eToro Expert Review

We will tell you more about the well-known brokerage company eToro in this review. This company is known in Europe, Asia, Great Britain, Australia and the United States. The number of clients of eToro in 2021 exceeds several million people. We were interested in this company because it has several scandals and controversies. Is this company a real broker? Does eToro have real regulatory licenses? We checked it out. Read to the end to find out more. 

What is eToro?

eToro is an international financial company providing brokerage services worldwide. The broker's central office is located in Tel Aviv, Israel. However, the company has several representative offices in Australia (eToro AUS Capital Limited), UK (eToro (UK) Ltd), Europe (eToro (Europe) Ltd) and Seychelles (eToro (Seychelles) Ltd). Each representative office has regulatory licenses, which we have checked. The correct numbers of valid licenses are listed on the website. 

This is a good signal for traders and investors. Each client can choose a representative office in his country or region for cooperation. However, often you will not be able to choose a representative office on your own. For example, you automatically open an account with eToro (Europe) Ltd if you reside in a European country. However, in many other countries you can open an account only through an offshore branch of eToro (Seychelles) Ltd. We do not recommend working with this offshore division of eToro. Other affiliates are worth considering.

While researching regulators' licenses, we learned some interesting information. It turns out that eToro has subsidiaries that provide binary options trading services.

In particular, the FCA license is valid for eToro and Bitcoin FX Option. This is one of the projects for binary options trading with cryptocurrency. However, eToro has already had international scandals and fines from regulators for providing a binary options service. After all, binary options are officially banned in Europe and many other civilized countries. Many regulators do not issue licenses to brokers who provide such services. 

We can see that eToro is related to several suspicious projects for binary options trading. However, they provide such services through affiliate sites and companies with a different name. Therefore, the regulators can do nothing but fine and make direct accusations against eToro.

We recommend trading with eToro only classic CFD instruments with clear pricing and transparent trading conditions. 

The company provides fair trading conditions when it comes to standard trading transactions with leverage. eToro already has more than 20 million clients from 140 countries. This is official information, which we have confirmed. 

We are certain that eToro will increase its capitalization. And soon this company will become even bigger. In 2021, it was revealed that management is planning to merge eToro with several financial corporations. This will allow the broker to become a public company with a valuation of more than $10 billion. It is planned that after the merger, all divisions and subsidiaries will operate under the management of eToro Group Ltd.

However, before drawing conclusions, we would like to analyze the trading conditions as well as the investment programs in more detail. 

Terms of trade

eToro has several formats of brokerage services. Like other such companies, eToro provides clients with access to leveraged CFD trading. More than 200 financial instruments are available for online trading. However, the company is best known for its deal copying and investment services. 

The company has three most popular investment programs:

   - Copying trades of top traders

   - Investment portfolios

   - Cryptocurrency stacking

All registered users who have been verified have access to these investment tools. We really liked the transaction and investment management interface. eToro allows you to invest in a stock portfolio in just a couple of clicks, or choose a top trader to copy trades. 

Many users use cryptocurrency stacking. As a reminder, stacking is a way of passive earning where users store coins on the Proof of Stake (PoS) algorithm. They keep the blockchain running. This entitles them to receive rewards in the form of cryptocurrency. The cryptocurrency can then be sold at the market price and receive money into their eToro account. Throughout the existence of these investment programs, the company has not had any scandals or legal investigations. This is a good signal for future investors.

We do not recommend trading questionable binary options or investing in anything on behalf of eToro. This company has several projects related to cryptocurrency trading and binary options. These projects are very risky. 

However, the majority of users uses traditional CFD trading. At eToro, all trading conditions comply with the legal regulations of the countries in which the company is regulated. Leverage is up to 1:30. This is indicated on the website. This is the maximum leverage size allowed by European international regulators. In some Asian countries and offshore, higher leverage can be used. But eToro doesn't take that step. This is a positive signal for traders. 

The company has other advantages of trading conditions:

   - Large selection of trading instruments (more than 250)

   - Spreads from 0.1 pip

   - Transparent swap rates

   - Possibility to use any trading strategy

Terms of registration

eToro has simplified the registration process for users. On the registration page, you can sign in via Google or Facebook. Immediately after authorization or registration, you get to your personal account. It takes less than 1 minute. However, you need to verify your profile to trade. This is a standard procedure in many companies. Immediately after verification, you can make a deposit by bank transfer or e-wallet. 

Pay attention to the division of the company you are going to cooperate with. If you register from the UK, Australia or Europe, then you will have a regional division. Registration from other countries is possible only in the offshore division. In this case, the risks increase. Be careful. 

Scandals

eToro is trustworthy. It is a global financial corporation that will soon go public. An IPO is impossible with open litigation and fraud. That is why eToro has a positive reputation. However, there have been several scandals and investigations that are still pending.

eToro forced its customers to close their cryptocurrency trades in early 2021 due to high volatility. Many customers incurred losses. 

In 2021, the company introduced forced Stop Losses. According to users, it is necessary to set SL even for trades without leverage. In the opinion of traders, this is a violation of their rights. Therefore, you need to be prepared for this. 

In the summer of 2021, it was revealed that European eToro traders call foul over closure of leveraged crypto contracts. This has been written about on Coinbase and many other resources. 

Conclusion

eToro can be trusted as a major international brokerage company. However, you have to be careful and use only classic CFD trading. It is not recommended to trade binary options or invest money in different signal providers from eToro with high annual returns. It is dangerous for your capital. 

In CFD trading, the broker adheres to the stated trading conditions and fulfills its obligations. However, you need to be careful and follow all the rules. Customer service at eToro does not always work correctly. The company has a lot of clients. Unfortunately, you will not get an individual manager or personalized service terms. You will have to deal with problems on your own if you have any.

Advantages

- Cryptocurrency trading is available

- Valid regulatory licenses

- Two investment programs

- You can open an account from any country

- Privileges for VIP clients

- Large capitalization and transparent history of the company

Disadvantages

- The presence of high-profile scandals in different countries