XTB gains Polish portfolio approval and launches Spanish spot crypto

A hand holding a phone with a trading screen, illustrating XTB's portfolio management and Spanish crypto services
Photo by Leeloo The First on Pexels

On Friday, the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) authorised Warsaw-listed XTB to manage investment portfolios for clients. The commission approved the application unanimously, according to its communiqué. XTB has not yet disclosed which products it plans to place under the new mandate.

The broker has also made spot crypto trading available in Spain. Customers there can buy more than 40 crypto assets directly, rather than taking exposure through contracts for difference (CFDs), according to the Spanish website. Spain is the third market where XTB offers spot crypto, following Chile and Cyprus.

A mandate alongside existing products

The two moves extend XTB's offer beyond CFDs, which remain the main source of its trading business. In the first half of 2026, CFDs produced PLN 1.98 billion of the PLN 2.07 billion gross result on financial instruments, about 96%. Stocks, ETFs and Investment Plans have attracted most of the broker's new clients, but have not yet displaced CFDs as the dominant contributor.

The KNF authorisation allows a licensed firm to make investment choices for a client within an agreed mandate. At the end of June, XTB clients held PLN 50.31 billion with the broker: PLN 23.35 billion in stocks and PLN 20.02 billion in ETFs, across almost 1.49 million active accounts. The KNF is also the regulator that fined XTB PLN 20 million in a decision dated March 30, citing its checks of clients' experience before they were sold CFDs.

Chief Executive Omar Arnaout said in February that he wanted CFDs to represent about 70% of revenue, compared with around 95%. Noble Securities analyst Mateusz Chrzanowski described the portfolio permission as a longer-term route to a broader offer and more revenue per client, according to StockWatch.pl, but assessed it as neutral for the shares. FM Intelligence calculations show revenue grew about ninefold between 2019 and 2025 as profitability per client declined 76%.

Spanish access and Polish delays

XTB has expanded the crypto service market by market. After securing a Cyprus spot crypto license in December 2025, it began offering more than 35 assets there in the first half of 2026. The Chile launch followed in August with 46 assets; Spain's selection exceeds 40.

Spain generated 5.3% of organic visits to retail FX and CFD broker websites in the third quarter, the sixth-largest country share on FM Intelligence's heat map. XTB operates there through Cyprus-based XTB Limited.

The subsidiary is licensed by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation. Its Spanish website says customers trade in dollars from $2, with no option to move coins into or out of the account.

XTB has used Spain for other product introductions: options on 110 US stocks and ETFs arrived in April, followed by redesigned Investment Plans in Spain and Germany in July. Chief Executive Omar Arnaout has said the app should become investors' first choice in Europe, according to Parkiet.

Spot crypto is not available to XTB's Polish clients, and the firm cannot give a start date because Poland has yet to pass legislation supplementing MiCA. President Karol Nawrocki vetoed versions of the bill in December 2025, February 2026 and June 2026.

If it remains unadopted, XTB may serve Polish customers through its Cypriot subsidiary, Finance Magnates reported in August. XTB's Thursday schedule includes an online conference; the broker is also due to issue preliminary figures for the third quarter.

What this means on the desk

The portfolio service adds a discretionary decision-making function to an operation whose reported trading result is still heavily concentrated in CFDs. Before launch, operators will need clarity on the mandate products, how client instructions and portfolio decisions are recorded, and how positions and performance are reported. XTB has not provided those product details.

The crypto rollout also leaves practical questions for teams supporting accounts across jurisdictions. They should establish which entity holds each client relationship, what the no-transfer rule means for funding and withdrawals, and how dollar-denominated trades are reconciled with existing account records.

The source does not specify the technical or operational arrangements. XTB's preliminary third-quarter results and Thursday conference may provide further information.