
- Active forex affiliates sentenced to 5+ years jail for blackmail
- CySEC, lacking funding, is shaking down FX brokers – the real story
- MMA Forex CEO Malik Noureed Awan found guilty, jailed for 2 years
- NFA looks to ban Credit Card or PayPal deposits
Beginnings and Endings
- iOption closed down – the real story
- ForexTime to be run by ex-Alpari execs
- IG Group rebrands as IG.com – after spending millions for ‘IG.com’
Cyprus Banking Crisis and EU bailout
- CySEC working to free client funds at Cyprus FX brokers
- Cyprus-EU bailout and the FX and Binary Brokers
- Binary options and Forex brokers continue to flock to Cyprus
- Cyprus S&P upgrade is good news for the island’s forex brokers
Management Changes
- Oanda replaces its CEO, brings in PayPal veteran
- Alpari UK change at the top – David Hodge replaces Daniel Skowronski as CEO
- AxiTrader appoints new CEO, Alex Mackinnon
Best wishes to all our readers for a happy and prosperous 2014.
For more on the global Forex industry see the LeapRate-Dow Jones Forex Industry Report.