OlympTrade Review - Not Recommended Broker

Written by
Réka H.
Fact checked by
Gyula L.
Updated
Oct 2023

Summary

 

OlympTrade is an offshore broker that was established in 2014. Although it has been regulated by the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission (VFSC) since January 2023, in our opinion this is not a top-tier regulator. Its partner company providing crypto services, Saledo Global LLC is registered in St. Vincent & the Grenadines, widely considered an offshore tax haven. OlympTrade is a member of the International Financial Commission (FinaCom), which is a dispute resolution organization but not a financial regulatory body or an investor compensation scheme backed by a government guarantee.

We do not recommend trading with this broker.

We at BrokerChooser care about our users: we want to make sure you have a good understanding of how investing works, and we have reviewed over 100 brokers to help you decide which one fits your needs best. We also want to help you avoid bad experiences.

In this article, we highlight a broker that we do not recommend based on the objective research of BrokerChooser’s analysts. Read below to find out which brokers we do recommend!

 

Find a reliable broker

 

A surefire way to avoid scams is to choose a reliable broker from our selection of the best CFD brokers and best forex brokers for 2022.

If you want to start your search from scratch, use our proprietary broker finder tool for a tailored recommendation.

OlympTrade overview
Regulation VFSC
Foundation date 2014
Annual financial statements published No
S&P credit rating No
Big 4 auditor No
Listed on stock exchange No
Banking background No
Investor protection No

Regulation

The legal entity behind Olymp Trade is called Aollikus Limited, which is registered in Vanuatu. It is regulated by the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission (VFSC). However, this authority is not considered to be a top-tier regulator, so we at BrokerChooser do not recommend trading with this provider.

Saledo Global LLC, registered in Kingstown, the capital of St. Vincent & the Grenadines provides services to Olymp Trade clients trading in digital assets and to clients with accounts nominated in digital assets.

Saledo Global LLC and OlympTrade claim that they are 'category A' members of the International Financial Commission (FinaCom). However, FinaCom is not a regulatory body, but merely a dispute resolution organization.

Main issues

The main issues why we don’t recommend OlympTrade are the following:

  • The site suspiciously offers bonuses as a reward for trading. This is not a common practice at all at trusted broker companies.
  • The company operates out of Vanuatu and St. Vincent & the Grenadines, countries with a reputation for a lax regulatory environment.
  • OlympTrade is not regulated by a top-tier, trusted regulator.
  • It doesn’t provide investor protection.
  • A lack of transparency, as OlympTrade doesn’t publish financial information/statements, making it impossible to judge its financial health.
  • The broker has no banking background and provides no information about its auditor.

 

Most of these issues would not be a red flag in themselves. However, when they all add up like this, it should lead you to suspect that the broker is not legit.

 

How to get your money back

As a general rule, we recommend that you thoroughly check your broker before you deposit any money. If in doubt, document everything, make screenshots, save emails and chats, so you have as much proof as possible in case you need to turn to the authorities.

If you do get scammed by a broker, here are a few options you can try to get your money back:

  • You can turn to your bank and file a chargeback request; a mechanism whereby the banks involved in the transaction return the disputed funds from the account of the seller of the service if the service was not provided.
  • You can take legal action and issue a so-called Mareva (or freezing) injunction against the company.

How to spot if a broker is a scam?

There is a higher likelihood that a broker might be a scam if:

  • it is not regulated at all
  • it is regulated under a jurisdiction widely seen as an offshore haven (e.g. Vanuatu or St. Lucia)
  • it is featured on a warning list of a top-tier regulator (e.g. the UK’s FCA, or the SEC in the US)

 

If you would like to know more about scams, how to avoid them, and how to get your money back, read our Forex trading scams page.

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Author of this article

Réka Hidas
Réka Hidas

Réka is a former Junior Broker Analyst for BrokerChooser. She attended the International Business and Economics bachelor program at Corvinus University in Budapest. She's eager to help investors find the best investment providers, through writing extensive reviews, while also developing her skills and growing professionally in this field.

Everything you find on BrokerChooser is based on reliable data and unbiased information. We combine our 10+ years finance experience with readers feedback. Read more about our methodology.

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