Plus500 H1 2026: Revenue Up 12% to $462.9 Million as Q2 Momentum Cools

Plus500 reported first-half 2026 revenue of $462.9 millionin an unaudited trading update on Monday, up 12% year-on-year, with customer income of $460.8 million — its strongest for any six-month period in five years. But the detail matters more than the headline: almost all of the growth landed in the first quarter, the second quarter cooled on nearly every operating measure, and the EBITDA margin narrowed. For European traders weighing a listed CFD broker, this is a read on counterparty strength that comes with a clear note of caution about the direction of travel.

The headline numbers

The growth landed early

The half was heavily front-loaded. Plus500 booked $242.1 million of revenue in the first quarter, which leaves $220.8 million for the second — up 5% year-on-year but around 9% below the opening quarter. The client numbers point the same way: of the 65,723 new customers won across the half, only 25,856 arrived in Q2, down from 29,268 a year earlier. Active customers in the quarter also edged lower, to 131,214 from 132,602.

The pattern is consistent with a volatility cycle unwinding. The first quarter carried the tail of the elevated commodity and index activity that lifted the whole listed-broker sector — the same dynamic behind Plus500's record Q1 result. As conditions normalised into the second quarter, engagement and new-account intake softened. This is the seasonality of the CFD business rather than anything specific to Plus500, but it is a reminder that broker revenue tracks market turbulence, not a steady subscription line.

Margin did the work the top line didn't

EBITDA barely moved — up 1% to $187.5 million — even as revenue rose 12%. The EBITDA margin fell to 41% for the half from 44.6% a year earlier. Plus500 attributed the compression to two things it chose and one it did not: it deliberately raised customer-acquisition spend to bring in new clients, and currency-related cost headwinds weighed on the reported figures, with the company noting that underlying performance was stronger on a constant-currency basis.

For a broker, higher acquisition spend at a stable margin is a growth investment; higher spend at a falling margin is worth watching. The offsetting positive is the balance sheet — Plus500 finished June debt free with more than $850 million in cash, and has returned roughly $2.9 billion to shareholders through dividends and buybacks since its 2013 London listing.

What it means for European traders

Plus500 serves EU clients through Plus500CY Ltd, regulated by CySEC under licence 250/14, with additional authorisation from the FCA in the UK (FRN 509909) and ASICin Australia. EU retail clients get the standard ESMA protections: leverage capped at 30:1 on major forex pairs, mandatory negative balance protection, segregated client funds, and ICF compensation up to EUR 20,000 per eligible client.

A half-year update does not change spreads or execution, but it does speak to counterparty risk — an underrated factor when choosing a CFD broker. A debt-free, cash-rich, LSE-listed firm reporting record customer income is a low-probability candidate for the liquidity stress that has historically caused outages or, in extreme cases, insolvency. The continuous-disclosure regime that comes with the FTSE 250 listing is itself a transparency signal most private CFD brokers cannot match.

The caveat for active traders is unchanged and structural: Plus500 runs its own proprietary platform only, with no MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, cTrader, or TradingView, and no API for algorithmic execution. Anyone who needs third-party charting or automated strategies will look elsewhere — see our best MT5 brokers in Europe for alternatives.

The H2 bar

Plus500 put current market consensus at $811.5 million of full-year revenue and $368.1 million of EBITDA, sourced from compiled analyst forecasts. Against the reported half, that implies roughly $349 million of revenue and about $181 million of EBITDA still to come — a mix that would require a materially higher margin on a materially smaller revenue base than the first half delivered. In other words, the market is asking the second half to reverse the very margin trend the first half showed. Whether it does will depend more on market volatility than on anything within management's control.

The full, audited H1 results are due on Monday 10 August, alongside declarations on dividends and buybacks. Those numbers, and any commentary on Q3 trading, will be the real test of whether the Q2 cooling was a pause or a trend.

Bottom line

Plus500's first half was strong in absolute terms — record customer income, double-digit revenue growth, and a fortress balance sheet — but the momentum clearly faded through the second quarter and the margin gave ground. For EU traders, the takeaway is a reassuring one on stability and a neutral one on trading conditions: this is a financially solid, well-regulated, listed broker whose main trade-off remains its proprietary-only platform versus multi-platform competitors like Pepperstone or IC Markets.