Senate Committee Gives Green Light to Landmark Crypto Bill as Online Brokerage Expands Futures Offerings
CLARITY Act clears first Senate hurdle
This week, the US Senate Banking Committee voted to advance the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act. It marked a key step toward creating a federal regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies in the United States.
The committee approved the 309-page draft introduced earlier in the week. The bill proposes splitting oversight of digital assets between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). It will now move to the full Senate, where it needs at least 60 votes to proceed.
BREAKING: 🇺🇸 Senate Banking Committee PASSES the Clarity Act in 15-9 vote.The bill now goes to the full Senate. pic.twitter.com/TCs6T283y2
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) May 14, 2026
The Act is a crypto market structure bill aimed at ending long-standing regulatory confusion by clearly dividing oversight of digital assets between the SEC and the CFTC. Originally passed by the House in 2025, it seeks to establish a consistent federal framework and resolve disputes between the two agencies over jurisdiction.
eToro Q1 profit jumps 37%
Meanwhile, eToro reported its strongest quarterly performance since going public, with first-quarter net income rising 37% year-over-year to $82 million. Net contribution increased 19% to $258 million, according to a statement released Tuesday.
The trading platform Trading Platform In the FX space, a currency trading platform is a software provided by brokers to their respective client base, garnering access as traders in the broader market. Most commonly, this reflects an online interface or mobile app, complete with tools for order processing.Every broker needs one or more trading platforms to accommodate the needs of different clients. Being the backbone of the company’s offering, a trading platform provides clients with quotes, a selection of instruments to trade, real In the FX space, a currency trading platform is a software provided by brokers to their respective client base, garnering access as traders in the broader market. Most commonly, this reflects an online interface or mobile app, complete with tools for order processing.Every broker needs one or more trading platforms to accommodate the needs of different clients. Being the backbone of the company’s offering, a trading platform provides clients with quotes, a selection of instruments to trade, real Read this Term also reported growth in key metrics, with funded accounts reaching 4.02 million and assets under administration climbing 15% to $17 billion. Adjusted EBITDA came in at $109 million, while adjusted diluted earnings per share increased to $0.91 from $0.77 a year earlier.
Following the update, the NASDAQ-listed firm's shares initially rose about 6% in pre-market trading to $41.20 on strong earnings, before reversing during the earnings call to close 3% lower at $37.61.
XTB stock gains 6% as accounts top 1M
Also looking upwards, XTB shares rose 6% to PLN 107.12 on Monday, marking the broker’s strongest single-day gain since January 30. The move followed two announcements: a PLN 10.66 million share buyback program and confirmation that XTB has become the first Polish broker to surpass 1 million domestic accounts.
Date
Total AUA
Crypto
Equities
Cash
Mar 31, 2025
$14.8B
$5.6B
$6.4B
$2.8B
Sep 30, 2025
$20.8B
$7.8B
$9.3B
$3.7B
Dec 31, 2025
$18.5B
$5.3B
$9.6B
$3.6B
Mar 31, 2026
$17.0B
$4.1B
$9.3B
$3.6B
Apr 30, 2026
$18.7B
—
—
—
Source: eToro shareholder update, May 12, 2026.
The gain pushes XTB’s year-to-date performance to around 49%, outperforming most listed retail brokers. By comparison, eToro is up about 10% over the same period, CMC Markets has gained 29%, and Robinhood has declined roughly 29%, highlighting a widening performance gap across the sector.
Interactive Brokers fuses prediction venues
Interactive Brokers rolled out a new feature that lets its clients trade event contracts from several US prediction market venues through a single interface. The broker now connects to Kalshi, CME Group and ForecastEx in one integrated system, aggregating similar contracts so users can search, compare and execute trades across venues in real time.
Kalshi x Interactive Brokers One of the largest brokers in the world. Casual, sophisticated, and institutional investors can now trade the future. All in one place. pic.twitter.com/yM2S4mksU9
— Kalshi (@Kalshi) May 14, 2026
At the same time, Interactive Brokers UK reported a pre-tax profit of £34 million for the year ended December 31, 2025, more than double the £13.6 million it made a year earlier. This was reportedly driven by steady client growth and higher commission and interest income.
After-tax profit rose to £26 million from £10.5 million, while turnover, derived entirely from commissions on order execution and related services, increased to £46.2 million from £36 million, with the figures covering only the UK subsidiary of Nasdaq-listed Interactive Brokers Group, which reports separately on a consolidated basis.
In the regulatory front, the SEC delayed the launch of 24 prediction market ETFs filed by firms including Roundhill Investments, Bitwise, and GraniteShares. They were designed to give retail investors exposure to event contracts linked to elections, economic data, and other real-world outcomes through a standard ETF structure.
YaMarkets closes after regulatory strain
However, challenges persist in the CFD space. Offshore forex and CFD broker YaMarkets shut down operations, ending its presence in markets where it was primarily active, including India and parts of Asia. Its B2B arm, YaPrime, also appears to have ceased operations, with its website no longer accessible.
The company operated out of Dubai, with additional service offices in India, and was led by co-founder and CEO Lalit Matta, a former India Country Manager at INFINOX who also held roles at ContinueFX and FXGia. In a statement posted on LinkedIn, the broker said the closure followed deteriorating business conditions. It cited a changing business environment and ongoing operational challenges that made it difficult to continue serving clients as intended.
Three brokers form Bahamas alliance
In a rare move industry move involving an offshore hub, Pepperstone, Capital.com, and Trade Nation launched a new industry body. The Bahamas Institute of Forex and CFD Issuers (BIFCI) aims at improving coordination among brokers and strengthening engagement with regulators in the offshore jurisdiction.
Pepperstone Group CEO Tamas Szabo said the initiative has been in development since April 2023 and is now operational, adding that additional firms are already involved and the group remains open to new members.
The move reflects a broader effort to bring more structured governance to the Bahamas, which has evolved since 2020 into a higher-cost jurisdiction with stricter regulatory expectations, including capital requirements and market conduct standards.
Coinbase exec backs prediction markets
Crypto is stepping into the prediction markets arena. Coinbase is expanding prediction markets as part of its broader push to build an “Everything Exchange,” but the company says users are not treating these products like traditional financial assets. In an interview, Toni Gemayel, Head of Prediction Markets at Coinbase, explained that many participants engage with prediction markets more as a form of media or entertainment rather than conventional trading instruments.
Gemayel also outlined why Coinbase entered the segment and how it fits into its multi-asset Multi-Asset Composed of varying asset classes, multi-asset is a blanket designation combining different classes such bonds, equities, cash equivalents, fixed income, and alternative investments.When compared to traditional balanced funds, multi-asset solutions differ because they target specific investment outcomes. This includes outcomes such as return above inflation as opposed to gauging performance against standardized benchmarks.Given the composition of multi-asset classes, they need to be dynamically Composed of varying asset classes, multi-asset is a blanket designation combining different classes such bonds, equities, cash equivalents, fixed income, and alternative investments.When compared to traditional balanced funds, multi-asset solutions differ because they target specific investment outcomes. This includes outcomes such as return above inflation as opposed to gauging performance against standardized benchmarks.Given the composition of multi-asset classes, they need to be dynamically Read this Term strategy. He noted that prediction markets align naturally with the platform’s expansion beyond crypto, and highlighted the company’s partnership with Kalshi as a key step in bringing these products to users.
Markets swing on politics
As Paul Golden writes this week, market research firms rarely attract attention unless their work challenges prevailing assumptions. Fundstrat did so recently when macro data scientist Alex Wang analyzed the drivers behind the five best and worst market days across the last 12 US administrations, dating back to Ronald Reagan in 1981.
The analysis examined factors including corporate earnings, foreign events, economic data, and interest rate expectations. While government policy emerged as the most common driver overall, the data also showed it played an especially dominant role in shaping the most extreme market moves under one specific president.
FM Singapore Summit 2026 concludes
The inaugural FM Singapore Summit took place this week, with Finance Magnates bringing together sessions on AI, tokenisation, and trading infrastructure. The event opened at the Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre, marking the event’s debut in one of Asia’s leading financial hubs.
🚀 The FM Singapore Summit 2026 has officially kicked off at the Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre! 🎉Day 1 was full of energy, featuring industry leaders like David Jenkins and Christopher Forbes, and bringing together key players from fintech, trading, payments,… pic.twitter.com/57f4HyX1u4
— FXStreet News (@FXStreetNews) May 13, 2026
Discussions also covered liquidity, regulation, and digital asset infrastructure, with an emphasis on practical implementation across APAC markets. One of the topics also revolved around how bullion in APAC should not be treated as just another CFD product.
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