eToro Q4 Trading Income Rose Amid Crypto Activity Rebound

Social investing crypto trading platform eToro Group said net trading income reached $237 million in the fourth quarter from $176 million in the third quarter, citing strong growth in funded accounts and a rebound in trading activity in crypto assets, according to a Q4 filing.

The results were similar to Coinbase’s (COIN) robust fourth quarter results reported last month.

The company, which offers trading in over 50 crypto assets, began rolling out equities trading for U.S. users during Q4.

“On the crypto side, despite the recent decline in many popular crypto assets, we continue to believe that the industry is still in its infancy,” cofounder and CEO Yoni Assia said in a presentation.

Assia also said he expects a growing number of brands to embrace Web 3, create NFTs, and build in the Metaverse, helping to further drive user adoption of crypto.

The platform had $10.7 billion in assets under administration as of Dec. 31, and about 27 million registered global users.

eToro is set to go public through a merger with special purpose acquisition company FinTech Acquisition Corp. V (FTCV). At the end of last year, the termination date of the merger pact was extended from Dec. 31, 2021 to June 30, 2022, with the companies citing as one of the issues the inability to effectively file documents required for its registration by foreign issuers. eToro's post-money valuation was also cut from $10.4 billion to $8.8 billion at the time.

“We continue to work diligently with all parties to close the transaction as soon as possible and are extremely excited about the future of our business and this next phase of our company in the public markets,” eToro said in its filing Monday.

eToro said total operating expenses included a non-cash charge of $63 million in stock-based compensation for eToro employees related to the merger with FTCV, which “largely” contributed to a net loss of $84 million in Q4. eToro posted an adjusted Ebitda loss of $24 million in Q4.

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