Beeks in record month for private cloud infrastructure sales
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Meanwhile, demand has also remained healthy for Beek's Exchange Cloud offering, which allows multiple organisations to use the same technology infrastructure. Significant wins include a deal announced in March with cryptocurrency exchange operator Kraken, a first for Beeks in the crypto sector.
All told, Beeks is now anticipating a 25% surge in revenues for the financial year to the end of June. Those results are expected to be released in early October.
"Consistent with previous years, we are yet again set to deliver significant double digit growth," said Gordon McArthur, founder and chief executive of Beeks.
"The steady flow of new customer wins, as well as the significant expansion potential across our existing customer base, serve as a testament to the value of our product offerings, our ability to execute on sales, and our established position as a leading technology provider for financial markets. We enter FY26 with ongoing confidence in our ability to convert the strong pipeline of opportunities across our offerings."
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Revenue for the year to June is expected to come in at £35.5m, up from £28.5m previously. Underlying earnings are forecast to be 29% higher at £13.8m.
Pre-tax profit is due to jump by a heftier 41% to £5.5m.
This was despite the deferment of £1.3m of revenue related to an Exchange Cloud contract with Grupo Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (BMV) into the current financial year due to constraints at the Mexico City Disaster Recovery data centre. Beeks said the primary site involved in that deal, which was announced in February of this year, has recently gone live.
Based in San Francisco, Kraken is renting computing capacity from Beeks' Cloud Exchange offering to service its 13 million-plus clients from its base in San Francisco. The contract is the first under a new revenue sharing model that will reduce the amount of money paid to Beeks upfront but materially increase recurring fees that will grow as client usage increases.
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This is expected to create some temporary headwinds in the first half of the current financial year which Mr McArthur has previously said should prove a "one-off" in a small legacy part of the business.
Mr McArthur founded Beeks, which employs more than 100 people from its headquarters in Renfrewshire, in 2011 after a career in software and IT solutions businesses including IBM, where he worked in both financial services and the industrial sector.
The company expanded its headcount significantly up until the spring of 2024 when growth in staffing numbers turned more incremental as the company focused on using AI to help clients make use of the large volumes of data collected on their behalf by Beeks' software.
Shares in Beeks, which listed on London's Alternative Investment Market in 2017, were trading nearly 5% lower as of mid-afternoon today.
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Coin Geek
24-07-2025
- Coin Geek
Feds end probe of Kraken's Powell; JPMorgan fees threaten crypto ops
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... U.S. authorities have halted their probe into the founder of the Kraken digital asset exchange, while the converging paths of the crypto and tradfi sectors are producing a little road rage. On July 22, Fortune broke the news that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California had dropped their probe of Kraken founder Jesse Powell. The authorities have returned multiple digital devices seized from Powell during raids on his home in 2023, some of which reportedly contained digital assets when they were confiscated. The probe, which reportedly started in 2022, had nothing to do with Kraken or digital assets. Instead, it focused on Powell's involvement with Verge Center for the Arts, a San Francisco nonprofit he founded in 2008 that later expelled him from its board for allegedly contravening the organization's principles (possibly via public statements like this). Powell was alleged to have 'hacked and cyber-stalked' Verge, but the reality may have been much more mundane. A civil suit filed by Powell against Verge last year—which remains ongoing, despite the dropped probe—claimed the battle was actually over access to the nonprofit's Slack and Google accounts. Powell, who stepped down as Kraken's CEO shortly after the raid on his home, told Fortune that the experience 'was devastating both personally and professionally.' Powell called the Verge allegations 'baseless' and said he 'knew that I had done nothing wrong.' Powell tweeted Tuesday that the probe 'never made sense' and it was '[w]ild how quickly you can have your life upended.' Regardless, he was 'glad to have this behind me' and looked forward to 'turning my attention back' to Kraken, where he remains chairman. Powell's attorney reportedly sought and received a 'declination letter' confirming the closure of the DoJ probe. The intent was to offset any lingering regulatory concerns that might negatively impact Powell or Kraken's ability to access U.S. banking services. Kraken is also seeking a public listing on the Nasdaq sometime next year. Responding to a congratulatory tweet by Brian Armstrong, CEO of the rival Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) exchange, Powell tweeted a picture he apparently took during the 2023 raid on his home, showing '20 guys with assault weapons and a tank. No biggie.' (Actually an armored truck, but the situation affords him some hyperbolic slack.) Responding to a different congratulatory tweet by pro-crypto Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH), Powell mused that '[t]he truth of the [Biden] administration's war on crypto is coming to light' and he suspects that 'there are still many disturbing abuses of power yet to be uncovered.' Kraken was the subject of a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) probe that was dropped this spring under the SEC's newly tolerant leadership. The SEC had accused Kraken of operating an unregistered securities exchange, broker, dealer, and clearing agency. In March, Powell told Fortune that his decision to step down as Kraken's CEO was intended to lower the heat that the exchange was facing from regulators. Powell said he 'wanted to avoid having to make disclosure requirements that would have complicated the firm's global licensing efforts.' Powell was succeeded as CEO by not one but two Kraken execs—Dave Ripley and Arjun Sethi. Notably, while Sethi retweeted Powell's triumphant post-probe tweet, Ripley has yet to do so. Get a move on, Dave. Senate market structure timeline iffy The Senate Banking Committee released a discussion draft of its long-awaited digital asset market structure regulation bill on July 22, with the document mostly focusing on the role of the SEC, over which the Committee has authority. The Senate Agriculture Committee, which oversees the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), will need to release its own draft bill at some point. On July 23, Crypto in America journo Eleanor Terrett tweeted that the Ag committee wasn't likely to issue its market structure draft until 'early September.' The two documents must then be combined, voted out of committees, and presented to the full Senate for approval (in a form that ensures sufficient bipartisan support to clear the Senate's 60-vote hurdle). Given all that heavy lifting, the September 30 timeline suggested by Banking chair Tim Scott (R-SC) last month for getting to a full Senate vote appears somewhat dubious. The House of Representatives approved its own market structure bill (the CLARITY Act) last week. While the House adjourned for its summer break a day early to avoid any uncomfortable Epstein-related voting, they did manage to pass another digital asset bill on their way out the door. The Financial Technology Protection Act, introduced in March by Representatives Zach Nunn (R-IA) and Jim Himes (D-CT), establishes the Independent Technology Working Group to Combat Terrorism and Illicit Financing. This group will be given four years to study and report on the illicit use of digital assets and develop proposals to improve anti-money laundering and counterterrorist financing efforts. The timing of this approval was fortuitous, coming just a day before the Department of Justice (DoJ) announced a civil forfeiture action against $2 million worth of digital assets linked to the Hamas terror group. The tokens, consisting of the USDT (Tether) stablecoin held in accounts on the Binance exchange, are connected to Buy Cash Money and Money Transfer Company, a Gaza-based money transfer business. Back to the top ↑ Next stop: innovation station Meanwhile, the intersection where digital assets meet traditional finance is getting increasingly crowded. On July 22, Coinbase announced a strategic partnership with PNC Bank, which operates over 2,600 branches in 27 states. The deal will see Coinbase provide its Crypto-as-a-Service (CaaS) platform to offer digital asset solutions to PNC's banking clients and institutional investors, while in return, PNC will offer Coinbase 'select banking services.' During PNC's July 16 earnings call, CEO William Demchak was asked about the possibility of PNC getting into the stablecoin game, as so many of PNC's rivals are doing. Demchak said, 'My expectation is an industry solution with respect to an industry-led stablecoin, and we would clearly be part of that … We're gonna empower our clients if they wanna use it. Because we do what our clients want.' However, Demchak suggested stablecoins might have a less dramatic impact on banking than some might expect. Demchak acknowledged the cross-border transfer benefits but believes 'there isn't really a cost advantage driving the use of stablecoin, at least in domestic commerce.' Demchak also dismissed fears spread by some banks that their customers would flee in droves to secure greater yield by staking their cash with stablecoins on crypto platforms. 'Am I worried that it's somehow gonna drain deposits from the system? I am not.' Meanwhile, BNY Mellon (NASDAQ: BK) and Goldman Sachs (NASDAQ: GS) just announced plans for a tokenized money market funds (MMF) solution. The solution will rely on Goldman's in-house Digital Asset Platform (GS DAP) to maintain a record of customers' ownership of select MMFs, with the goal of enhancing the utility and transferability of MMF shares. Institutional investors will be able to trade 'mirrored' versions of participating MMFs—starting with products from BlackRock (NASDAQ: BLK), BNY Investments Dreyfus, Federated Hermes, Fidelity Investments, and Goldman Sachs Asset Management—via BNY's LiquidityDirect and Digital Assets investment platforms, with connectivity provided by GS DAP. Goldman Sachs Global Head of Digital Assets Matthew McDermott said the partnership will 'enable us to unlock [MMFs'] utility as a form of collateral and open up more seamless transferability in the future.' Laide Majiyagbe, BNY's Global Head of Liquidity, Financing and Collateral, celebrated the ability to serve as 'a trusted bridge between traditional finance and emerging technologies.' Back to the top ↑ JPMorgan's heel turn Things aren't all sunshine and buttercups between the financial incumbents and their upstart challengers. A couple of weeks ago, JPMorgan (NASDAQ: JPM) announced it would impose fees on fintech companies for accessing its customers' banking info, a move that has many crypto operators hot under their collars. JPMorgan has been providing fintechs with this access gratis, but a spokesperson told Forbes that the company receives 'nearly two billion monthly requests for customer data from middlemen, and more than 90% of those are unrelated to a consumer using fintech services.' JPMorgan's move is likely to be followed by other banks, and the fees are expected to hit data aggregators that serve as bank-to-fintech bridges particularly hard. For instance, Plaid is reportedly staring an annual fees of up to $300 million, while aggregator rivals like Finicity, Yodlee, and MX can expect their own crippling costs. These companies will almost certainly pass these expenses to their clients, including exchanges such as Coinbase, Kraken, and Gemini. Gemini co-founder Tyler Winklevoss tweeted his displeasure with JPMorgan on July 19, saying 'JPMorgan and the banksters are trying to kill fintech and crypto companies … This will bankrupt fintechs that help you link your bank accounts to crypto companies like @Gemini, @coinbase, and @krakenfx so you can easily fund your account w/ fiat to buy bitcoin and crypto.' Kraken's co-CEO Sethi tweeted his own displeasure with the fees earlier this month, accusing JPMorgan of 'asserting ownership over data that is generated by users but stored inside infrastructure the bank controls.' JPMorgan wouldn't have been able to impose the fees had a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule approved during President Biden's term been allowed to take effect next year as scheduled. However, the CFPB announced in May that it would repeal the open banking rule, the legality of which had been challenged by banking industry lobby groups. Ironically, JPMorgan's fee-grab is being enabled by some of the same deregulatory moves that Tyler and his ilk traditionally celebrate. Tech VCs and their crypto brethren have for some time been lobbying for the outright dismantling of the CFPB, and thus the agency's pullback from regulating much of anything can at least partially be laid at the tech/crypto door. Et tu, crypte? Back to the top ↑ Survey says While the fiat price of the BTC token continues to hover just under its all-time high of US$122,838 (set just last week), on-chain activity remains nonexistent. And while (mostly failing) companies continue to buy BTC for their 'treasuries,' retail buyers have yet to show up in droves. Some argue that the influx of cash into BTC- and ETH-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are where retail money goes nowadays. Possibly, but that doesn't fill BTC's transaction void or resolve the resulting threat to the network's security. As for why ETFs and 'treasury' companies could be proving more popular than the underlying assets they represent, a new survey by the National Cryptocurrency Association (NCA) suggests the average consumer continues to find the crypto user experience too intimidating/confusing, despite 16 years having passed since the Bitcoin white paper appeared. The Confidence Pulse survey queried 2,000 'non-crypto holders' on what exactly was preventing them from selling their firstborn children for digital assets. The top-five 'barriers to adoption' are a lack of understanding about how crypto works (49%), concerns about security and fraud (43%), not knowing who or what is behind it/backing it (41%), a lack of trust in platforms/exchanges (36%), and those who simply prefer traditional banking methods (29%). One-third (34%) of those surveyed said they were interested in learning more, but more than half (55%) found crypto research overwhelming. Among that 'crypto curious' one-third, 42% said they were likely to acquire or use crypto this year (although 'use' may be pushing it, given the empty mempool stats). As for what might convince a non-crypto holder to come off the bench, being more personally knowledgeable scored highest (37%). Nearly one-quarter (23%) said they could be convinced if they could use crypto to pay for goods and services, while an equal number would like to use crypto as a means to earn rewards/interest. The NCA—launched in March with $50 million in funding from Ripple Labs—claimed that 39% of crypto holders arealready using tokens to pay for goods and services, although that activity is almost certainly conducted with stablecoins, not the flagship BTC/ETH tokens that most people think about when they hear 'crypto.' A separate survey of 1,000 US/UK crypto holders by YouGov and onchain UX platform Reown (formerly WalletConnect) found that one-third (34%) of respondents were using their tokens for payments, a larger slice than decentralized finance (DeFi) options like staking. And while BTC (63%) and ETH (48%) remain the most popular crypto options, stablecoins (38%) are now more popular than SOL (37%). More than half (51%) of respondents aged 18-34 years held stablecoins, although this number fades among older age demos. Back to the top ↑ Watch: Teranode is the digital backbone of Bitcoin title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen="">
Edinburgh Reporter
16-07-2025
- Edinburgh Reporter
Choosing the Right Hosting Service: A Trader's Guide to Market-Specific Solutions
Every millisecond of latency translates to lost opportunity in today's hypercompetitive trading landscape. The infrastructure supporting your trades requires as much strategic consideration as your market analysis – yet most traders underestimate how dramatically hosting requirements differ across asset classes. What works for forex scalping fails catastrophically for crypto arbitrage, while equities market making demands entirely different specifications. Specialized hosting providers have emerged to address these divergent needs, offering optimized solutions that account for each market's unique microstructure. Understanding these technical nuances separates traders who consistently capture spreads from those left wondering why their strategies underperform. Photo by Florian Krumm on Unsplash Colocation: The Gold Standard for Equities Physical proximity to exchange matching engines provides an insurmountable advantage in equity markets. Major financial hubs like NY4, LD4, and TY3 data centers house the servers of institutional players who won't tolerate even microseconds of unnecessary delay. The physics of data transmission means colocated servers will always outpace remote connections when executing large block orders. Cloud Solutions: Crypto's Native Habitat Digital asset markets move at speeds that break traditional infrastructure. When Bitcoin volatility spikes 20% in an hour, only elastic cloud architectures can scale resources instantly to maintain strategy performance. Providers like Beeks crypto-hosting services specialize in these dynamic environments, offering low-latency connections to 50+ exchanges with the flexibility to deploy additional nodes during liquidity events. Virtual Private Servers: Forex's Sweet Spot Currency traders operating across global sessions require a different approach. A well-configured VPS in London provides consistent sub-5ms execution during European hours, while a Singapore-based instance handles Asian liquidity with equal reliability. The best forex VPS providers guarantee uninterrupted performance during NFP releases and central bank announcements when retail platforms often choke. Network Architecture: Hidden Performance Lever Equities traders obsess over direct fiber routes to exchange gateways. Forex participants optimize paths between prime broker liquidity pools. Crypto market makers minimize hops across decentralized exchange architectures. These network topology decisions often matter more than raw hardware specs for achieving consistent execution quality. Security Postures Diverging by Market Regulated equities platforms demand air-gapped backup systems and military-grade encryption. Forex operations prioritize DDoS protection that withstands coordinated attacks during major news events. Crypto traders architect defenses against both exchange hacks and wallet vulnerabilities – requiring security models foreign to traditional markets. Compliance Dictates Geography MiFID II forces European equity traders into specific jurisdictional setups with audited data trails. U.S. forex brokers face CFTC-mandated server locations. Crypto's regulatory patchwork creates complex tax reporting obligations despite geographical flexibility. These constraints directly impact hosting selection. Cost Structures Mirror Market Mechanics Equity colocation represents a capital-intensive but predictable expense. Forex VPS solutions offer lower barriers to entry with variable scaling costs. Cloud-based crypto hosting follows consumption models that align perfectly with the asset class's volatility profile. Each approach reflects its market's fundamental characteristics. Performance Metrics Tell Different Stories Equities traders track microsecond latency reductions like sports stats. Forex participants measure execution consistency across global sessions. Crypto market makers monitor throughput capacity during exchange congestion. These KPIs reveal which hosting solutions actually deliver value. Future-Proofing Trading Infrastructure Tokenized assets and AI-driven strategies will introduce novel technical requirements. Savvy traders partner with providers capable of adapting to quantum networking and other emerging technologies without requiring complete infrastructure rebuilds. Matching Infrastructure to Market Reality The most successful traders treat hosting as a competitive weapon rather than an operational afterthought. Colocation dominates equities for good reason, while forex traders achieve better ROI through premium VPS solutions. Crypto operations demand the elasticity only cloud architectures provide. In an era where execution quality determines profitability as much as strategy, your hosting environment should reflect the precise demands of your chosen market. Because when microseconds translate to millions, generic solutions become the most expensive choice of all. Like this: Like Related
Finextra
15-07-2025
- Finextra
Kraken launches US regulated derivatives offering
Kraken, a technology platform built on crypto that unlocks access and reduces inefficiencies to drive financial freedom, today announced the launch of Kraken Derivatives US, a regulated US derivatives offering. 0 This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author. The launch will initially provide direct access to crypto futures listed on the CME through an integrated Kraken Pro trading experience. Kraken Derivatives US enables clients to trade a full suite of crypto futures alongside Kraken's extensive spot market offering. With instant funding enabling seamless transfer of collateral, the integration gives clients a unified interface to deploy advanced strategies and manage risk efficiently, all from within a regulated environment backed by Kraken's leading infrastructure. 'With this launch, Kraken clients in the US can now trade futures alongside one of the world's most liquid cryptocurrency spot markets,' said Shannon Kurtas, Head of Exchange at Kraken. 'It's a meaningful step in giving traders broad market access and increased capital efficiency within a regulated and high performance environment.' Kurtas continued: 'Kraken Derivatives US further enriches our unified trading experience, where digital and traditional assets can be accessed side-by-side without compromising on features, performance or liquidity.' Today's launch represents Kraken's first significant milestone since acquiring NinjaTrader, a leading U.S. retail futures platform, earlier this year. Through NinjaTrader, Kraken will broaden its derivatives offering to include a wider array of asset classes, with plans to introduce commodity, fixed income, FX, and equity futures later this year. This expansion advances Kraken's strategy to build a comprehensive, multi-asset trading platform: further reinforcing its role as a unified venue for both digital and traditional asset classes. 'NinjaTrader is proud to power Kraken's push into US exchange-based derivatives, democratizing sophisticated trading products and connecting more participants to the world's leading trading venues,' said Martin Franchi, CEO of NinjaTrader. 'This collaboration marks a pivotal first step in accelerating our combined mission to expand global access to these essential products and markets." In April, Kraken introduced commission-free equities trading in the US, offering access to more than 11,000 stocks and ETFs with 24/5 availability. Kraken has also launched trading for tokenized equities, powered by Backed's xStocks, with phased rollouts beginning last week for eligible non-US clients.
