Beware! CryptobinOption is an offshore broker! Your investment may be at risk.
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Open trading accounts with at least two brokers.
According to its website, CryptobinOption is a cryptocurrency binary options trading platform. However, it is hard to believe their claims that in “1.5 years of operation we have not deceived a single client.”
The website is practically anonymous and at the time of writing this review it lacks basic functionality. The account registration links are either inactive or lead to “page not found” error. The website seems to have been abandoned. This may be due to the fact that it has come into the sight of some major regulators. In November 2021 the UK’s Financial conduct Authority issued a warning that this website was offering investment services without authorisation:
Even if the website is reactivated in the future, we recommend that it be avoided, because in all likelihood there are scammers behind it.
CRYPTOBINOPTION REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
First of all, it should be noted that binary options trading is associated with many exploits and scams. Therefore, in recent years, these financial instruments have been banned by regulators in the EU, the United Kingdom and Australia. Binary options trading is still allowed in the US, but in a limited capacity.
The CryptobinOption website does not specify the legal entity behind it, but it is stated that it operates from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG): 
Because of the lack of regulatory norms and oversight, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is one of the favorite bases of operations for shady brokers. While this country has a financial regulator, unlike other offshore areas, it does not regulate the activities of brokers. Тhe Financial Services Authority (FSA) of St. Vincent and the Grenadines has repeatedly issued warnings on this issue, with the latest such warning dated 23 June 2021. It clearly states that the agency “does not issue any licenses to carry on the business of FOREX Trading or Brokerage or Binary Options Trading nor does the FSA “Regulate, Monitor, Supervise or License” International Business Companies which engage in such activities”. So if you see a broker that claims to be regulated by FSA in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, you are most probably dealing with scammers.
If you have decided to trade cryptocurrencies or other financial instruments, you should be very careful not to fall victim to the many scammers posing as brokerage firms. You should only trust legitimate brokers operating in one of the established financial centres like the UK, EU, USA or Australia. There, the activities of brokers are controlled by powerful regulatory bodies such as Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Australian Securities and Exchanges Commission (ASIC). Clients of these brokers receive protections such as negative balance protection and segregation of the client’s funds from the broker’s funds.
In the EU and the UK, brokers must also participate in guarantee schemes that cover a certain amount of the trader’s investment if the broker becomes insolvent. These guarantees amount to up to 20 000 EUR in the EU and 85 000 GBP in the UK. However, the likelihood of such a bankruptcy is low because regulators also have significant net capital requirements that companies must maintain – EUR 730 000 in UK and Cyprus, AUD 1000 000 in Australia and at least 20 million USD in the United States.
CRYPTOBINOPTION TRADING SOFTWARE
There is no mention of trading software in CryptobinOption’s website. If you are dealing with a legitimate broker you can expect to be offered advanced trading platforms like MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5). These platforms have established themselves as industry standard because they offer a wide range of features, including a variety of options for customization, multiple account usage, designing and implementing custom scripts for automated trading and backtesting trade strategies.
CRYPTOBINOPTION TRADING CONDITIONS
According to information on the CryptobinOption website, the offered payout for binary options is “stable 80% for all cryptocurrencies.” This is in theory a normal level for these financial instruments. But given the overall dubiousness of the website, it is not certain that it offers or has ever offered actual trading.
According to the terms and conditions, the minimum bet is 1 USD and the maximum bet is 50 000 USD.
The minimum amount to fund an account is 15 USD. CryptobinOption does not offer different account types. Legitimate brokers offer different packages to suit traders with different capital and experience. Many offer micro accounts with a minimum deposit of 100 USD or even less.
CRYPTOBINOPTION DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES
The logos of popular payment methods such as PerfectMoney, WebMoney and Payeer can be seen on the CryptobinOption website. Due to the inability to register an account, we could not confirm that these methods are indeed available. However, this is doubtful as shady websites avoid established payment operators.
Legitimate brokers typically offer clients a wide choice of transparent payment methods, including bank transfer, credit/debit cards and popular e-wallets.
The minimum withdrawal amount stated in the Terms and Conditions is 15 USD. There is no specified maximum withdrawal amount, but there is a limit of 5 withdrawal applications per calendar day.
The Terms and conditions also state that withdrawal fees range from 0 to 8%, depending on the method, but no fees are charged for withdrawals over 1000 USD.
HOW DOES THE SCAM WORK
With all the buzz surrounding skyrocketing prices of cryptocurrencies, many people are starting to consider investing in the financial markets as a bid to improve their fortunes. Scammers on the internet have taken notice of that and take advantage of the ignorance of the general public by creating countless websites posing as brokers. These websites offer no real brokerage services and only deceive people into believing that their money is really being invested.
If you come across such a scam website and give out your contacts, you will be contacted by experienced scammers who will convince you that they can take on all the frighteningly complex aspects of investing for you. But you will never get any real profits, nor will you be able to get back the money you deposited. The terms and conditions of these websites are riddled with clauses that make withdrawing funds from your account unfeasible – for example, extremely high minimum trading volume requirements or hefty fees of 10%, 20% or even more of the amount.
Scammers hide behind fake addresses and names and operate through offshore companies that are not subject to regulation and scrutiny. So even if all the withdrawal requirements are met, they may simply disappear and move on to their next fraudulent scheme.
WHAT TO DO WHEN SCAMMED
It is very important not to rush into trusting people on the internet who offer to magically refund your money for a fee. These are also scammers, and they may even be the same ones who scammed you in the first place.
If you have made the transfers using credit or debit card, you can claim a chargeback. Visa and MasterCard allow this to be done within 540 days. However, such a request may not be approved if you have given the fraudsters documents such as a copy of an ID and proof of address. This will allow them to claim that the transaction is legitimate and approved by both parties.
