Weekly Broker Update: Robinhood UK Crypto Expansion and New Market Entrants

FCA grants Robinhood UK crypto routing capability

The license update, effective July 31, 2026, adds "arranging or making arrangements with a view to the execution of transactions in cryptoassets and money" to the firm's permissions. No product launch date has been confirmed. For UK retail traders evaluating commission-free platforms, this fills a gap in Robinhood's product stack — the entity could route crypto orders alongside its existing equities offering without relying on offshore intermediaries. Watch for fee schedule disclosure and supported asset list before assuming parity with the US crypto module.

Brex Capital boots up in Dubai with Asia-first routing focus

Sophie Squillacioti, an industry veteran, has launched Brex Capital — a CFD brokerage operating out of Dubai and Bangkok. The platform targets Asian retail traders, with client-facing interfaces localized in Thai and Vietnamese alongside English. No regulatory license numbers or execution venue details have been published yet. For traders in that corridor, the immediate checkpoint is jurisdiction of client money segregation and which liquidity providers sit behind the order routing stack. Until those endpoints are public, the brand is pre-product from a due-diligence standpoint.

NAGA posts first-ever H1 net profit: €0.9M on 47% EBITDA growth

NAGA Group AG reported H1 2026 net profit of €0.9M — the first time in the company's history it has been profitable at the half-year mark. EBITDA jumped 47% to €4.4M. Management attributes the swing to a leaner cost base, AI-augmented operating workflows, and a push toward higher long-term customer value metrics. The N4G0 ticker had been under pressure after a string of loss-making quarters; this result signals the cost-restructure is feeding through to the P&L line. Traders on the NAGA One SuperApp should monitor whether execution quality and withdrawal processing times hold as the platform scales user acquisition on the back of these numbers.

ASIC yanks GFA Capital Markets AFS license for five months

Australia's ASIC suspended the Australian financial services license of CFD issuer GFA Capital Markets Ltd for five months. The regulator cited multiple failures across client money handling, reporting obligations, and general compliance frameworks. GFA is one of several Australia-licensed CFD brokers that service predominantly Chinese and Far East retail clients. For traders with open positions or deposited funds at GFA, the suspension window creates a concrete counterparty risk event — account segregation status and withdrawal pipeline are the two metrics to verify immediately with the broker.

cTrader Store shifts to subscription billing for bots and plugins

Spotware Systems, the tech provider behind the cTrader platform, announced that its cTrader Store now supports subscription-based access to cBots, indicators, and plugins — replacing the previous one-off purchase model. Sellers can generate recurring revenue through renewals; traders access premium tooling via smaller periodic payments. For algorithmic traders running custom execution logic on cTrader brokers, this changes the total-cost-of-ownership calculation. Evaluate whether your current bot library moves to subscription and whether the renewal price aligns with the execution edge those tools deliver.

B2B personnel moves signal platform consolidation

Several senior hires landed across major broker tech and service providers this week: Capital.com appointed Mamoon Sbeih as Chief Strategy Officer; MultiBank's MEX Exchange brought on Vibhanshu Bahuguna as Senior Director; XS.com hired Andreas Achniotis (ex-FP Markets) as Head of Affiliates; Pepperstone added Caitlin Walsh (ex-Block/Square) as Head of Corporate Affairs; and HKEX named Michael Ho as Managing Director, Head of Group Strategy. These aren't product changes, but they map where each shop is investing organizational bandwidth — affiliate acquisition pipelines, corporate governance capacity, and exchange-level strategy. Traders shouldn't expect interface updates from these moves, but they indicate which broker ecosystems are scaling their operational stack heading into H2.