'We definitely are eyeing the public markets': eToro CEO considers IPO after scrapped SPAC deal

Stock brokerage platform eToro is getting interest from bankers and investors about a public market listing after its scrapped plans to go public via merger with a blank-check company, CEO Yoni Assia told CNBC.

"We definitely are eyeing the public markets," Assia told CNBC in an exclusive interview last week. "I definitely see us becoming eventually a public company."

"When is the ideal time to do that? We're always evaluating the right opportunity at the right time and the right market," he added.

Assia said that his brokerage company has built good relationships with exchanges, including the Nasdaq stock exchange.

EToro has already put the work in toward becoming a public company, he suggested, and the question of listing is more a matter of when, not if.

"It's our business, right? Retail investors come to eToro to buy shares of a public company. So we're happy to engage and build those relationships over time as we scale more."

Figures shared by eToro with CNBC exclusively show that the firm recorded $630 million in revenue in 2023, more or less matching the $631 million in revenue it attracted in 2022.

But the company reported profitability for the first time in 2023, saying it reached $100 million in EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization).

The company did not provide a comparable profit figure for 2022.

EToro relies mainly on fees related to trading, like spreads on buy and sell orders, as well as fees for non-trading activities like money withdrawals and currency conversion. It also makes money from a membership product, called eToro Club. This is a premium membership model, and a costly one at that, with the lowest "silver" tier priced at $5,000.

EToro Club grants users a more personalized