eToro says "unprecedented demand and limited liquidity" may force it to restrict crypto trading.
As a supply squeeze continues to affect Bitcoin, eToro has warned that it may limit the amount of crypto that can be traded on weekends.
The company warned that restrictions will be imposed if levels of volatility in the markets remain high — and indicating that it is struggling to keep up with orders from traders.
In an email sent to customers, eToro wrote:
“The unprecedented demand for crypto, coupled with limited liquidity, presents challenges to our ability to support BUY orders over the weekend. In light of this, it may be necessary for us to place limitations on crypto BUY orders over the weekend.”
Worse still, it appears that this may not be a one off — and it’s possible that similar limitations will also be imposed in weekends to come.
eToro’s move is unusual and drastic to say the least, considering that the crypto markets normally trade 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
But the crypto markets have long had a problem with heightened volatility on weekends, with prices tending to move more dramatically on Saturdays and Sundays owing to lower trading volumes. There’s also a lot less crypto to go around, with institutions snapping up BTC left and right — affecting the amount left to trade on the spot market.
These restrictions could result in cash limits for eToro users — or it could mean that orders are put into a queue.
It’s certainly unfortunate timing for eToro, which has witnessed a substantial rise in popularity since the start of the year. According to Brad Michelson, eToro US opened 380,000 new accounts in the first 11 days of 2021 — with crypto trading volumes “running 25 times higher versus last year.”
Subscribe To Our Newsletter!
Crypto news never stops — and neither do we. Get up to speed on the latest headlines with the free CoinMarketCap newsletter, delivered to inboxes everywhere from Monday to Friday.
