Rostro Group, which owns broker Scope Markets, said today (Tuesday) it has registered as a virtual asset service provider (VASP) in the British Virgin Islands. It plans to offer spot crypto brokerage and fiat on- and off-ramps.
The approval was granted by the British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission (FSC) under the Virtual Assets Service Providers Act, 2022, which establishes a registration framework for cryptocurrency service providers. The regulator's public register identifies the approved entity as RXM Capital Ltd, operating under the trading name RXMdigital.
The register describes RXM Capital as an exchange and a custody provider, approved to hold client assets, swap crypto for fiat money and transfer digital assets.
For a group that has run on FX and CFD trading since it bought Scope Markets in 2022, custody means holding clients' coins directly. RXM Capital is one of 29 entities on the FSC's virtual asset list, which held 14 registrations in July 2025, according to law firm Walkers.
London's trading industry is coming home!
Retail Brokers Add Spot Crypto
Retail brokers have spent 2026 adding spot crypto next to their derivatives, each through a different regulator and often through a separate company. Pepperstone opened its own crypto exchange for Australian clients in February with a flat 0.1% trading fee.
In Europe, Capital.com obtained a Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) license from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) through a separate company, Capital Vault Ltd, which was approved in December 2025.
In the British Virgin Islands, the FSC list also includes AvaTrade's Ava Trade Markets and four companies of Kraken parent Payward, which has been adding licenses and acquisitions in the US, Dubai and Hong Kong.
The traffic between the two industries runs both ways. Crypto exchanges paid between $200 million and $2.9 billion for regulated trading firms in 2025, FM Intelligence data show.
Two Years of Groundwork
Rostro has been preparing the step since 2024. In August that year it hired Mark Foulger as managing director of digital asset innovation to plan its crypto strategy.
Five months later, the group said it would bring blockchain and AI technology into its trading operations to handle more of each trade cycle in house.
"Digital assets are an important part of Rostro's next phase of growth," said Michael Ayres, group chief executive officer of Rostro Group.
Ayres said the focus had now moved to execution, with new services planned for 2027. Rostro said it would share further details in the coming months.
Its brands, which include institutional liquidity unit Scope Prime, give clients access to more than 40,000 instruments in over 150 countries, according to the group. Scope Markets is one of 186 brokers covered by FM Intelligence's broker volumes tracker.
This article was written by Damian Chmiel at www.financemagnates.com.
Source: Finance Magnates
