Social investing and trading platform eToro, which operates in 140+ countries, launches a crypto trading platform and wallet service in 30 US states
Context & Ripple Effects
This launch is eToro's entry ticket to the US market: a social investing platform operating in 140+ countries picks 30 states for its first crypto trading and wallet offering. The later arc shows why that beachhead mattered — eToro went on to attempt a $10.4B SPAC listing in 2021 before ultimately filing to list as ETOR on Nasdaq with $12.6B in 2024 revenue.
First-order effects
- Retail traders across 30 US states gain access to eToro's crypto trading and wallet service, giving the Tel Aviv-based platform a direct US footprint for the first time.
Second-order effects
- Operating as an unregistered broker in the US carried real cost: eToro USA later paid $1.5M and restricted American users to Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ether under its SEC settlement, showing how the regulatory perimeter set hard limits on the very service being launched here.
Third-order effects
- Crypto became the business rather than a feature — by the time of its Nasdaq IPO filing, roughly 96% of eToro's revenue came from cryptoassets — and wallet capability turned into a strategic asset the company eventually bought outright in its ~$70M Zengo acquisition.
The trend: Consumer trading platforms are converging on crypto as their core revenue engine, with US regulatory enforcement shaping which tokens and services they can actually offer.