BlackBull's IPO Is Delayed until 2027, Not Dead

BlackBull Markets' planned initial public offering has been delayed until 2027, according to a daily industry recap, although the listing is described as postponed rather than abandoned. The New Zealand-based forex and CFD broker had been expected to come to market earlier, and the revised timeline pushes any float out by roughly two years.

The delay sits alongside a busy stretch of corporate and product news across the retail trading sector. LCG has seen a management takeover, while CMC Markets has added ChatGPT functionality to its offering. iFOREX reported a loss for the first half of its financial year, according to the same roundup.

Expansion and product moves

Equiti has opened a second physical storefront in the United Arab Emirates, extending its bricks-and-mortar presence in a region where local offices are used to support client onboarding and service. Separately, eToro is preparing to migrate clients onto its new AI-centred application, part of a broader push by brokers to embed artificial intelligence into the trading experience.

On the regulatory side, Australia's securities watchdog, ASIC, has introduced new rules covering trading algorithms, adding another layer of compliance obligations for firms that deploy automated execution.

The recap also flagged a longer-term market forecast: financial contracts could account for close to half of prediction-market volume by 2035, suggesting the sector is expected to shift further toward event-based instruments tied to economic and financial outcomes rather than sport and entertainment.

Taken together, the updates point to a brokerage industry balancing delayed capital-markets ambitions against faster product cycles, regional expansion and tighter oversight of automated trading.