Markets.com Crypto Review 2027: Fees, Coins and Regulation

The brand was for many years part of the financial division of Playtech, a London-listed gaming technology company. That division, renamed Finalto, was sold to an investment group in 2022. Finalto runs both the retail broker and a wholesale business serving institutions.

For clients, the relevant point is that the broker has a substantial parent with its own liquidity operation, not that it is listed itself.

The platform offers CFDs on bitcoin, ether and a selection of other well-known coins. We have not recorded a verified count of the list, which varies by entity.

Everything is a CFD. There are no real coins, no wallet and no withdrawals of crypto.

Crypto is spread-only, with no commission. The bitcoin spread starts at about 122 pips, which is roughly $122 per coin.

That is one of the widest starting spreads in our comparison. Brokers that specialise in low-cost trading quote a tenth of it. On small, occasional trades the difference is a few dollars; on regular trading it is the largest single drag on results.

The minimum deposit is $100.

A trade of 0.1 BTC costs about $12.20 to open. For that trade to break even, bitcoin has to move $122 in your favour. On a typical day it moves many times that, so a single position is not doomed by the cost. A day trader making ten such trades, however, starts each day $122 behind.

The FCA's ban keeps crypto CFDs away from the UK entity's retail clients. The broker does not accept US residents.

Crypto leverage is 1:2 in most of the countries the broker serves. Even through the international entity, crypto limits are restrained compared with many offshore competitors.

The proprietary platform is clean and approachable. A watchlist, charts and the order ticket share the screen with a set of information panels. Advanced charting is provided through an integrated TradingView-style module.

Order types include market, limit and stop entries with attached stop-loss and take-profit. Guaranteed stops are not standard.

This is the platform's signature. Depending on the instrument, you can see:

• The proportion of the broker's clients who are long or short
• Analyst recommendations and price targets for shares
• Hedge fund and insider activity for shares
• Blogger and news sentiment scores
• An events calendar with the historical reaction of each market

Most of these apply to shares. For crypto, the client sentiment gauge and news flow are the relevant ones.

Seeing that 80% of clients are long bitcoin tells you the crowd's position, not its direction. Some traders treat extreme readings as a contrarian signal. The evidence that this works consistently is thin. Use it as context and never as a reason to trade on its own.

MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 are available for clients who want expert advisors, and the broker connects to TradingView. The information tools described above live in the proprietary platform, so MetaTrader users give them up.

The broker acts as counterparty to client trades and hedges through its group. Execution is generally immediate at the quoted price for normal sizes. In fast markets, slippage is possible.

An investor who mostly trades share CFDs around earnings announcements wants a small bitcoin position when the market looks strong. The trade is worth $2,000 and is held for three days. Spread: about $3.50. Swaps: a few dollars. Total: under $10. For that person the wide spread hardly matters, and having crypto beside shares is convenient. For someone who wants to trade bitcoin daily, the same broker is an expensive choice.

Deposits are accepted by card, bank transfer and e-wallets. The broker charges no deposit or withdrawal fees of its own. Withdrawals are usually processed within a business day, with cards taking a few days more to show the refund.

Crypto CFDs are available around the clock through the week, with reduced liquidity at weekends.

A knowledge centre provides articles, videos and webinars on trading basics and on using the platform's tools. The content is aimed at beginners and intermediate traders.

In-house analysts publish daily commentary and video updates, and the platform streams financial news. An "events and trade" feature shows how a market behaved after past releases of a given indicator.

Support is available around the clock on trading days by chat, email and phone in several languages.

A demo account with virtual funds can be opened in a minute and gives access to all the information tools.

Traders who meet the criteria can apply for professional status, which brings higher leverage and, in the UK, access to crypto CFDs. Some retail protections are lost in exchange.

Account statements are available from the platform and by email. No tax calculation is supplied.

Before you confirm an order, the ticket shows the required margin, the value of the position and the spread. It is worth pausing on the spread figure for crypto and converting it to a percentage of the position. Anything near 0.2% on bitcoin is in line with the published starting spread. A much higher number means conditions are thin and the trade can wait.

Because the platform lists thousands of share CFDs, a trader can also take positions in listed companies tied to the sector, such as exchanges, miners and firms holding bitcoin on their balance sheets. These move with crypto but are not the same thing: company news, dilution and stock-market hours all play a part. They are an alternative way to express a view, with different costs and risks from a coin CFD.

Plus500 and AvaTrade target the same occasional trader and have similarly wide bitcoin spreads. Capital.com offers a comparable all-in-one platform with a lower crypto cost and more coins. Against those three, the information tools are the broker's main distinguishing feature.

It suits you if you:

• Mainly trade share and index CFDs and want crypto on the side.
• Like having sentiment and news tools in the trading screen.
• Place small, infrequent crypto trades.

It is not for active crypto traders, cost-conscious scalpers or anyone who wants to hold coins.