The international trading platform ITS registered a record trading volume of $200 million on its proprietary infrastructure in 2024, driven by a growing number of investors and an expanded range of securities available for trading, DKnews.kz reports.
In December, trading volume reached a record high of $91 million, up 37% from the previous month’s $66.2 million. The top ten most popular securities in December included Tesla (TSLA), Micron Technology, Inc. (MU), Freedom Holding Corp. (FRHC), Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN), Alphabet Inc. Class A (GOOGL), Microsoft Corporation (MSFT), NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA), Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY), Mobileye Global Inc. Class A (MBLY) and MicroStrategy Incorporated Class A (MSTR).
“The year 2024 was a breakthrough for ITS – in a short time we achieved what takes other trading platforms years to accomplish. We built our own trading and settlement infrastructure, launched the first ETF trading in Central Asia, and increased the number of brokers connected to ITS. These developments have driven trading volume growth, and I am confident this trend will continue” Chingiz Kanapyanov, CEO of ITS
Trading volume is growing due to an increase in the number of traders and investors on ITS, as well as their rising trading activity, driven by the expanding range of financial instruments available on the platform. This trend supports ITS’s strategic goal of integrating Kazakhstan’s financial market into the global economy.
“In 2025, ITS plans to increase the number of financial intermediaries connected to the platform, including brokers from Kazakhstan and other countries. We are also preparing to broaden our range of financial products, offering clients the opportunity to trade currencies, derivatives, and a wider selection of stocks and ETFs” Chingiz Kanapyanov
The key milestones of 2024 that paved the way for ITS’s future plans included:
- Receiving a positive assessment from the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) in February.
- Joining the Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges (FEAS) in April, joining the Association of Islamic Finance and Business (AIFB) in December.
- Switching to ITS’s proprietary trading and clearing infrastructure within the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC). This infrastructure enables full-cycle post-trading operations and provides access to global liquidity.
- Adding new brokers: The investment platform Paidax enabled its clients to trade on ITS in August, followed by Armenian broker Invia Investments in September.
- Expanding the number of tradable securities by over one-third to 2,752 in September.
- Hosting the first ITS IDEAS 2024 conference in September as part of Astana Finance Days. The event featured legendary investor Jim Rogers and industry leaders, focusing on investment opportunities and market trends.
- Launching ETF trading in November. ITS provided a wide range of investors with the opportunity to trade ETF shares linked to the ITS World Index, which tracks the performance of global and Kazakhstani companies.
- ITS Central Securities Depository (CSD) obtaining Qualified Intermediary (QI) status from the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in December. This status allows reduced tax rates on income from US-registered securities.
ITS is an international liquidity hub. Central to ITS's business model are the principles of best execution and smart order routing technology. These principles enable investors to execute securities transactions at the best prices available on the global financial market, regardless of the transaction volume. This technology ensures that the liquidity for foreign securities on ITS matches that of leading international platforms where these securities are traded.
ITS Central Securities Depository Limited, the central depository for ITS, offers depository services for the storage and settlement of securities.
Operating a clearing house that acts as a Central Counterparty, ITS assumes the counterparty role for all obligations of clearing participants and manages the clearing process for transactions on the ITS trading platform.
ITS also calculates its own indexes: the ITS World index (ITSW) and the ITS Shariah index (ITSS).
ITS's direct clients include professional securities market participants from Kazakhstan and other countries, such as financial intermediaries who are accredited and directly registered at the AIFC. Investors, both private individuals and legal entities, access trading through these financial intermediaries, such as brokers and banks.
