Beware! BitPro is an offshore broker! Your investment may be at risk.
RECOMMENDED FOREX BROKERS
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Open trading accounts with at least two brokers.
BitPro is a website that gives us many reasons to be suspicious. The first and main reason is that BitPro offers binary options trading, a type of trading that has been banned by most financial regulators for years. We also can’t be sure who exactly is behind this broker. In this review, we will take a detailed look at the reasons why it would not be a good idea to use BitPro as a broker for investing in financial instruments.
BITPRO REGULATION AND SAFETY OF FUNDS
The most important information about a financial services provider is its regulatory status. Licensed brokers provide detailed information about which company runs them, where it is based, which jurisdictions it is authorised in and which regulatory bodies oversee its activities.
BitPro claims that the website is operated by a company named BitPro Ltd, which is based in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG).
A check of the Тhe Financial Services Authority of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (FSASVG) database shows that there is no registered company by that name. But even if there was, and even if the owner of BitPro is based in the SVG, this provides absolutely no guarantees for the customer.
SVG is an offshore zone with no broker regulations in place. FSASVG has repeatedly issued warnings on this issue.
If you have decided to invest in financial instruments, and especially if you are a novice trader, you should use the services of a licensed broker based in a jurisdiction with strong regulations.
Depending on your location, it is advisable to choose a company that is regulated by an institution such as Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in US, Australian Securities and Exchanges Commission (ASIC), UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) or some EU regulator like Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).
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.
BITPRO TRADING SOFTWARE
BitPro has a very basic web-based binary options trading platform. The website is available in Russian and English, but some of the content remains in Russian even in the English version. This also applies to the trading platform’s interface.
It should be noted that the presence of some kind of trading software is no guarantee that this is a genuine broker. Financial scammers often use trading platforms to fool their victims that their money is actually being invested. However, this trading is entirely fictitious and the money goes directly into the scammers’ pockets.
If you use the services of a licensed broker, you will get the opportunity to use established software with advanced features and versions for all types of devices and operating systems. The most widely used trading platforms in the industry are 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.
BITPRO TRADING CONDITIONS
Binary options are financial options that come with one of two payoff options if the contract is held until expiration: a fixed amount or nothing, depending on whether the trader has guessed whether the price of a certain asset will be below or above a certain level at a certain time.
This is a very simple way to trade the financial markets, but it is this simplicity that makes it prone to scams and exploits. Binary options trading is banned in a number of major markets such as the EU, the UK and Australia. In the US, this trading is still legal but can only be done through a small number of regulated U.S. exchanges.
BitPro offers a payout of 76%, which is quite low. A payout of over 80% is considered profitable for this type of trade.
The minimum deposit required by BitPro is 120 USD. In addition to this, BitPro offers subscriptions to “robots” for automated trading starting at 200 USD per month.
For a significantly lower amount you could open a starter account with an established forex and CFD broker and start trading financial instruments.
BitPro claims to offer bonuses. Regulated brokers are prohibited from offering bonuses and promotions.
BITPRO DEPOSIT/WITHDRAW METHODS AND FEES
The deposit of funds is possible through obscure Russia-based payment processors and cryptocurrencies.
Scammers prefer cryptocurrencies because these transactions are not subject to refunds. Legitimate brokers typically offer clients a wide choice of transparent payment methods, including bank transfer, credit/debit cards and established e-wallets such as PayPal, Skrill, Neteller or Sofort. If you’re interested in legitimate brokers that accept digital currency payments alongside conventional methods, check out this list.
BitPro allows one free withdrawal per month, after which it charges a fee of 10 USD. Legitimate brokers do not impose such restrictions and usually do not charge transaction fees.
If the account has received a bonus, it can withdraw that bonus and the associated profits once it has met the minimum traded volume requirement. These requirements are quite high – a turnover of 30 times the bonus amount plus the deposit.
HOW DOES THE SCAM WORK
Stories of people getting rich from cryptocurrencies tempt many to try their luck in the financial markets. But you have to be very careful not to fall into the clutches of the many scammers lurking in the online space. These scammers only pose as brokers and lure you in with promises to take on the confusing aspects of investing for you.
If you make contact with such scammers they will first convince you to give them a small initial sum of a few hundred dollars. They may even fool you for a while that your investment is generating incredible profits to convince you to give them a larger amount. But your money won’t really be invested. And when you try to withdraw your supposed profits or even your deposit, you will find that it is impossible.
The scammers may tell you that all your investments have been lost by a sudden change in the market. Or they’ll point you to clauses hidden in their Terms and Conditions that say withdrawing your money is only possible after you meet impossibly high minimum trading volume requirements. And they can simply disappear because these scam sites hide behind fake names and offshore companies that are not subject to rules and regulations.
WHAT TO DO WHEN SCAMMED
If you find yourself a victim of scammers, you should inform the relevant authorities in your country and spread the word online to warn other potential victims. However, the chances of getting your money back are not high.
If you used a credit/debit card for the transactions, you could ask for a chargeback. However, such requests can be disputed if you have provided the fraudsters with proof of identity such as a copy of an ID. Under no circumstances should you trust people on the internet who claim they can recover your money for an upfront fee. These too are certainly scammers.
