eToro Review

eToro is a European platform focusing on more than exchanges. With over a decade of experience, it’s offered its help and services to lots of successful crypto beginners and professionals. Do you want to learn from the best and evolve as an outstanding stockbroker? In this article, you’ll find out what you need as a crypto trader!

Pros & cons

Pros

• Accelerated protection by regulators
• Advanced UI and a chance for copy trading
• Various options for payment
• Virtual account
• Easy registration
• Supported credit card option

Cons

• Higher costs
• Single currency-based account

Company overview

Year Founded 2007 Official Website etoro.com Cryptocurrencies Available Litecoin, Ripple, DASH, EOS, Ethereum, Bitcoin, and others Customer Support https://www.etoro.com/customer-service/

Established by Assia brothers with the main office in Israel, eToro has official offices in Cyprus, Australia, UK, and China. The main purpose of its creation is to make online trading more accessible to everyone, everywhere, and thus contributing to reducing the dependency on conventional financial institutions.

This platform offers more than cryptocurrencies for its clients; you’ll have access to trading the stocks, ETFs, commodities, fiat currencies, etc. Being one of the pioneers of cryptocurrency exchange, it has promoted a bit different concept, known as social trading. It’s an approach of the site allowing its clients to watch and follow other successful people trading strategies. This is also known as mirror or copy trading. With the wisdom of crowd, even the ones beginning crypto trading from scratch will have their first hints on how to benefit from the trade and avoid losing their assets.

Currencies & payment methods

eToro supports 15 major cryptocurrencies you may desire to exchange. Also, the platform offers special mobile wallets to store your cryptocurrencies, yet the range of choice isn’t so great, only well-known coins. So, among the crypto coins, you may find the following:

• Bitcoin
• Ethereum
• Bitcoin Cash
• Ripple
• DASH
• Litecoin
• EOS

As there are various products the eToro exchange platform offers, it supports quite a lot of means of payments. Unlike exchange platforms based in the US, here you’ll find credit and debit card payment methods to start your trading. Proceed with payments via:

• Visa
• MasterCard
• PayPal
• Skrill
• Neteller
• China UnionPay
• WebMoney
• Yandex
• Wire Transfer

Limits & liquidity

When it comes to the limits set, eToro is quite flexible and generous. As it has the main 3 functions like trading, conversion, and exchange, your limits may vary. Check the table.

Purpose Maximum per transaction Transaction of cryptos $50K Conversion of cryptos $10K

eToro fees

Since the platform offers more than exchanges, you better be careful while analyzing the fees. Still, the fees here on the platform are regarded as high. The specifics are explained below.

Cryptocurrency conversions

Depending on the market spread, the conversion of crypto-crypto is 1%. Yet, if you aim at trading with coins, fees may vary from 0.75% to 2.9%.

Deposit & withdrawal fees and times

Don’t forget that deposits don’t have fees, and if you’re to pay something with currencies different from USD, there will be fiat conversion fees, as accounts on this platform are based on one USD currency. Follow the table for more information.

Payment Methods Deposit Fee Deposit Time Withdrawal Fee Withdrawal Time China Union Pay No fees Instant $5 Up to 2 days Credit or Debit Card No fees Instant $5 Up to 8 days Neteller No fees Instant $5 Up to 2 days PayPal No fees Instant $5 Up to 2 days Webmoney No fees Instant $5 Up to 2 days Wire Transfer No fees Up to 7 days $5 Up to 8 days Skrill No fees Instant $5 Up to 2 days

eToro security

Like many exchange platforms, eToro takes your safety as its main principle in protecting your information. But, don’t forget no matter how protected one platform may seem, it doesn’t guarantee that you won’t lose your money on trading. First of all, you should note that eToro is regulated by different organizations like:

• Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC)
• Financial Conduct Authority of UK (FCA)
• Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC)

So, according to these organizations, there’s a particular set amount of money that can be protected in case of problems. The amount protected may not seem high, but don’t forget that this is a platform considered as a startup, and thus don’t expect it to compensate quite a lot. So, look at the following table to find how much can be protected:

Countries Amount to be protected Regulating agency Australia NA ASIC UK 85K in Pounds Sterling FCA Other countries 20K in EURO CySEC

Since eToro is more than an exchange platform, you’re to venture your money and cryptos, and thereby, the site warns you beforehand while registering on this platform. Thus, you should be careful before you plan to start venturing your money online.

However, since well-known organizations and top-tier authorities regulate it, it may ensure your data isn’t shared with anyone. Also, the site employs various tools and technologies to ensure your safety and anti-hacking measures.

How to create an account

Unlike some other crypto exchange platforms, eToro doesn’t have much to do to verify your account. All you need is to register, a quick process, and make your first deposit. Since it’s very user-friendly, it won’t take much time to navigate through the site to understand how to trade or exchange cryptocurrencies.

Signing up

On the official site, enter the Sign-Up link and your application procedure will start. Here, you need to enter the following:

• username
• email
• password
• accept terms and conditions
• agree with privacy and cookies policy

Also, don’t forget that you may sign up via Facebook or Google accounts as well. After you provide the required info, you need to fund your account. The minimum deposit you must make may vary, and if you’re US citizen, it’ll be about $50.

Verification of identity is a must. You need to submit the Confirmation of Residence. Besides this, you may need to submit proof of an ID, like a valid passport or other legal ID copies.

How to buy BTC on this platform

After you sign up, choose the Trade Markets link. Here, you need to choose Buy. Choose your cryptocurrency you plan to convert or trade. For trading, your account should already have funds in it. Then, select Open Trade.

After you ensure your account has a deposit, you’ll have to go to Portfolio. Here, once you pick your bitcoin, you may choose your action, Buy or Sell. There’s an option of Close All if you want to sell all your coins.

eToro alternatives

Coinbase and Kraken are two other main options for crypto traders. Unlike eToro, Coinbase focuses only on crypto exchange and doesn’t offer other products. Yet, both of them offer options with trading and exchanging with fiat money. But Coinbase doesn’t have options for Credit Cards. Also, Kraken is very similar to eToro in functioning, yet it has more coin options. Besides, if you’re interested in margin trading and OTC, this platform is great. However, the Kraken’s appealing side is its lower fees and higher levels of security.

Conclusion

If you like the idea of social trading and are ready to risk your money, the eToro platform is a great choice for you. Besides cryptocurrencies, you may find different products. Although your account is based on one single currency, it offers great choices in terms of payment methods. If you want to gain money from copy trading, you’ll learn here a lot thanks to the demo account, a virtual account helping you understand the basics of trading on this site. Start registering right now, and learn how to earn with cryptocurrencies!