eToro Acquires TradeZero to Build US Options Brokerage and Expand Global Reach
According to The Cryptonomist, eToro's US arm has offered zero-commission stock and ETF trading for years, but the options segment — historically the magnet for higher-frequency accounts — was never…
eToro has agreed to acquire TradeZero Holding Corp. for up to $231 million, closing a capability gap that has constrained the Israeli-founded platform's US ambitions for the better part of a decade. As reported by TradingView, the deal lands alongside second-quarter results showing net contribution of $229 million and net income of $53.5 million, with equities, commodities and currencies now driving the bulk of net trading income — a $141.6 million line that grew $27.6 million year-over-year. For an institutional observer tracking cross-border retail gateways, the transaction matters less for its headline price than for the asset-class architecture it reshapes.
What the acquisition actually unlocks
TradeZero is not a greenfield target. It operates under SEC, FINRA and SIPC oversight, with a commission-free equities and options book already wired into the US regulatory perimeter. That profile hands eToro something its existing US operation never built: a licensed broker-dealer with a serious options franchise for active traders. According to The Cryptonomist, eToro's US arm has offered zero-commission stock and ETF trading for years, but the options segment — historically the magnet for higher-frequency accounts — was never organically developed.
The geographic footprint extends the strategic calculus beyond a single market. TradeZero runs operations in the United States, Canada, the Bahamas and Europe, with a Canadian dealer membership dating to February 2022 that already permits retail clients to trade US-listed stocks and options. For eToro, which has leaned heavily on a global retail base while remaining structurally throttled in its largest addressable market, the addition of a multi-jurisdiction license stack changes the routing map.
The price, the math, and the regulatory drag
The consideration is structured as cash plus up to 2.5 million newly issued Class A shares, subject to purchase price adjustments. Against TradeZero's roughly $80 million in trailing-twelve-month revenue at an 81% gross margin, the implied multiple lands near 2.9 times revenue — a measured entry price for a regulated, operationally profitable brokerage. The acquisition still requires customary FINRA review, and as of early August 2026 there is no public timeline for closing. eToro's US crypto business remains constrained by a prior SEC settlement, a boundary that limits how aggressively the combined entity can repackage its digital-asset offering stateside.
A regulatory footnote worth flagging: in May 2022, the SEC fined TradeZero America $100,000 and co-founder Daniel Pipitone $25,000 over public statements concerning trading restrictions during the January 2021 meme-stock episode. Neither admitted nor denied the findings. For an institutional reader, that episode is a reminder that options-heavy books carry disclosure obligations the acquirer inherits on day one.
What it means for portfolio construction
The Q2 print frames the strategic logic. Funded accounts reached 4.32 million, up 18% year-over-year, while assets under administration stood at $18.5 billion, down 5% as May's $20.1 billion base proved harder to defend. Crypto trades collapsed 73% to 1.4 million, and revenue from cryptoassets fell 30% to $1.35 billion — a margin profile that effectively zeroed out the spot line, with roughly $12.5 million of crypto contribution after derivatives. Equities, by contrast, carried the quarter, and CFO Meron Shani noted that more than 60% of clients trading commodities in the two prior quarters migrated into equities in Q2, illustrating the cross-asset flywheel that options infrastructure could amplify.
For a global markets specialist, the takeaway is structural rather than tactical. eToro is converting a regulatory liability into an asset-class expansion, and the combined entity now competes directly with US-built options brokers rather than merely offering equities to an international audience. The cross-margin capabilities, the multi-jurisdiction licensing, and the options execution tools that TradeZero already maintains extend the platform's reach into the active-trader segment that drives volume concentration. Until the FINRA review clears, the deal remains a pending re-rating of eToro's retail gateway profile — one that, if approved, repositions the platform from a primarily social-investing destination into a more complete cross-border brokerage.