eToro

Founded in 2006 by Yoni and Ronen Assia and David Ring, eToro is a ‘social trading platform’ where users can invest in stocks, exchange traded funds (ETFs) and cryptocurrencies while allowing them to follow and copy top traders on the website. The company’s subsidiary, eToroX operates a crypto exchange and has eight of its own stablecoins. eToro has offices in the UK, Cyprus, Australia, Israel and the USA.

When eToro first launched in 2007, the mission of the company was to make trading and investing accessible to anyone. The first platform that was created was a Forex trading platform that was easy to navigate, intuitive and visually appealing. The website added stock trading in 2013 to help investors diversify their portfolios.

In 2010, eToro released its OpenBook platform which features their trademarked CopyTraders and, later on, CopyPortfolios. This technology enables new users and beginner investors to copy other successful investors without having to do much research.

In 2014, eToro introduced bitcoin trading through contracts for difference (CFD) for some of its users, and classified it as a stock to help users familiarize themselves with the asset. This meant that users did not actually purchase bitcoin, but were instead betting on its price. More specifically, with these contracts, the seller pays the buyer the difference between the current value of an asset and its value at the time of the contract.

In 2019, eToro expanded its crypto operations to the US and launched a crypto trading platform and wallet in 32 U.S. states. The same year, eToro announced the purchase of smart contract startup Firmo in order to accelerate their tokenized asset offerings, and launched eToroX.

In 2019, eToro reported that they had raised $162 million since their launch, and that it had more 10 million users across 140 countries.