XTB CEO Eyes Crypto Shift Amid Polish Roadblocks

XTB plans spot crypto trading to diversify revenue, but Poland’s regulatory delays hinder the broker’s growth strategy.

Key Points:

• XTB aims to reduce CFD dependence from 95% to 70%, expanding into crypto and equities.
• Regulatory gridlock in Poland prevents offering spot cryptocurrency, pushing XTB to test through its Cypriot license.

Omar Arnaout, the chief executive of Polish retail broker XTB, believes spot cryptocurrency trading could fundamentally reshape the company’s revenue mix within two to three years—if only Poland would step aside.

In a candid interview with Polish YouTube channel Comparic, Arnaout didn’t mince words about how heavily XTB relies on one income source.

“Around 95%, maybe even more, of our revenues come from CFD instruments,” he said, calling the imbalance “genuinely frustrating.” His goal is to bring that figure down to roughly 70%, making room for crypto and equities to fill the gap.

It’s a significant pivot. Achieving it would mean creating an entirely new revenue stream from scratch—something XTB doesn’t yet have in any meaningful way in its home market.

XTB CEO Eyes Crypto Shift Amid Polish Roadblocks

The barrier isn’t product development or client interest; it’s regulation. Poland remains one of the few EU countries yet to implement MiCA, the bloc’s digital asset framework. As a result, XTB cannot offer spot cryptocurrency trading to Polish clients under a domestic license.

Arnaout didn’t hide his frustration. “It really hurts,” he said. Not just because the company is missing out on revenue, but because it limits XTB’s valuation. “I’m convinced our stock would be valued very differently if we had a more diversified revenue mix,” he added.

That’s a sharp remark from a CEO whose company trades on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Despite a weaker earnings quarter, XTB shares hit an all-time high of nearly 92 PLN last month, driven by record client growth. Arnaout is signaling that the stock could be worth significantly more if crypto revenues were already contributing.

XTB navigated around Poland’s legislative gridlock by securing a MiCA license in Cyprus in December 2025. The plan is to test spot crypto there before expanding across the EU. But for Arnaout, it’s a workaround rather than a solution. Previously, XTB even sent an open letter to Poland’s president urging the passage of a domestic crypto bill, warning that the lack of a local framework was pushing Polish investors toward offshore platforms.

Client Demand Is Already There, Revenue Isn’t

The business case for spot crypto at XTB is clear. Every time the crypto market moves, XTB sees a surge in both new client signups and activity from existing users—even though the company only offers crypto CFDs, not actual digital assets.

“Inflows of new clients and activity from existing clients are simply record-breaking,” Arnaout said, noting that these spikes almost always hit new highs.

That’s the second source of frustration: watching high-intent crypto customers arrive on the platform but being unable to offer the product they actually want. Competitors in MiCA-compliant jurisdictions can provide spot crypto to Polish clients, creating what Arnaout calls an uneven playing field. “They have cryptocurrencies and offer cryptocurrencies to their clients, and we cannot do this,” he said.

Equities Could Also Chip Away at CFD Dominance

Arnaout’s target of reducing CFD dependence to 70% doesn’t rest solely on crypto. Equities are also playing a growing role, particularly as XTB’s client base expands rapidly.

The broker added 864,000 new accounts in 2025—roughly equivalent to its entire pre-2020 client acquisition history, all in a single year. For 2026, Arnaout is aiming for at least 1.2 million new clients, with hopes to push toward 1.3 or even 1.4 million. The logic is straightforward: a larger, more active client base trading stocks and ETFs generates more non-CFD revenue, even without crypto.

The shift in client behavior is already visible. In 2025, only 7% of new XTB clients started with CFDs, down from 80% in 2019. Most are buying ETFs and stocks—lower-margin products, but ones that build longer-term engagement. Over 80% of new clients opened their first position in an ETF, an ETF-based investment plan, or equities.

Revenue hasn’t fully caught up with this behavioral shift. Equities and ETFs don’t yet generate the same per-user income as CFDs during volatile markets. Spot crypto, with higher margins and round-the-clock trading, remains the clearest lever. For Arnaout, the regulatory deadlock in Warsaw isn’t just frustrating—it’s the biggest hurdle to realizing that growth.

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