Cryptocurrency trading boosts Plus500 revenues, earnings

Contracts-for-difference trading service provider Plus500 surged on Tuesday as it reported a 284% jump in revenue for the first quarter on the back of market volatility and high levels of interest in its cryptocurrency derivatives offering.

Revenues in the period rose to $297.3m, while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation increased a whopping 418% to $237.3m, both of which were records.

New customers were up 228% to 72,960 and active customer numbers increased 204% to 218,187. Meanwhile, average revenue per user rose 26% to $1,363 and average user acquisition cost fell 45% to $502.

Plus500 said it had benefitted from a period of relatively volatile markets and high levels of interest in its cryptocurrency CFDs offering, which encouraged high levels of new customer sign-ups and record trading.

However, the company said market conditions have returned to "more normal" levels in the last two months, meaning it does not expect "such an exceptional" performance to be repeated in the rest of the year.

Chief executive officer Asaf Elimelech said: "We are pleased to announce another record period in terms or revenues and profits; the results for this quarter reflect our competitive advantages and focus on serving our customers' trading needs.

"Having a flexible business model and a lean cost structure, enables us to optimise our performance as necessary despite the recently announced regulatory changes. Having the industry leading framework enables us to be confident about the future."

At 0840 BST, the shares were up 9.7% to 1,545p.