Btcswing Review – 5 things you should know about btcswing.com

Beware! Btcswing is an offshore broker! Your investment may be at risk.

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Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Open trading accounts with at least two brokers.

Btcswing is a forex broker trading in cryptocurrencies. As we looked at the company’s website, we found out that it looks like a carbon copy of another dodgy forex broker. We’ll explain why further down in this review.

Btcswing Regulation and safety of funds

If we play a game of ‘spot the difference’, apart from the name of the company, would you be able to find other differences in the two screenshots below? Probably not. In the first screenshot, you see the address of Btcswing and in the second screenshot is the address of another forex broker which ‘happens’ to be the same! It looks like a scammer is just carbon copying and sprouting websites in its attempt to lure potential traders and swing them out of their money. Neither company is in fact registered in the Czech Republic which means Btcswing is not licensed and not reliable to trade with and there is no guarantee for the safety of your funds!

Unfortunately, the Internet is full of such websites pretending to be legit forex brokers. So how do you spot a scam? You need to look for the registration of the broker and make sure that it is licensed in one of the well-established jurisdictions around the world – the EU, the UK, the US or Australia. Why do we recommend these jurisdictions? Because only there traders will be protected against scammers and there will be a guarantee for the safety of their funds. For now, the EU and the UK offer the best conditions to the forex traders by establishing rigid requirements that forex brokers must meet in order to get licensed. For example, brokers in the EU and the UK must have an initial capital of no less than 730,000 EUR which also serves as a way to screen off scammers. You don’t imagine scammers investing so much money just to look legit, do you? Also, to protect traders and make sure that there are no dodgy deals, brokers must report their transactions on a daily basis. Another thing that will sound very reassuring to potential traders is the fact that these brokers must contribute to local compensations schemes from which traders will be compensated if the broker becomes insolvent. For example, in the UK, brokers licensed by FCA must contribute to the local Financial Compensation Scheme from which traders will be compensated by up to 85,000 GBP per person. In the EU, brokers regulated by the CySec deduct funds towards the local Investor Compensation Fund in Cyprus from which traders will be compensated by up to 20,000 EUR per person if the broker declares bankruptcy. In the US and in Australia setting a huge amount as initial capital is also a way of protecting traders from scammers – $20 million and 1 million AUD respectively.

We strongly advise you to research these brokers by using the links we provided above and to choose one that suits you best instead of dealing with shady brokers such as Btcwing.

Btcswing Trading software

As we mentioned already, Btcswing trades in cryptocurrency and the trading platform opens in the web browser as soon as you register your account. It’s a fairly basic platform that does not offer many trading tools and instruments and using it is as simple as one-two-three.

In the screenshot below you can see what this web browser looks like. In the middle, you see displayed the chart for Bitcoin vs USDT and the fluctuation in price in a given time frame. On the right-hand side, you can see information about this cryptocurrency pair – minimum amount, leverage, etc., as well as the bid/ask price. Based on the bid/ask price, we calculated the spread to be $82 which is too high, compared to what other brokers offer. i.e. IG spread is $36. High spread does not work to trader’s advantage in the long run as it does not allow a sustainable profit to be done.

We see that for this cryptocurrency pair the leverage is 1:5 which is rather high. What is even more worrisome, if you look at the account type information which is presented in the last screenshot, you will see that this broker offers leverages as high as 1:50! For your information, licensed brokers in the EU have a leverage cap on cryptocurrency trade which is 1:2. Although this broker seems to be ‘registered’ in the EU, it does not comply with the EU regulations which is another proof that you are dealing with scammers here. High leverage may seem to amplify your potential for profit but in fact, it also increases your risk exposure and may lead to big financial loss.

Our advice is to always select to trade with forex brokers that are licensed and offer low leverage.

As we mentioned already, this web browser does not provide the trader with many trading tools and instruments which is in contrast with what the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 can do. These two platforms are the best in the forex trade world and choice number one among around 80% of the brokers. Both platforms offer an auto trading option along with a code base with customs scripts, an app market, a financial calendar, VPS, trading signals and a big package of charting tools. We strongly advise you to select a licensed broker that offers one of these platforms as it will enhance your trading experience.

Btcswing Deposit/Withdrawal methods and fees

Btcswing offers 6 different account types – Micro, Mini, Silver, Gold, Diamond and VIP. The minimum initial deposit for the Micro account is 0.5 BTC. As per the exchange rate at the moment, 1 BTC equals $ 13687.70, which means that the minimum deposit is $6,843.85. We must say that this amount is too high for a minimum initial deposit! If you research the licensed brokers in the links we provided you above, you will see that some of them ask for a very low initial deposit, i.e., $1-5.

We’ll let you make the conclusion yourself and answer the question: why is this broker asking for such high initial deposit and what will happen to your money if the website shuts down? Someone is going to be very happy but it won’t be you!

Payment of the deposit can be made only via Bitcoin. There are no other payment methods offered to the clients. What implication it may have on your funds, you will find out after reading the last section of this review.

Withdrawal request processing time can take up to 5 business days. 

If a trading account stays inactive for 12 months, it is considered dormant and the company will charge an annual maintenance fee of $25.

If you read the company’s Terms and Conditions, you will notice that this broker offers different bonuses, including a 100% deposit bonus. Our advice is to absolutely avoid brokers that offer bonuses because they may look like free gifts, but actually by accepting one you are bound by certain conditions set by the broker that can cause you a lot of grief. In this case, if you accept a bonus and then you want to make a withdrawal, you must meet the following requirements: you must turn over 30 times the amount of your deposit plus the amount of the bonus! As we explained already, the initial deposits for this broker’s trading accounts are rather high and fulfilling such requirement will present a lot of hassle for you.

If you wish to make a withdrawal before you have fulfilled your bonus obligation, you will have to pay a handling fee which can be very high. There is an example in the Terms and Conditions document that explains and gives examples of how the handling fee is calculated. The sum of it is that if deposit $10,000 and accept a bonus of 100% and wish to withdraw funds halfway through fulfilling your bonus turnover, then the handling fee will be $750.

For your information, these conditions do not work to your advantage and furthermore, you should know that licensed brokers do not offer bonuses or any other incentives. This again is proof that should you choose to trade with Btcswing, you might be fleeced off your money.

How does scam work?

If scammers make a movie, it will probably be called “Dream on”. They make everything sound credible and build their scam on your dreams of getting an easy and quick profit. People get duped if they decide to deposit money into one of the scammers’ schemes. What you probably do not know is that your hard-earned money goes as commission to the scammers. Next, you get inundated by daily calls. First, the scammers congratulate you for joining their business, next they try to persuade you to invest even more money. After all, the more money you send, the bigger money fall you can expect. This of course is not how things work. By the time you realise that no money is coming your way, it might be too late. All you want now is to get your money back and get out of there but the scammers have other plans for you and they won’t late get away so easily. Now they try to delay you so that you miss the deadline for a chargeback.

What to do if scammed?

If you get scammed, our advice is to act immediately and if you have paid your deposit via credit/debit card you may still have a chance. Visa and MasterCard allow you 540 days time limit to file for chargeback which gives you a fighting chance to recover your money.
However, if you have used bitcoin or bank wire for your payment, the chances of you recovering your money are really slim.
Cancelling your credit/debit card in case you have given the scammers your CVV code may be another good idea. Also, make sure to remove from your PC any software that my give scammers access to your private data stored on your computer.
Whatever you do to recover your funds, beware of the so-called recovery agents. Please make sure that you are dealing with a genuine one by checking their credentials and company’s information transparency. Otherwise, you may fall victim to another form of scam.