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Over the past 10 years, accepting payments and withdrawals from brokers has become more complicated, contrary to expectations that technology would make it easier to transfer funds. Regulators have increased payment control, making it difficult for everyone, but especially for smaller companies. As a result, the smaller and more local a company is, the more peculiar methods of accepting payments it is forced to use. Brokers therefore have to constantly introduce new payment methods depending on the region where they operate.

At UpTrader, the second most popular request we get after CRM installation is integrating a payment system. Since this service is highly requested and most clients want a quick integration, we thought we would find a partner on the market who could maintain the quality and provide the desired speed. To our big surprise, such companies not only provide a slower service than UpTrader's development team, but also charge much more than we do.

Our standard implementation time is 2 weeks, and we integrate 1 payment system a month for free. Our partner companies take a full month for the same job and charge $2500 for one payment system.

After analyzing this market data, we decided to continue to provide these services on our own.

As of now, we have a full-fledged payment management system integrated in UpTrader. Every client can see a set of payment systems depending on their country. Our system shows one set of payment systems for clients in one region and another set for clients in another region. At the moment, we have integrated 50 payment systems into our CRM, and new ones keep appearing.

In addition to classic currency payments, many brokers use cryptocurrency. UpTrader has its own cryptogate through which we conduct crypto payments. We also provide wallet management software and allow for manually accepting crypto payments.

In other words, UpTrader currently provides a full range of services for its clients related to integrating payment systems. We'd be happy to help you expand your company's deposit/withdrawal methods!

Need to add a new specific payment system? Write us to [email protected] or leave a request in live chat.

Originally posted on Newsbtc
Since the ICO boom of 2015-2017, a steady trend of opening new crypto exchanges has begun. In times of huge amounts of crypto freely circulating on the market, startups raised money for crypto exchanges through ICO. It significantly minimized the risks of investing their own funds. The trend was understandable. Now, however, the desire to start crypto exchanges looks financially questionable. Forex CRM Provider UpTrader regularly receives requests to buy a White Label Crypto Exchange or even develop our own from scratch. We make sure to refer such clients to partners, but what drives today’s businessmen? Is it really a profitable business or a fad?

Competition in the exchange market

There are many exchanges. In recent years, they have become ubiquitous. There are more than 300 entries alone in CoinMarketCap (CMC), the top crypto exchange listing, and many more are waiting to be listed. As of today, the largest exchange by trading volume is Binance. It is followed by exchanges like Coinbase, HitBTC, and, in the third echelon, Kucoin, Bitfinex, and Huobi. The list goes on to include the exchanges without trading volume at all, which, incidentally, looks like a paradox, since one of the CMC listing requirements is trading volume of some sort. So if your exchange was not listed during simpler times, you have to somehow increase the volume, or look for cunning and rather expensive ways to circumvent the requirement.

Why earn a place in the CMC listing?

A cherished listing on CMC is necessary to get tokens listed on your exchange. The price of the token from your exchange will then go to the CMC token page, which is exactly what new token owners need. In addition, the listing has a significant impact on reputation, increases the value of the exchange, motivates investors, and allows you to attract traders.  Traders obviously have to trade with each other, and this set-up begs the question: if you just open an exchange and do not have traders or anyone to trade with, where would you get volume? The result is a vicious circle: no traders without volume, no volume without traders.

Liquidity

One of the options to increase trading volume is to buy liquidity from another exchange. It works in Forex, so it must work here too. It does, but not quite. In the Forex market, there is a huge difference between liquidity offered to brokerage companies (especially having licenses in major jurisdictions) and what a retail trader can get. Brokerage companies get much better conditions but have to maintain complex technical infrastructure and guarantee certain trading volumes. It allows them to resell it to individual traders with a markup and still offer competitive conditions. In the crypto market, everyone is equal, which makes it difficult to attract clients, because there is nothing to attract clients with. If you buy liquidity from another exchange, your conditions are just worse, who will come to trade with you?

And if they do? Is it profitable?

Even if they do, your profitability will not be as high. Due to the fact that Forex trading is carried out with leverage, that is, a client makes transactions with a volume that is usually 100 times larger than what their finances allow, and the broker receives commissions for the whole amount. At the exchange, there is no leverage, that is, the commission is determined only by the turnover that a client makes on their own funds. It means that given all the costs of buying liquidity, attracting clients, and paying salaries, an exchange can easily become a losing venture. In Forex, in addition to the good commissions, there are other quite legitimate ways of profiting, such as B-book, when trading is done within the company at market prices. With a high margin, it allows for earning good money while remaining a broker with a stellar reputation and excellent conditions.

So what other options are there?

If you are keen on working in the crypto market, you can opt to provide crypto futures trading, which basically combines traditional margin trading familiar from the Forex market with crypto assets. Leverages are usually not as high as on Forex – about 1:20, but still, it allows you to get 20 times more trading volume from a client and have a B-book.

And if you want to launch an exchange anyway, how much money would you need?

If you still want an exchange, then let’s make some calculations.

Buying a White Label will cost you $30,000-50,000, and developing your own will cost at least $100,000-200,000. To run your own office, you will need at least 10 people: technicians, developers, marketing specialists, and managers. We are not listing the costs here, since they vary greatly depending on the country. According to average estimates, promoting the exchange to attract the trading volumes you need will cost at least $1 million. We would like to warn those who think that they can cap their marketing expenses at $50,000-100,000. This misconception will result in wasted money, frustration in the team, and the end of the project. Exchanges whose names are known only to their owners are well into the thousands! The reason is almost always trying to save money on marketing or not pouring enough into it. Yes, the world is such that fame costs money. Unless you are Elon Musk investing gigantic amounts in developing Tesla or the Space Shuttle, you cannot afford to only tweet and think that it is enough to get the traders to choose you. The budget for promotion better be there.

And what is needed to provide crypto futures trading?

To provide crypto futures trading, you need the same set of software and services as for a Forex brokerage. Unlike crypto exchanges, thousands of small Forex brokers in the farthest corners of the world are launching and mostly surviving. First, the launch itself has become easier and cheaper over the years. 15 years ago, it was rather expensive to launch a broker as well: to buy MetaTrader 4, you needed $100,000, another $200,000 to $1 million or more for Forex CRM, the website, marketing, office work, and license and liquidity purchase. Now, it is possible to launch a broker for $5,000-10,000! In the currently developed market of brokerage software, everything can be bought: from all investment service options (PAMM, MAMM, LAMM, social trading) and Forex CRM to ready-made marketing bonuses and affiliate programs. All of the above is quite cheap, and it is possible to build your own business like a construction set. As we have seen in recent years, the interest in the market is growing, and we can observe a reorientation of clients towards small local companies instead of large ones. Importantly, UpTrader’s data show that 90% of those companies survive.

Who knows, maybe a decade from now, we will see the same trend in the crypto exchange market.

Now, however, it is more reasonable to invest in a business with predictable profitability and better chances for survival, rather than knowingly fail in a lopsided competition with Binance.

The first basic version of the service for MT4 was launched in April 2021. The full version included a large number of functions which were added as the development and testing progressed. As of 2021, UpTrader Copy Trading Platform service was awarded by the prestigious Forex Rating Awards as the fastest-growing service on the market. Currently, the team has implemented all the functionality of the project architecture. 

Now the Copy Trading Platform service from UpTrader includes:

1. CopyTrading for MT4 and MT5.  

2. The possibility to choose a copy trading model: MAM, PAMM, or social trading platform.

3. The possibility to purchase the Copy Trading Platform as a plugin in the UpTrader CRM tool. You can also integrate it into your own CRM tool or terminal and customise the interface as you wish. UpTrader provides customers with API and full documentation so you can create your own interfaces.

4. A wide range of tools for investors and traders to flexibly manage risks and profits, such as rollovers, stop-losses, take-profits, the ability to disable strategies at any time, and many more.

5. The option to be installed as a native MetaTrader plugin which ensures precise trade processing.

6. Both A-book/B-book models and their variations. Any existing arrangement is available, including spreads and fees.

7. A competitive price — free integration, $1,000 per month.

You can find detailed information about this service on the UpTrader Copy Trading Platform page.

In addition to the obvious advantages, the service has several features that will allow your company to get more clients and managers to use the service:

1. Stability. No trades are lost thanks to its unique design. Unlike similar platforms, UpTrader Invest is a plugin that works directly at the MT4 core, ensuring the stability of operations and completely eliminating the possibility of missing trades, which is inevitable when connecting to MetaTrader 4 externally — and that is exactly how most similar solutions work.

2. Controlling your UpTrader Invest in MetaTrader Manager

Brokers can manage their UpTrader Invest plugins through the MetaTrader Manager mobile app. It offers full managing capabilities: opening new accounts, deposits, analytics, and much more.

3. Versatility. Investors can monitor their profits via all available methods for MetaTrader (desktop app, mobile app, web terminal) & via UpTrader Fx CRM

Learn more about the service on our UpTrader Invest page:

How does this service help you attract more clients and build audience loyalty?

Many novice brokers ask: Is there a simple service to easily increase sales? Yes, there is. One simple and popular way to activate a novice or hesitant audience is to offer them a copy trading platform with experienced traders. 

Many traders who are new to the market are understandably concerned about the risk of losing their deposits and struggle to understand how to trade in general. A procrastinating client equals a lost client. Sometimes copy trading can help them take their first step. A clear rating system, transparent copy trading terms, risk limitation, and instant profit crediting to their account make the service attractive enough for a client to start earning with your company. The only problem to be solved is attracting traders to the service. Good trading conditions, user-friendly interface, and good rewards can help.

If you want to know more, click “Contact us” in the right corner.

It is now possible to log in to UpTrader Trader’s Room via Telegram messenger. Now each broker can set up this feature for their clients in a few clicks in the Admin interface.

“Telegram is known for its strong  position regarding free speech protection. That is why it has become the most popular messenger in the crypto community. UpTrader’s clients live in different countries and for many of them free speech means a lot, so they prefer to use Telegram. In the latest months Telegram popularity has been growing among lager groups. In respect to that we have made convenient authorization in the UpTrader Forex CRM.” - commented CEO UpTrader Vasily Alexeev.

More questions left? Contact us [email protected]

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine revealed a global crisis of confidence and strained relations between countries. The US is talking to any opposition only to imply sanctions: "If you do not do as we say, we will impose sanctions against you, if you do as we say, we will lift the sanctions imposed on you earlier".

This rhetoric cannot help but anger world powers like China or Turkey, who see themselves as entitled to pursue their own policies. Markets react sensitively to each statement; country and sector indices, stocks, and currency are turbulent. While some are rising, others are falling. How does it affect the brokerage business?

Market turbulence and crises always attract investors. Some venture in to preserve their capital, others want to earn more money. In the last month, UpTrader saw an increase in the number of requests from companies in Asia which focus on trading gold and currency pairs. Gold is rising as a safe haven for investors during the storm. Others are looking at the energy sector, as Brent rose to $129.47 a barrel as a reaction to sanctions against Russia. Stock markets are falling. The currency market is far from being calm.

In addition, cryptocurrency and digital currencies are booming. Russia decided to make cryptocurrency legal in January 2022. Taiwan, on the other hand, introduced a ban on cryptocurrency payments, as China did a year earlier. But China's digital yuan is being successfully tested. Experts believe that it can successfully compete with the dollar in international payments in commercial exchange. After all, the dollar is losing the vote of confidence from many countries due to overusing sanctions. 

All these developments are encouraging investors to open accounts with brokerage companies. An important trend that we noticed over the last couple of years is that small local companies are earning more trust and interest from customers while the giants are losing ground. As we can see, this is due to the fact that local companies are much more client oriented and aiming to meet the needs of their small target audience. They are also very flexible and quick to adjust to changes in trends, which big brokers do with a big delay.

It is common in Asia for former big Forex broker IBs to start their own brokerage companies. They have a reputation and loyal clients. To open a company, all they need is a MetaTrader server (recently, it seems, everyone only buys MT5) and Forex CRM. Separating from their former bosses allows them much more flexibility to serve clients and not depend on the policies of another company. All Asian clients who came to UpTrader in the past few weeks are asking for MT5 and Forex CRM.

Finally, working with Asian clients has always been simple and straightforward for us. This is another feature that makes working with Asia quite promising. And the time to enter the market is perfect, because it looks like the beginning of a new era.

Does it make sense to buy external forex or crypto liquidity when an internal liquidity model, or so-called B-book, already has a great track record? Some companies decided a long time ago to work strictly by the B-book, others stick to the A-book, while some monosystem partisans are gradually switching to a hybrid scheme. Which option is the best?

Forex or crypto Liquidity 

Liquidity is the ability of a currency pair to be sold quickly at close to market prices. That is, liquidity translates into the saturation of supply and demand and the ability to execute trades quickly at the best prices. Liquidity can be internal and external. B-book means internal liquidity, and this liquidity is provided by the company itself or its clients. If a broker has many clients, their trades are mutually covered, and the broker just has to monitor the total sum. As a rule, each individual client does not affect it too much. If the broker acts as a counterparty, they have to pay on profitable trades themselves. This model is rather vulnerable for many reasons. A-book means external forex liquidity. It has high demand/supply characteristics and better prices, since orders are routed to external providers who have a large pool of traders and therefore a greater order execution capacity. 

B-book, or internal forex liquidity: pros and cons 

Many brokers mistakenly believe that B-book is the most profitable business model, as it provides maximum profit. The orders are never placed on the market, which means that all the money clients lose stays with the company. It sounds very attractive: someone will get that money anyway, why not keep it for yourself? On the one hand, all of it is true, but this model has one significant drawback. If a client earns money, the broker will have to pay it “out of their pocket”. And as we already know, brokers working with B-book offer very high leverage so that the payouts are significantly higher compared to the initial deposit amount. To avoid paying, the broker can dispute the trade and not pay the profit. They can also manipulate the prices to help the trader lose. It is a dirty job that quickly becomes obvious. In these cases, the broker loses its reputation and clients and may as well leave the market for good. That is why in-house crypto or forex liquidity is only suitable for big brokers who have a large order flow, their own wide internal market and enough funds to pay fairly on profitable trades. A small start-up can end up with big financial losses thanks to this model. If they decide to cheat, they can also lose their reputation and clients. Finally, this model has a significant disadvantage in that principal revenue earnings vary from month to month, depending on the market. That is, it may be 30 or 70%... of losses per month.

A-book, or external forex liquidity: pros and cons

A-book is an external liquidity model, i.e., the broker brings all the trades to the market and earns on spread and swaps. They get money from every trade made by the trader. Another advantage is that the broker does not care whether the transaction is profitable or not. They receive the same commission on each transaction. Consequently, the broker is not interested in playing against the trader. The most important thing for a broker in this situation is to increase the trading volume: the more trades are made, the more money they make. It is a classic win-win model with predictable profit and minimal reputational and financial risks. It is the safest choice for a first-time broker: you only pay for the volume, which makes the business manageable and cost-effective. At UpTrader, we also offer a volume-based CRM fee which allows you to start a company with literally a few thousand dollars in your pocket.

Hybrid model: A-book and B-book

Brokers are increasingly opting for a hybrid operations model. After all, from the point of view of financial markets, it is reasonable to keep traders with small deposits on B-book because their profitable deals will not cause the company much financial trouble while unprofitable ones will turn into income. If a client has a lot of funds, however, any of their profitable trades can exceed the broker’s financial capacity. In this case, it is better to transfer that trader to A-book. Alternatively, such clients can be partially transferred to A-book in order to reduce risk exposure. 

The advantages of the hybrid model are obvious: first, competent account management allows the company to receive profit both from commissions and from losing trades without risking its own funds. The broker fulfills its obligations to clients, thereby earning loyalty and building reputation. It is important to understand, however, that clients generally do not care whether the trades are brought to the market or not. They pay much more attention to trading conditions and profit payments. If a broker does everything correctly, all parties win. The only downside is that you will need competent risk managers. There are some on the market, but they are usually either employed by other companies or quite expensive. Therefore, you have to choose the hybrid model responsibly.

If have any questions related to forex or crypto liquidity, or if you need liquidity, contact UpTrader team please using our registration form and we will give you the best offer.