What is the etoro trading experience for UK residents?

etoro clients in the UK have access to all of the asset classes that we offer:

• Stocks
• ETFs
• Commodities
• Indices
• Currencies
• Crypto

However, due to local regulations, there are some specific limitations for UK residents, which are described below.

Crypto

For clients of etoro (UK) Ltd and residents of the UK who are clients of etoro (Europe) Ltd, CFD crypto positions are not permitted according to Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules.

This means that the options to open short positions and use leverage are not available.

The ban came into effect on 6 January 2021 (CFD positions opened before this date are unaffected).

Additionally, crypto is now classed as a ‘high-risk investment’ by the FCA in the UK. Two processes were introduced for all UK clients who wish to trade cryptoassets on etoro on 8 January 2024.

1. An appropriateness assessment
2. A customer categorisation declaration

UK clients must complete both of these to open new trades on any cryptoassets.

CopyTrader and Smart Portfolios

UK clients who have not yet successfully completed the appropriateness assessment and customer categorisation declaration will not be able to invest in crypto-based Smart Portfolios.

If they copy other investors, existing and future crypto positions within the copy will not be copied.

US-based ETFs

For regulatory reasons, US-based ETFs (those traded on exchanges such as Nasdaq, NYSE, and CBOE) are only available to UK clients as CFDs. For investors who wish to invest in the underlying asset (not CFDs), there may be similar UK- or EU-based ETFs available on the etoro platform.