eToro is now offering Bitcoin trading to its nearly three million users.
The trading platform is used by more than 2.75 million people in 140 countries, according to its website, and allows customers to trade commodities, assets and stocks online.
Bitcoin adoption was a logical move, it seemed, as about 1 in 20 users have open Bitcoin positions.
eToro lines up its Bitcoin prices with those quoted on Mt. Gox and takes a single percentage from each transaction.
The move is an attempt to make Bitcoin easier and more user-friendly, according to one eToro spokesman. “If you want to invest in Bitcoin and you’re not a computer geek, you don’t really know where to start.”
To that end, Bitcoin is listed as a stock on eToro, which would be familiar to existing traders in the event that Bitcoin wallets and exchanges are too technical. Instead, users will actually be buying and selling derivatives, not holding amounts of the currency itself.
The platform will place orders four times per day because of the currency’s price fluctuations.
eToro has one additional feature that could ease the minds of traders on the fence about getting into Bitcoin. With its Copy Trader, eToro lets users mimic the moves of other users in what it calls “social trading.”
Thus, if one user adopts a position on Bitcoin or any other stock, other users can follow suit, a la mirror trading. This allows beginning users to learn trading by following well-worn paths and experienced traders to build a following.