Social trading firm eToro added the highest number at 5 million users in 2020, a 38.46% increase from 2019's 13 million users. Robinhood continued to attract retail traders with an addition of about 3 million new users in H1 2020 alone, a growth of 30% from 2019.

Elsewhere, Plus500 acquired an additional 1.05 million users. Capital.com registered a user surge of 236.84% to hit 1.3 million in the wake of the company expanding globally. E*TRADE users grew to 7.7 million after recording an additional 484,315 new customers in 2020.

Interactive Brokers users grew by 56% to 1.07 million users, an additional 385,200 new customers in 2020. Freetrade, which had 65,000 users in 2019, increased the number by 235,000, a growth of 361% in 2020. Finally, IG registered a growth of 34% to hit 239,600 users in 2020.

A combination of factors have contributed to the growth of new trading accounts, including stock market volatility, increased spare time during lockdowns, cryptocurrency trading, and a surge in demand for commission-free trading.

A major contributing factor is the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency sector rally at the end of 2020. New investors signed up with trading platforms to capture some of the market gains. Institutional investors mainly inspired the current Bitcoin rally, and most retail traders joined the frenzy to avoid missing out. In contrast, during the 2017 Bitcoin rally, retail investors were the center of attention, but this was not the case last year.