Pepperstone has officially entered the spot cryptocurrency in Australia with the launch of a dedicated crypto exchange marking a significant expansion beyond its traditional crypto contracts for difference (CFD) trading.
The new crypto trading platform, branded Pepperstone Crypto can be accessed on pepperstonecrypto.com, went live this week and is currently available exclusively to Australian clients. Pepperstone CEO Tamas Szabo confirmed the launch in a LinkedIn update, thanking staff who had worked on the project for nearly two years and highlighting that the infrastructure has been built entirely in-house.
At launch, the exchange lists five cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana, alongside the US dollar-pegged stablecoins USDC and USDT. All trading pairs are currently denominated in Australian dollars, with additional assets expected to be added over time. Pepperstone is targeting active crypto traders with a flat trading fee of 0.1%, positioning the new platform as a low-cost alternative to established exchanges.
According to Pepperstone CEO Tammas Szabo, the new exchange aims to prioritise deep liquidity, platform resilience during periods of heavy trading, and secure deposit and withdrawal processes during development. By building the technology internally, Pepperstone says it can maintain greater control over execution quality, pricing and security, even though the approach required significant resources.
The move reflects a broader strategic shift among CFD brokers seeking to capture a growing share of the crypto trading market. Pepperstone already processes more than $6 billion in monthly crypto CFD trading volume, and the company believes this scale will help support reliable liquidity for its new spot offering.
Pepperstone is not alone in pivoting towards crypto. Rival brokers are also expanding into digital assets as demand rises and regulation becomes clearer. IG Group recently acquired Independent Reserve, and secured a cryptoasset licence from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority for crypto trading in the UK.
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