CySEC puts EU supervision at centre of iFX EXPO in Limassol

George Theocharides, Chairman of the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) opened iFX EXPO International 2026 in Limassol on Wednesday with a regulatory message aimed at an industry facing sharper scrutiny, faster technology shifts and a more demanding European policy environment. Addressing delegates at the City of Dreams Mediterranean, Theocharides set out the main regulatory and supervisory issues shaping financial markets across the European Union, as Cyprus continues to play a more visible role in European financial services during its Presidency. His keynote address placed supervision at the heart of an event more commonly associated with brokers, fintech firms, payment providers, liquidity companies and trading technology vendors, reflecting how closely the sector’s growth is now tied to regulation, compliance and market integrity. The three-day event, running from June 16 to 18, is expected to draw more than 6,500 attendees, 200 exhibitors and over 120 speakers, making it one of the largest international gatherings for the online trading and fintech industries. Although the conference opened on Tuesday evening with a welcome event at Columbia Beach, the main exhibition floor and speaker programme began on Wednesday, with discussions spread across the Speaker Hall and the newly introduced Mastery Hub stage. The agenda reflected the pressures now shaping the sector, from tighter supervision and trading infrastructure to payments, client acquisition, digital assets, artificial intelligence and the changing behaviour of retail traders. That wider shift was clear in ‘What They Don’t Tell You About Entrepreneurship’, where Charles Savva, Managing Director of C.Savva and Associates, moved the discussion away from polished success stories and towards the quieter realities of building a company. Speaking about his journey from Canada to establishing his own business, Savva focused on the discipline, resilience and personal stability needed to make difficult decisions over the long term. His message was less about inspiration and more about endurance, particularly in industries where pressure and uncertainty are part of daily work. The question of risk also ran through ‘Prop Under Pressure: Are Prediction Markets the New Trading Frontier’, where speakers examined whether the rise of prediction-based products marks a genuine shift in retail trading or simply a new form of speculation. The discussion brought together Pere Monguió, Co-CEO of FXStreet, Abdullah Galib, Chief Strategy Officer at FundedNext, Libi Milshtein, VP Partnerships at Plaee, Haya Zaoui, Trading Business Analyst at Plus500, and Ruben Abitbol, Founder and CEO of RUBIK Prop Firm Consulting. Speakers looked at how geopolitical events have increased trading activity and tested market infrastructure, while also raising questions over fairness, transparency and insider risk. The panel also considered whether prediction markets could attract wider institutional participation, and what governance, technology and safeguards would be needed for that to happen. Artificial intelligence added another layer to the discussion in ‘If AI Can Recommend Your Brand, It Can Ignore It Too’, which focused on how brands are discovered, recommended or ignored in increasingly automated digital environments. Bojan Ninkovic, Head of Strategy and Digital at UF Agency, and Slobodan Draksimovic, CEO of WAIM, discussed how AI is changing the way users encounter financial brands, often before they reach a company’s website or speak to a sales team. The session pointed to a new visibility challenge for the industry: firms are no longer competing only for search rankings or paid traffic, but also for relevance within AI-driven systems that decide what information users see first. Digital assets also returned to the agenda, though in a more sober tone than in previous market cycles. In ‘Bull Hangover: Who Survives When the Music Stops?’, speakers examined which business models can survive when liquidity tightens, trading volumes fall and investor sentiment changes. Moderated by Duska Nedeljkovic, Head of Conferences at Ultimate Group, the discussion included Anton Golub, Founding Member at RWA Labs, Andrey Stoychev, CEO and Managing Partner at VS Capital, Tom Higgins, Founder and CEO at Gold-i, Bas Kooijman, CEO and Asset Manager at DHF Capital S.A., and Andreas Vlachos, Web3 Growth Expert at the University of Nicosia. Speakers considered whether the current market phase is a temporary downturn or part of a broader reset driven by regulation, macroeconomic pressure and weaker liquidity. They also discussed how some crypto-native traders are moving towards FX, indices and commodities, suggesting that volatility and opportunity are increasingly being sought across asset classes rather than within crypto alone.