Beware! Grotfinance 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.
Grotfinance is a scam broker that is trying to clone a licensed company – in other words, your worst option if you are looking for a reliable enterprise in which to invest money. There were so many things wrong with this broker, we have no idea where to start but we will tell you this much – depositing with Grotfinance would be a horrible mistake.
Grotfinance Regulation and Safety of Funds
Guaranteed Funds | Segregated Accounts | Negative balance protection | |
Grotfinance | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
UK regulated brokers | £85 000 | Yes | Yes |
EU regulated brokers | €20 000 | Yes | Yes |
AU regulated brokers | No | Yes | Yes |
US regulted brokers | Yes | Yes | No |
Grotfinance claimed to be based in Switzerland and regulated by one of the strictest financial authorities in the world – the Cypriot regulator CySEC – under the company name Capital Markets Limited. When we checked the CySEC register for a broker with that name and license number, it turned out that such a company was indeed licensed – but it had nothing to do with the broker we are reviewing.
This is a completely different broker that uses different domains and has provided different contact information. Grotfinance is just trying to clone that broker which definitely fails to prove their reliability.
Another thing we found bothersome was that the Swiss regulator FINMA has recently issued a warning on Grotfinance – another reason to be careful and not open an account with these scammers.
Instead of losing money by investing it in obvious scam schemes, turn to a licensed, reliable broker. Companies regulated in the EU are indeed a great choice as are those licensed in the UK or the EU.
Grotfinance Trading Software
Analytical tools | Auto trading | Custom indicators | Mobile apps | |
Grotfinance platform | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
MT4 | 30+ indicators | ✅ | ✅ | Android and iOS |
MT5 | 50+ indicators | ✅ | ✅ | Android and iOS |
cTrader | 40+ indicators | ✅ | ✅ | Android and iOS |
Grotfinance seems to offer a simple web-based trading platform – the kind of rudimentary software we have seen many times before. We were not, however, able to take a closer look at the broker’s platform since only seconds after we accessed it, we were thrown out by the system.
Our account had been blocked but no reason was provided. We would like to point out, however, that many scammers prefer to pick clients themselves in order to keep the scam undetected for a longer period of time. They are especially careful to keep people like us out in order to avoid getting a bad reputation.
Trade with legitimate brokers that offer highly efficient platforms such as MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 instead. They are a much better choice in terms of trading experience anyway.
Grotfinance Trading instruments
Currency | Stocks | Indices | Crypto | Commodities | |
Grotfinance | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ |
XM | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
FBS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
FXTM | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Grotfinance only claims to offer cryptocurrency trading. From the little peak, we got of the broker’s trading platform, however, we conducted that this was not actually the case – the broker also seemed to offer access to markets such as Forex and Stocks. But, as mentioned, the broker’s system threw us out before we could get a closer look. However, we would like to point out that this broker does not advertise the full range of its offer.
There are plenty of legitimate brokers that offer access to a wide variety of instruments such as Currencies, Stocks, Indices, Commodities, Bonds, Futures, ETFs, and Cryptocurrencies. We would suggest that you check out some such offers instead.
Grotfinance Spreads and Cost of Trading
Grotfinance | XM | FBS | FXTM | |
Spread EURUSD | ❌ | 1.7 | 1 | 1.1 |
Spread GBPUSD | ❌ | 1.3 | 1.2 | 1.4 |
Spread USDJPY | ❌ | 1.3 | 1.2 | 1.4 |
Grotfinance’s system threw us out before we could take a proper look at the broker’s spreads. No matter how good the spreads, however, working with such a shady broker is not worth it – plenty of legitimate companies offer great spreads.
Grotfinance Maximum leverage
Forex | Stocks | Crypto | Gold | Indices | |
Grotfinance broker | ❌ | ❌ | 5:1 | ❌ | ❌:1 |
UK regulated brokers | 30:1 | 5:1 | ❌ | 10:1 | 10:1 |
EU regulated brokers | 30:1 | 5:1 | 2:1 | 10:1 | 10:1 |
AU regulated brokers | 30:1 | 5:1 | 2:1 | 10:1 | 10:1 |
US regulated brokers | 50:1 | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
Grotfinance promised varying leverage of between 1:2 and 1:5 depending on the account type the client chose to open. That might seem very conservative and it is – if you are trading currencies. If you are trading a volatile asset like crypto, on the other hand, you might end up in trouble if you choose such high rates. In fact, EU brokers are banned from offering leverage higher than 1:2 on cryptocurrencies which further cements the fact that this is not a legitimate EU broker.
Grotfinance Deposit and withdrawal methods
Deposit time | Withdrawal time | Fee | |
Bank wire | 2-5 business days | 2-5 business days | $25+ |
Credit card | Instant | 24 hours | Free |
Grotfinance claimed that it accepts deposits made with a credit/debit card, or via wire transfer. If this is actually the case, we have good news. Both Visa and MasterCard try to combat scams by allowing chargebacks within 540 days of the transaction. You should definitely not deposit money with such shady brokers but if you already have, ask for a chargeback as soon as possible.
Grotfinance Minimum deposit
Grotfinance | XM | FBS | FXTM | |
Minimum deposit | €5000 | $5 | $10 | $5 |
Grotfinance asks for a minimum deposit of €5000 in order to open an account which is simply unacceptably high. There are plenty of brokers that would open a trading account for much less – even for as little as $5 on some occasions. Trading with scam brokers is hardly worth it if this is the case.
Grotfinance Withdrawal requirements
Grotfinance offers bonuses – but, unsurprisingly, has added some quite disturbing clauses related to those bonuses in its Terms and Conditions. In order to withdraw the bonus and all your profits, you would have to reach a turnover of the bonus amount divided by 4.
If you have received a bonus of $1000, you would have to reach a turnover of 250 lots (or 250 000 000) currency unites before being able to withdraw not only the broker’s money (the bonus) but also all the profits you have made. Needless to say, legitimate brokers never impose such outrageous conditions. But then again, bonuses are actually banned in many jurisdictions such as the UK, the EU, and Australia for a reason – scammers often use bonuses as a means of preventing client withdrawals.
Trading volume | Fee/Tax on withdrawal | Minimum withdrawal | |
Grotfinance / offshore brokers | The bonus/4 | None | $50 |
UK regulated brokers | No | No | No |
EU regulated brokers | No | No | No |
AU regulated brokers | No | No | No |
US regulated brokers | No | No | No |