eToro (ETOR): 유럽 최고의 온라인 브로커, 곧 IPO 예정

디지털 브로커리지의 부상

Online brokerage has revolutionized the financial industry, by providing easy digital access to financial instruments that were before reserved for more established financial firms. This changed how people perceive investing, especially the younger generation, making it more accessible.

온라인 브로커리지는 기존에 더 큰 금융 회사들만 이용할 수 있었던 금융 상품에 대한 손쉬운 디지털 접근성을 제공함으로써 금융 산업에 혁신을 일으켰습니다. 이는 특히 젊은 세대가 투자를 인식하는 방식을 변화시켜 보다 접근하기 쉽게 만들었습니다.

거래의 디지털화는 수수료를 낮추고, 가정에서 주식 및 기타 금융 상품을 거래하기 쉽게 만들었으며, 은행 및 월스트리트 브로커와 같은 기존 브로커리지를 위한 필요한 경쟁을 촉진했습니다.

물론, 이는 투자자들의 열기가 급증할 때 무모한 투기 행위를 부추기기도 했으며, 예를 들어 GameStop과 같은 주식에 대한 강렬한 투기 활동으로 나타났습니다.

이 분야의 중요한 선구자 중 하나는 2007년에 설립되어 현재 전 세계적으로 운영 중인 이스라엘 기업 eToro입니다.

eToro (ETOR )는 2025년 3월 기업공개를 신청했으며, 이에 따라 투자자와 이용자는 eToro 자체 주식을 거래할 수 있게 됩니다. 티커 심볼은 “ETOR”이 될 예정이며 NASDAQ에 상장됩니다.

eToro 역사

Soon after its launch, eToro quickly understood that the digital and connected nature of an online brokerage system changed how users could interact with it.

예를 들어, 2010년에 Android 앱을 출시했으며(스마트폰 사용자를 더 많이 확보하기 위해) 2012년에 iPhone 앱을 출시했고, 최고 실적 투자자의 거래 전략을 복제할 수 있게 해주는 “CopyTrader” 기능을 도입했습니다.

소셜 미디어 플랫폼이 급성장하던 시기에 구축된 이 “소셜 투자 플랫폼”은 이후 코로나19 팬데믹 동안 투자 환경을 장악하게 될 대중 투자 및 소셜 미디어 트렌드의 전조로 볼 수 있습니다.

또한 eToro의 투자 방식은 매우 시각적인 특성과 잘 결합되어, 다양한 금융 상품을 그래픽으로 표현함으로써 거래를 이해하기 쉽게 만들었습니다.

출처: eToro

첫 7년 동안 회사는 다양한 투자자로부터 5,850만 달러를 모금하여 성장 자금을 마련했습니다. 이를 통해 소수의 주식만 제공하던 서비스가 CFD(차액 계약), 상품 및 통화까지 확장되었습니다.

출처: eToro

In its first seven years, the company raised $58.5M from diverse investors to fund growth. This allowed it to expand its offer from just a handful of stocks to CFDs (Contract For Differences), commodities, and currencies.

After adding Bitcoin in 2013, in 2014, eToro would also start adding cryptocurrencies to its offering, as well as currency futures. The presence in crypto would be progressively reinforced with several strategic moves:

• A 2017 partnership with CoinDash와의 2017년 파트너십으로 블록체인 기반 소셜 트레이딩 개발.
• Acquisition in 2019 of 블록체인 및 스마트 계약 회사 Firmo
  • This was just after eToro의 미국 전용 암호화폐 플랫폼 출시 and of a multi-signature crypto-wallet.
  • 2019 also saw the acquisition of Delta, a crypto portfolio tracking app.

확장

The company joined the trend of zero-commission in 2019, allowing it to compete with the likes of Robinhood (HOOD ).

점진적으로 eToro는 2020년에 Marq Millions를 인수하고 이를 eToro Money로 리브랜딩하여 직불 카드를 발행하는 등 금융의 다른 영역을 탐색했습니다.

직불 카드 서비스는 현재 영국에서만 제공되고 있지만, 디지털 지갑은 2022년부터 EU 전역으로 확대되었습니다.

eToro는 2021년에 SPAC 합병을 통해 상장을 거의 진행했으나, 이 방식의 문제와 시장 불안정성으로 인해 2022년에 거래가 취소되었습니다.

2023년에 회사는 X와 파트너십을 발표하여 투자 및 금융 중심 X 계정에서 특정 주식을 언급할 때 사용하는 일반적인 “$+ticker” 기호를 활용했습니다(예: 메타의 경우 “$FB”).

2024년에 X는 eToro와 협력하여 소셜 미디어를 통해 투자자를 교육하고, 회사는 eToro Academy를 출시하여 투자, 트레이딩 및 암호화폐에 대한 무료 강좌를 제공했습니다.

출처: eToro

2024년은 eToro가 런던 증권거래소, 두바이 금융시장(DFM), 이탈리아 증권거래소, 독일 증권거래소와 파트너십을 맺으며 주식 제공을 확대한 시기이기도 했습니다.

출처: eToro

eToro 수치로 보기

After years of spectacular growth, eToro is now a large financial firm, with $$11.6B of assets under administration. It is active in 75 countries and employs 1,400+ people.

수년간 눈부신 성장을 이룬 후, eToro는 현재 116억 달러 규모의 운용 자산을 보유한 대형 금융 기업이며, 75개국에서 활동하고 1,400명 이상의 직원을 고용하고 있습니다.

The assets under administration recently went up, 2024년 11월 호주 기업 Spaceship 인수 덕분에, and its AUD$1.5M of assets under management.

These assets are held by no fewer than 3.2 million accounts, with most of them created since 2019, when the platform had only 500,000 accounts.

By far, most of the company’s activity is in the EU + UK. The presence in the Americas is, in comparison, very small (11%), a region even smaller than the Asia Pacific for eToro (12%).

출처: eToro

This European focus, as well as the MENA region (Middle-East North Africa), is reflected in the ranking of the company in many of these countries, with a #1 awareness of the eToro in trading, and a top 3 ranking in some of the region’s largest countries.

출처: eToro

소셜

By 2025, the company will offer its customers access to investing and trading in most of the largest stock exchanges, 100+ crypto assets, and the possibility to replicate the investing or trading strategy of thousands of popular investors. (DB1.DE )

출처: eToro

The average e-Toro user is 35 years old, and more than 86% of them trade more than one type of investment product.

This social investing aspect stays at the core of eToro’s advantage, a category it created and still dominates. Of the 0.1% of accounts approved as popular investors, 35% outperformed the S&P500 in 2024.

이러한 계좌는 엄격한 기준을 충족해야 합니다 인기 투자자로 인정받기 위해서는 최소 운용 자산과 CISI 레벨 3 또는 4 (국제 부와 투자 관리 인증)이 Elite 및 Elite Pro 카테고리 각각에 필요합니다.

100 of the top popular investors were also invited to eToro’s 3^rd “Popular Investor Summit” in England.

eToro 클럽

In order to offer an even more superior experience to more active traders, investors, or just richer users, the company provides a multilayer “club”, calculated according to the Tier balance.

출처: eToro

This tier balance is calculated as all the cash and investment in eToro’s accounts (including the eToro Money account), minus excluded products. The excluded products cover leveraged CFD positions and crypto positions for UK residents.

The company is seeing a steady progression of its members over time, with more assets and more wealth leading to high ranks over time.

출처: eToro

Higher membership levels result in lower fees and other discounts, crypto staking rewards, access to premium content from leading digital financial publications, VIP events, etc.

교육

eToro Academy had 3 million unique users in 2024, listening or reading one of the 2,700 articles, videos, podcasts, or webinars available on the education platform, translated into 11 languages.

It is, however, unclear how much overlap there is between this 3 million and the 3.2 million accounts, and so if eToro Academy is more useful as a retention tool for existing users or as a client acquisition tool.

eToro의 성장 잠재력

As the company sees it, there is a massive growth potential stemming from a few mega-trends.

The first one is a generational shift, with no less than $72.6 trillion in assets to be transferred to the next generation by 2045.

As this transfer will benefit generations of digital natives, online brokerage solutions like eToro are in a prime position to benefit and capture an increasingly large part of the market.

A second element is the growing participation of retail investors in investing in stocks and other financial assets. This is, of course, partially in the form of passive investing, but also active investing and trading. This trend, too, should benefit from more ergonomic and reactive investing apps, compared to legacy solutions offered by banks and many historical brokerage firms.

Lastly, a third contributor to eToro’s long-term potential is the low level of European households having exposure to stock markets. While this is the majority of US households (58%), 1 out of 5 UK households owns stocks, and barely 1 out of 10 EU households do.

출처: eToro

This leaves a massive space for growth and the effect of more financial education to grow the EU + UK brokerage market.

AI

Another engine of growth for eToro is its willingness to embrace new technologies. In particular, AI is quickly changing not only the software and tech industry, but finance as well.

For example, eToro users can already ask the company’s AI assistant questions about the stocks they own or are interested in.

Combined with the database of education resources of eToro Academy, this can be used to answer dynamically almost any questions investors can have about finance in general, individual stocks, cryptos, etc., in particular.

This AI assistant is currently handling 57% of incoming customer inquiries, quickening answer speed and reducing customer service costs.

출처: eToro

Other AI tools are adopted by eToro’s employees to boost productivity, with 10 AI tools already developed in-house and approved.

Lastly, the company is embracing AI for marketing purposes, notably with a fully AI-generated advert on the occasion of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

스마트 포트폴리오

Another application of AI is to create “smart portfolios”, creating what otherwise would require a finance specialist to match a predetermined theme or investing strategy.

Currently, the company is offering 110+ smart portfolios to cover “trendy” topics, like AI, future mobility, e-commerce, renewable energy, etc.

This portfolio is partially guided by recommendations and partnerships with leading investment firms, like BlackRock (BLK ), and more recently, Cathy Wood가 설립한 혁신 중심 기업 Ark Invest, very popular among retail investors through the ARK-Future First 스마트 포트폴리오, which is invested in an array of ETFs invested in innovative and disruptive technologies.

출처: eToro

eToro IPO

2025년 3월 발표, eToro IPO 예비 데이터에 따르면 2024년 매출이 8억 2400만 달러, 순이익이 1억 9200만 달러로 나타났습니다.

This represents a rise in revenue year-to-year of 45.6%. The rise in net income is even more spectacular, 2023년에는 1,530만 달러에 불과했고 2022년에는 순손실이 2,100만 달러였습니다.

It seems the valuation aimed for will be in the $5B, although the exact number is not clear yet.

논란

Global finance, digital revolutions, and explosive growth are unlikely to come without any criticism. At times, eToro has been criticized for its customer service quality. This, however, seems to have been either an occasional period where growth outmatched the company’s employees’ headcount or more individual problems and errors than a systemic failure.

A more fair criticism is that, like all zero-fee trading platforms, eToro has to make money in another way. This is usually done by handling the spread (the difference between the buying and selling price) more aggressively than on traditional platforms.

Withdrawal fees, or conversion rates between currencies are another way the platform makes money (some users have reported difficulty to get withdrawal, and the process can take in the worst case up to 10 days).

As a result, eToro might not be the best platform for very active traders who understand in depth the ins and outs of stock, currency, or option trading. This is especially true for traders using large leverage, as “hidden fees” from the spread will multiply accordingly, contrary to ordinary fees per transaction.

It is, however, a very beginner-friendly platform, thanks to its visual interface and comprehensive educational material. The very diverse array of available assets is also good for investors who are slowly expanding into new fields. Lastly, the possibility to copy experienced and vetted investors is an extra bonus.

결론

eToro has built its business on the premise of an easy-to-understand visual interface for trading and investing, and single-handedly creating the category of social investing.

These two elements are still the core of the business and its advantage in a very competitive market of brokerage firms. Early presence in online brokerage helped as well.

From this foundation, eToro has become a leader in European online brokerage, consistently adding more functionality and investment options for its users: more stocks covered, CFDs, cryptos, leverage, etc.

As a result, it has been growing explosively since 2019, multiplying by 6x its user base, riding the tail of the pandemic, stock markets reaching all-time highs, and investing in stock and crypto going mainstream for a younger generation.

As revenues are up almost 50% year-to-year, ahead of its long-awaited IPO, it seems the growth is still now slowing down significantly.

So the company is likely to keep doing well with digital natives looking for a simple and user-friendly interface, and maybe otherwise a little intimidated by the world of finance.

It is also likely to keep collecting the occasional negative reviews from more demanding day traders, for whom the zero-fee system is not a good match.