eToro expands trading hours, may launch native sidechain

Israel-based crypto exchange, eToro, is expanding its services portfolio looking to cater to the growing needs of crypto investors. On Tuesday, July 29, the platform announced an expansion to its trading hours to 24/5 for a hundred popular U.S.-listed stocks and ETFs. As per company co-founder and CEO, Yoni Assia, the feature is intended to make digital assets more accessible to traders and investors regardless of their locations and time zones.

By increasing the trading hours via its platform, eToro believes, its community will get more control and flexibility over their investment and trading decisions which could fetch them more profitability and protect them against the potential impacts of market ups and downs.

“24/5 trading whether through US equities or spot-quoted futures empowers users to trade in real-time in response to market events or simply when it’s convenient to them,” Assia said in his statement.

He also shared the development on X, claiming that this step marks the beginning of eToro’s next stage of growth.

In the coming times, the Tel Aviv-headquartered platform is planning to let users tokenize every asset including stocks on eToro and enable its community to integrate these tokenized assets into the broader decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

“Tokenization removes boundaries, providing transparency and control. It has the potential to democratize finance, making assets more accessible to more people,” Assia added in his statement.

For now, eToro’s asset tokenization plans are hinged onto the Ethereum blockchain, Bloomberg reported. The platform, however, is also mulling if it should launch its own native blockchain in the near future.

Assia spoke about eToro’s blockchain-related intensions during an interview with Fortune. Without going into elaborate details, the platform’s chief reportedly disclosed that eToro is in the process of assessing a couple of potential partnerships with existing Layer-1 and Layer-2 blockchains to explore if an eToro can launch its own sidechain.

In recent months, eToro has managed to capture the spotlight with multiple developments. Last month, for instance, it launched target-date portfolios in partnership with Franklin Templeton. The platform also added a recurring investments feature to its services in order to promote long term invetsment plans with crypto in the centre. In May, the platform went public in the U.S. through a Nasdaq listing. Following its IPO, the company’s valuation reportedly jumped from $3.5 billion to $5.6 billion.