Bitcoin latest: Trading firm Plus500 sees shares jump 20% thanks to cryptocurrency boom

Company said it had achieved record revenues for the final quarter of 2017 and added 246,000 customers

Shares in spreadbetting company Plus500 jumped 20 per cent on Wednesday after it announced that the bitcoin boom had boosted revenues.

Plus500 said it had achieved record revenues for the final quarter of 2017 and added 246,000 customers. The firm said its strong performance was partly thanks to contracts for difference (CFDs), based on the price of cryptocurrencies.

CFDs allow traders to profit from the rise or fall in the value of an asset without holding the asset itself.

Plus500, which is listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM), saw its share price rise from £8.80 when trading began to £10.56 by midday.

The prices of bitcoin, ether and a host of other cryptocurrencies have soared over the past twelve months, attracting huge interest from speculators and investors.

Asaf Elimelech, chief executive officer of Plus500, said: “Momentum in the business has continued to be strong with increased interest in our crypto currency CFD offering and record new and active customer numbers, demonstrating our ability to serve our customers' trading needs through product innovation and technology leadership.“

Both cryptocurrencies and CFDs have attracted warnings from regulators who have said that they are highly risky investments.

Bitcoin has been at the centre of the cryptocurrency craze as its value rose more than 12-fold in 2017. CFDs allow traders to increase their returns my several multiples. However, if the price moves in the wrong direction they can suffer big losses.

The European Securities and Markets Authority said last month that it was considering stricter rules on CFDs and binary options, both of which allow people to speculate on asset price moves.

Even bitcoin has been significantly outperformed by rival cryptocurrency XRP, created by fintech company Ripple.

XRP was easily the best performing major cryptocurrency of 2017, registering astonishing 380-fold gains from $0.0065 per token in January 2017, to $2.47 by the end of the year.