eToro Review – Best Trading Platform

eToro is an FCA regulated trading platform and can be used to buy Bitcoin with an e-wallet, Paypal, credit card, bank transfer and several other deposit methods, alongside 70+ other cryptos.

The Economic Times rated it the best crypto exchange to invest with in their eToro review.

Though it was founded in 2007, eToro opened to US investors in 2018. Investors from many other countries were already using the platform to trade crypto, forex, stocks, commodities, ETFs and more, including the UK, Australia and across Europe.

Opening an account on eToro.com takes only a few minutes. Compared to many other popular crypto exchanges, eToro’s interface is simple and user-friendly. It has convenient tools for beginners and is suitable for traders with substantial experience as well.

Some features such as the copy trading tool have given it a unique edge in the industry, allowing traders to replicate the buys and sells of an experienced professional trader.

Other features such as eToro’s Copy Portfolios – now also known as Smart Portfolios – enable an investor to mimic the portfolio allocation of a verified trader of their choice. The social trading platform is also helpful to share views concerning the market and follow influential investors to get their insights and trading strategies.

For newbies, the virtual portfolio tool of eToro comes to rescue. It provides a pre-loaded virtual amount of $100,000 so that one can practice their trading skills and get accustomed to the features before trading with real money.

eToro has a transparent fee structure and is a 0% commission trading platform. It offers competitive spreads, appealing to many investors across the globe unlike many of its competitors. It has a small withdrawal fee and charges an inactivity fee only after 12 months of the trading account being inactive. To learn more about eToro, read our complete eToro review below.

eToro Pros & Cons

eToro Review – Platform features

eToro stands out of the sea of online investment platforms due to its unique approach whether in terms of interactions or customer support or trading concepts. Here is an overview of the highlights of the platform that set eToro a class apart.

• CySEC, FCA, and ASIC regulated
• Crypto, Forex, Commodities, Stocks, Forex, ETF trading allowed
• Free demo account
• Commission-free trading with a small spread mark-up
• Unconventional fee structure
• Deposits via debit or credit card, bank wire, PayPal, Skrill, Neteller, and more
• Copy trades of winning traders
• 83.7% average yearly profit
• Compatible on IOS and Android mobile applications
• Comprehensive educational resources
• Paper trading for testing out strategies

Fees:

• Trading Fees: 0% for Stocks, 0.75% to 4.9% for cryptos
• Conversion fees: crypto-to-crypto conversion 0.1%
• Crypto transfer fee: 0.5%
• Over 40 coins and tokens are available to trade in the US, and many more worldwide
• Minimum withdrawal $30, withdrawal fee $5
• 7 days hold on deposits allowed
• Taxable account types

What is eToro?

eToro is presently one of the world’s most frequently used social trading and multi-asset brokerage platform in the world, with over 363 million trades opened on it so far. With registered offices in Cyprus, the UK, and Israel, eToro has its presence in over 140 countries, its popularity rooting in its user-friendly interface and focus on social and copy trading.

eToro was among the first online brokerage platforms to offer digital currency trading, as it started offering support for Bitcoin (BTC) on its CFD trading platform back in 2014 itself. Soon, it also added support for Ethereum (ETH) and Ripple (XRP), as other brokerages followed. Today, the platform supports over 40 different cryptocurrency CFDs, besides a multi-currency crypto wallet for professional traders.

The social trading platform based out of Tel-Aviv allows users to get involved in real-time in Forex, Cryptocurrency, Stocks, Indices, Commodities, and ETFS. From day trades to long-term investments, eToro has emerged as a one-stop destination for all kinds of trading needs for users.

What particularly stands out, however, is its excellent and powerful support for social trading. eToro is somewhat both the pioneer and the market leader in this segment.

In this in-depth eToro review, we will unravel every aspect of this popular online trading platform in detail, and deconstruct its innovative concepts, trading experience, as well as features, pros, and cons for retail and institutional clients all over the world.

About the Platform

eToro calls itself the “World’s Leading Social Trading Platform” for good measure, offering investment opportunities in global financial markets including stocks, crypto, commodities, currencies, indices, and ETFs. At its core, eToro is driven towards empowering a global community of investors and revolutionizing the way people invest through sound financial resources and education.

The multi-asset investment platform that eToro has created today is built on the pillars of social collaboration and investor education. What eToro actually strives for is to create and foster a community for users to connect, share, and learn the best investment practices. This is the genesis of its social trading concept as well. The platform boasts of a growing suite of top-notch services, some notable ones being:

• Investing in leading stocks from the world’s top exchanges with 0% commission, and without any limits on trading volumes
• Trading in a wide variety of leading crypto assets and crypto crosses by leveraging innovative platform tools, backed by eToro’s very own trading platform, wallet, and exchange in one.
• One-click trading, flexible leverage, and deep liquidity for trading commodity CFDs from the world’s top resource markets, without limiting yourself to units.
• User-friendly trading enabled on the most active financial market in the world – the foreign currency exchange (FX) – with up to 1:30 leverage to gain greater exposure with lesser capital.
• Benefiting from market trends of major stock exchanges around the world whenever they go up or down, with the flexibility to manage your exposure as you deem fit.
• A flexible yet comprehensive way of investing in the financial markets with Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) at a low-cost entry point and without management fees, thus ideal for portfolio diversification.

When eToro’s three promising founders first came together in 2007, they wanted to disrupt the world of trading by improving its accessibility. The idea behind eToro is to make trading accessible to anyone, anywhere, besides reducing dependency on traditional financial institutions that are known to accrue benefits for themselves first, for customers later.

Origin and History

The Tel Aviv-based online trading platform goes back to 2007 when it was co-founded by Ronen Assia, David Ring, and Yoni Assia. The pioneer in social and copy trading originally began its operations under the name RetailFX as an online forex broker.

This first iteration of eToro was an online trading platform that made trading accessible to retail investors with the help of graphical representations for various financial instruments. It soon changed its name to eToro, besides expanding its services gradually to include commodities, indices, and stocks.

In 2009, eToro launched its cutting-edge, intuitive trading platform that enabled users to trade financial assets online. there were plenty of professional tools for both beginner and advanced traders.

A year later, the world’s first social trading platform called OpenBook was launched, allowing users to copy other successful traders and join the fintech revolution. No wonder, the platform attracted global attention soon enough, besides winning Finnovate Europe Best of Show award for 2011.

2007 – The year eToro was launched

By 2010, eToro had already launched the innovative social trading feature it is reckoned all over the world for, enabling users to automatically copy trades of successful traders of choice on the platform. Thus, eToro emerged as the world’s first and leading social trading network in no time at all.

after the launch of its mobile application, eToro introduced a wide selection of stocks, enabling traders to diversify their portfolios even better. The platform continued to work on its intuitive and innovative interface and kept introducing unique features.

One example is the CopyPortfolios, which groups assets or investors together based on a theme or strategy, deploying advanced algorithms, machine learning, and AI to curate assets based on market conditions.

In 2014, the online broker achieved yet another milestone when it added support for Bitcoins to its ever-expanding platform. Users could now use eToro to buy and sell CFDs on the world’s most talked-about digital currency. Four years down the line, the support was extended to Ethereum and Ripple, while more and more digital assets were added in the years that followed.

Come 2018, eToro has already established itself as one of the strongest and most popular pillars of the crypto industry, as it launched the eToroX and crypto wallet features on its platform. Despite the highly competitive and still expanding crypto exchange market, eToro has managed to cement its position through quality and unique crypto trading services for a wide geographical base.

As recently as 2019, eToro began servicing the US market as well. Last year, it launched the eToro Money feature, a new financial service offering a holistic approach to investing through instant withdrawals and no FX conversion fees. Earlier this year, eToro also officially launched stock investments in the US.

The recent announcement of the platform to go public via a SPAC merger with FinTech Acquisition Corp. V has taken the industry by storm. The platform has been valued at around $10.4 billion and shows tremendous potential for growth and expansion in the years to come.

Current Market

eToro is currently viewed in the market as one of the most user-friendly and innovative crypto trading platforms around. The online broker utilizes the best-in-class infrastructure for ensuring the safest, fastest, fairest, and most transparent trading experience ever.

These features are the biggest reasons behind its massive influx, with more than 17.5 million registered users in 2020. According to eToro, they made $264 million in 2021’s second quarter in crypto commissions alone, which drove 73% of their total commissions. The highest trading volumes recorded were in Bitcoin, Ether, Cardano’s Ada, and Dogecoin.

Trending assets feed on eToro

The powerful lift in customer engagement and transactions has certainly emerged as positive momentum for the trading platform. The combined trading commissions for all assets, including stocks, commodities, and currencies besides crypto, stood at $362 million in a single quarter last year.

The platform also managed to add 2.6 million new registered users in that quarter, compared with 1.2 million a year ago. The overall trading volume also saw a massive leap, with eToro executing 127 million trades in Q2 of 2021, up by 72% a year ago. These numbers speak tons about eToro’s growing popularity and user base, which is only set to increase in the future.

The growth and proliferation of eToro’s market are attributed by co-founder Assia to both the revival of crypto and the unprecedented pandemic-driven market volatility, among other factors over the last year. Increased trading activity on eToro has also seen patterns and trends over time, such as the rise in self-directed investing, long-term secular trends in investor behavior, and so on.

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Top Features

Demo Trading

Users on eToro Have the option to available the demo account feature which allows them to experience the platform as an investor without using real money at all. All the trading processes happening in real-time are mimicked in a demo account, allowing users to understand what the requirements of such a process are and how it works.

Once you have carefully studied and familiarized yourself with the trading processes on eToro, you can then proceed to trade with real money and earn real profits. The best part is that users have been allowed to use both real-time and demo trading accounts simultaneously. This makes it possible to switch between accounts whenever you want to test a feature before investing your money in it.

Vibrant Online Community

eToro’s global online community is a vibrant, ever-growing forum of active users interacting with one another, just like popular social media platforms. Community members can like, reply to comments, besides sending messages to other users. You might even remain anonymous, without uploading any images, and still, be a part of the highly engaging online community that eToro offers.

Different Trading Options

Depending on the kind of service you want to use, there are multiple trading and order options to choose from. It is in the hands of the user to control how their account works during live transactions, which you can then use to lower your investment risks and make maximum profits available.

Specify Market Values

eToro allows its users to specify the price they want to sell their stocks or assets on beforehand. The system will then run multiple times to detect any matching offers and request your permission to authorize the sale if it finds a good fit. This ensures that customers can benefit from escalating or falling values at any given point of time even if they are not manually using the platform at that very instant.

Close-Trade Order

Users on eToro are given control on limiting their trading sessions depending on the realization of their target profits. This is a smart way of trading even when you cannot monitor the trading personally, as explained earlier.

Stop-Loss Order

eToro traders can even peg their transactions at a specific value to avoid losses when using automatic features such as social trading or copy trading. Especially when you are not monitoring a live trading session manually, this feature allows you to set a cap on your transactions to stop trading when there is a potential for more losses.

Insights and Analytics

eToro has some of the best analytics tools to offer to its users who can make better investment decisions even if they are not experts or have not hired additional expert help from outside.

This in-built feature allows you to make the most out of eToro’s guidance and intuitive insights without even having to spend tons on financial advisors. Analytics are shared with users in the form of trend lines, pricing charts, and other technical indicators.

Online Investment Education Portal

The online trading platform offers a plethora of educational resources on investment processes, especially for new users trying to learn more about the options and nuances of eToro. There is a range of free readable content available which helps users to avoid making common mistakes while investing.

Expert webinars also lead the way in covering essential investment topics that both new and old investors can use to brush up their skills and decisions.

Mobile Application

The eToro mobile app is available for both Android and iOS users alike, allowing them to manage their investments on the go. The app is both user-friendly and free from common bugs that eToro’s competitors are plagued with.

No major glitches are hampering the mobile experience, and users can easily buy and sell their assets or stocks at any time of the day because the app works in real-time just like the web platform.

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How does eToro Work?

eToro has emerged as one of the most preferred options because of its beginner-friendly interface. It is straightforward to use and offers unique features that make trading a seamless experience as far as platform technicalities are concerned. As it is strictly regulated, trading on eToro is highly secure.

It is regulated in Europe by the Cyprus Securities & Exchange Commission (CySEC), in the UK by Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). eToro complies with and operates under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) in the UK and Europe.

In the United States, it is registered with FinCEN and is a member of FINRA and SIPC. In Australia, it is regulated by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) and has an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL).

Copy Trading and Copy Portfolio

The features that make eToro unique and a popular choice for investors are the copy trading and copy portfolio tools. The exchange curates “Popular Investors” and allows other users to follow their portfolios and copy their trades.

eToro considers certain factors like the investment amount of investors, their duration on the platform, and the number of users who have copied these popular investors to determine their status and pay them according to the same.

Introduced in the 2010, eToro’s Copy Trading feature enables users to easily follow and copy other successful traders. The minimum investment required to use this feature was reduced with time by the platform and this has allowed many new investors to make the best use of the feature.

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Even if you lack the time or experience of trading, you can trade conveniently with this feature. Once a user copies another investor, the trades of the investor are automatically replicated in the user’s portfolio in real-time.

With eToro’s copy portfolio feature, you can buy/sell specific cryptocurrencies and choose one of the four cryptocurrency portfolios strategically rebalanced by eToro from time to time. These portfolios include a variety of cryptocurrencies and altcoins. Traders can now invest in coins other than the most popular ones i.e. Bitcoin and Ethereum within a single portfolio.

Competitive Fees

Many popular exchanges have a complex fee structure, but this is not the case with eToro. It has a transparent pricing structure and offers competitive prices when it comes to trading.

First, it is a 0% commission trading platform. While many cryptocurrency exchanges have spreads as well as transaction fees (which vary as per the trade size), eToro’s fee structure consists entirely of spreads.

A spread is simply the difference in price between buying and selling cryptocurrencies on a platform. Although spreads are subject to change (which makes them variable), eToro’s spreads are transparent and the platform is known to offer fair deals when it comes to these charges.

Read more about trading fees on eToro

Users can start investing in cryptos on the platform without prior knowledge of the sector. They make use of the market research available online in addition to the effective trading tools and educative section offered by eToro. This way, users can gain the requisite knowledge to go ahead with their trading journey.

Investing manually using the eToro platform is simpler compared to other exchanges. The broker allows users to invest in stocks and cryptos with 0% commission. Traders can also open leveraged or short positions using CFDs, carry out technical analysis using ProCharts, and get substantial market insights by using the Research Tab.

Variety of Cryptocurrencies

Although other platforms are offering more cryptocurrencies than the platform, eToro has more than a dozen cryptocurrencies. It is still a renowned platform in comparison to some of the others as it lists the most popular cryptocurrencies on the platform for trading.

Virtual Portfolio and Other Features

eToro’s virtual portfolio feature allows users to rehearse their trading skills and get familiar with the tools it offers before you buy trades with real money. The demo account offers $100,000 of virtual money that can be used to buy cryptos and understand the trends of the market. Although there are no real gains or losses, this helps in putting trading skills to the test.

This is a good way to understand the market volatility and have a fair idea of the performance of cryptocurrencies. Before using actual money on assets, one can use the virtual portfolio to also test the features that eToro offers, including copy trading and copy portfolio. eToro offers $100,000 virtual money to enable traders to experiment and explore.

Virtual Portfolio feature

The virtual account enables users to open positions, try out different strategies, familiarize themselves with the leverage feature, check out eToro Portfolios for investment, put the Stop Loss / Take Profit features to use, see how copy trading works, connect to other users using the eToro social platform, etc. On eToro, one can create a personalized watchlist to get market volatility alerts in real-time.

SL / TP orders can be used to automatically close a position upon reaching a desired profit/ loss point. With a Trailing Stop Loss, as the market moves in the desired direction, the stop loss point will rise proportionately. One-Click Trading can be used to pre-decide investment amount, take profit/ stop loss, leverage, and later apply these values to trades.

Portfolios by eToro

eToro portfolios can be used by users for long-term investment. It is an innovative investment tool offering a plethora of choices to traders. Each of these eToro Portfolios has different assets as per a thematic investment strategy. The eToro’s investment team makes the optimal use of a machine-learning algorithm to create and manage the eToro Portfolios.

Ease of Use and Interface 

eToro’s interface is known worldwide as one of the most user-friendly compared to other trading platforms. Both the web platform and mobile app provide nearly the same features, with a very high ease-of-use factor.

eToro provides two mobile applications – the eToro app and eToro Money. both the apps are available on Google Play for Android and Apple App Store for iOS devices. the applications maintain the same look and feel of the web version and offer modern functions such as dark and light mode themes, synced watchlists, and interactive dashboards to ensure a unified platform experience across devices.

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The charts have also been designed to be responsive, just like the web platform experience. However, there are just 5 indicators compared to 67 on the web. including drawing tools would be a welcome enhancement. Other than this the entire user experience is very cleanly designed with a well-integrated mobile application.

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Security

eToro is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK and the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) throughout the European Union. All activities on the platform are compliant with the requirements of MiFID (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive) and ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission).

Regulatory compliances aside, eToro is in general an established and highly-trusted online trading platform. Investors can rest assured of its security across asset trading, with the platform’s strong track record of storing investor funds for more than a decade.

Interestingly, a larger part of user funds is held in cold storage on eToroX. This reduces the chances of losing funds due to a cyber-attack or operational error. A cold storage Custody as a Service (CaaS) solution has been deployed on the exchange, in partnership with leading cybersecurity company GK8.

High-level of security offered by eToro

Apart from all these features, eToro still encourages its users to conduct their own appropriate and detailed research before beginning trading activities on the platform, letting them know how risky an affair it can turn out to be for the uninitiated. eToro recommends that users acquire advice from an independent financial advisor, along with placing due focus on their risk appetite, trading experience, and knowledge of financial markets in the first place.

Most importantly, it encourages users to set up two-factor authentication (2FA) as an added layer of protection. This is not mandatory but highly recommended by the platform.

Customer Support

Choosing a good crypto exchange depends on a variety of factors. When traders opt for an exchange, they expect instant customer support to trade cryptocurrency with the right knowledge and benefit from the right tools. Apart from involving risks, trading on an online platform comes with various challenges.

If customers face any issue regarding deposits, withdrawals, trades, transfers, etc., the customer support team of the exchange should be available to address their concerns at the earliest. While many online exchange platforms offer 24/7 customer support, only a few can live up to customers’ expectations.

eToro has active customer service support. Users can raise tickets, track the progress of open tickets, see the details of issues that are resolved, etc. Browsing through the customer support section and putting across questions in the knowledge base is uncomplicated for users.

Pre-written articles for solving common issues

eToro enables users to send feedback directly to the eToro team. The support team attends to all queries on time. The customer service center of eToro also has a Live Chat section, which provides instant help regarding deposits, withdrawal, account opening, verification, trading & investing, various tools that eToro offers like social trading, etc.

Before raising any ticket in the customer service section, it is advised to check the Help Center page of eToro and search for the desired queries in the frequently asked questions (FAQs) section. After opening a customer service request, the team takes a stipulated time to address the request. It is advised not to open multiple tickets for one issue. Users can easily check their customer service ticket status after they log in.

eToro customer team can be approached both through the web as well as through mobile devices.

Its dedicated crypto wallet app has multi-signature authorization, making it secure for users. For offering the right guidance and quick assistance to customers, it has emerged as the top crypto exchange option for both new and seasoned investors.

Deposits and Withdrawals

eToro’s fees are based on a spread system. It is the difference between the crypto buying and selling price. The spreads are different for different coins and keep fluctuating according to the varied market conditions. On many platforms, users have to pay the spread while buying as well as selling. eToro charges only a round-off spread, which is a one-time payment per trade.

Deposit Fees

Users can use many deposit options including bank transfers, various wallets like PayPal, etc. eToro does not charge any deposit fees for U.S. users and others across the globe. It does not charge any fee from users while depositing money in their eToro account in U.S. dollars. However, depositing another currency attracts a small currency conversion fee.

The minimum deposit on eToro is $10 for the United States and United Kingdom-based users. For users of many other countries, the minimum deposit is $50. If funds are deposited through bank transfer, they are instantly credited to the account.

Withdrawal Fees

You can choose to keep your crypto holdings in your eToro account like other exchanges. In case you want to withdraw your cryptos to store them on the eToro’s wallet any other crypto wallet, the process is hassle-free.

The platform has a flat charge of $5 for all withdrawals. The minimum amount for withdrawals is $30. When you use the eToro Wallet, you will have to pay some fees. It has a 0.5% charge when you send money from your eToro account to the eToro wallet. The minimum charge is $1 and the maximum charge is $50.

Fees and Charges

One of the downsides of eToro is its complex fee structure, especially when it comes to crypto CFD and cryptocurrency trading. Although the trading fees are relatively low compared to most of eToro’s competitors, there are additional fees levied on currency conversion and withdrawal.

Users must also be wary of the difference in fees and charges depending on their location. Here is a comprehensive look at the different kinds of fees that users can be charged with on eToro:

eToroX Fees

The eToroX platform charges a 5-bps transaction fee for both price takers and price makers. One basis point (bps) stands for 0.01%, meaning 20 bps amounts to a charge of 0.20% of the amount you are buying or selling. The Exchange operates with an inverted maker-taker model, thus enabling price takers for a rebate or lower fees. For more details, you will have to contact the exchange itself.

Fiat to crypto conversions are also chargeable on the platform, incurring a 5% fee which is quite expensive considering other trading platforms. there are no fees for cryptocurrency deposits, however.

Trading Fee

eToro charges trading fees through spreads, that are likely to rise and fall with market conditions. Unlike most of its competitors, eToro charges round-turn, which means there is a single spread for both buying and selling crypto assets. These spreads can range from 0.75% for Bitcoin trades to 5% for trading Tezos. Generally, most cryptocurrency spreads fall between 1.9% and 2.9% on average.

One of the biggest advantages that eToro is known to offer is no requirement of any extra charges on stocks or ETF trading using the platform. Most of its competitors charge little to hefty fees for such services, which makes eToro stand out from the crowd.

Withdrawal Fee

There are no withdrawal fees for US customers as of now, but there is a minimum threshold of $30 for withdrawals. Outside the US, eToro charges a withdrawal fee of $5.

Currency Conversion Fee

Customers outside of the US must pay a currency conversion fee that starts at 50 basis points (bps) for both deposits and withdrawals made in currencies other than the USD.

Transfer Fees

Some fees are levied on users for transferring cryptos either out of eToro or even into their eToro Money crypto wallet. The actual fee charged will depend on the cryptocurrency being transferred.

Inactivity Fees

Over and above the rest, eToro also charges a $10 inactivity fee per month for accounts that have shown no activity for more than a year.

Stamp Duty 

Unlike other platforms that charge 0.5% of traders’ investments in stocks as stamp duty, eToro has no such fees.

The stamp duty levy is on all UK stocks listed on notable exchanges, including the London Stock Exchange, probably because eToro wants to encourage users to focus on the UK market where they can make maximum gains without paying any stamp duty. Besides these fees and charges, there are also some other programs and features investors should know about when dealing with eToro:

VIP Account Club: eToro offers exclusive VIP access to a certain section of users who are part of the eToro Club. The club comes with five tiers of membership, ranging from Silver to Diamond, open to those traders who maintain balances between $5,000 and $250,000.

Each membership tier brings its own set of features and benefits, ranging from exclusive access to Trading Central, discounts on withdrawal and deposit fees, as well as provision of a dedicated account manager to take care of your activities.

Popular Investor Program: eToro also boasts of a unique Popular Investor Program exclusively for traders who allow others on the platform to copy their strategy using eToro’s special social trading feature. The program has four levels beginning from Cadet and ending in Elite.

The first, or Cadet tier, for instance, is open to those who have more than $1,000 in account equity, have attracted more than $500 in customer assets copying their strategy, and have continually maintained a risk score below 7 for at least two months. The Popular Investor Program also has a range of benefits to offer to traders, such as spread rebates, monthly payments, management fees for Elite investors, and so on.

Zero-Commission Stock Trading: Besides CFD shares, eToro maintains its zero-dollar commission for stock trading as well, which is not available to US investors alone at the moment. Fractional shares are also supported.

Cryptocurrencies on eToro

One of the most remarkable highlights of the eToro platform is that it enables users to diversify their investment portfolio with significant cryptocurrency investments. Most of the biggest cryptocurrencies in the world are available to trade, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, Cardano, Dash, Dogecoin, Polkadot, Solana, Stellar Lumens, and Litecoin.

Different cryptocurrencies available to trade

eToro’s users can choose between trading cryptocurrency either on the dedicated CFD trading platform on the market’s leading social network and investment platform or on eToroX, the professional-grade crypto exchange.

Trading on CFD

The platform uses the “Contracts for Difference” (CFDs) instead of direct market trading to facilitate greater exposure of various markets for users. With a CFD, users can open positions with brokers to replicate the market conditions of the underlying market being traded. In case the position closes in profit, the broker will have to pay the trader. However, in case it closes at a loss, the broker can charge the trader for the difference.

All assets come with an exclusive “feed” highlighting information, pricing, statistics, and trends. Users can add all the markets they are interested in to the watchlist, thus being able to monitor performances across all of them in a single glance.

Trading on eToroX

eToroX manages to bring together institutional-grade exchange features, such as US dollar deposits, margin trading, trading APIs, as well as faster execution. In case you are a professional or institutional trader, this is the most suitable trading platform for cryptocurrency that you can use.

Interestingly, eToro facilitates direct crypto-to-crypto trading for all 17 cryptocurrencies to users outside of the US. In the US, a crypto-to-crypto conversion option, just like that on Coinbase, is available to users for Bitcoin, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Stellar.

eToro also offers a free digital wallet to store cryptocurrency, which we have discussed in more detail in this article. Users can transfer cryptocurrency from the eToro platform to their individual digital wallets. However, they must note that all such transfers are one-way. Any currency transferred to the wallet cannot be transferred back to the eToro trading platform as of now.

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eToro Copy Trading

Copy Trading is a unique feature of eToro that is not offered on other leading platforms. You can use the feature to follow the portfolios of “Popular Investors” and simply copy their trades.

There are factors like investment, duration spent on the platform, and the number of users copying these investors which are taken into consideration by the platform to curate the list. eToro pays these investors accordingly by considering their individual status.

The feature was introduced in 2010 and it has added to its reputation ever since. Users can make use of this tool to effectively copy other traders. For many new investors, who do not have adequate experience, this tool is useful.

You can make use of this feature to start trading and get familiar with the crypto market. When you copy another investor, it automatically replicates the trades of that particular investor in real-time in your portfolio.

You can use filters to look for popular investors. These include gains, risk scores, asset classes, etc. When you sign up for this tool, the statistics of investors you wish to copy are easily visible to you so that you can make an informed decision.

In case you are looking for suggestions to copy a trader, you must go through the Editor’s Choice to successfully locate popular investors. If you are an experienced trader, possess the required trading skills, and have a good trading history, you can join the Popular Investor program to receive cash payments along with added perks.

The flagship – CopyTrader feature on eToro

The copy trading feature is used by many traders to mimic the moves of high-performance traders with just a few clicks. After you decide the amount, you want to use in your portfolio, the platform mirrors the trades of your favorite investor by making an automatic proportionate allocation of the set funds.

You do not have to pay any management or other fees when you use this tool. This trading tool allows you to copy up to 100 investors at a given time.

Although it is an interesting option, it involves many risks as you are already dealing with a highly speculative market. The users who are a part of the community engage in active trading, and it thus becomes a riskier affair as compared to long-term investments.

Most copy traders have different altcoins apart from BTC and ETH. Many experts suggest that a long-term investment is a much better option than investing in short-term assets. You must be prepared to handle the added risks before you go for the copy-trading tool. After you opt for the same, you can stop copying a trader whenever you wish to.

eToro assigns a risk score to all users and the score is publicly visible. In case the score exceeds a certain point, eToro does not allow users to copy them. Using the copytrading feature requires you to invest a minimum of $200.

eToro Copy Portfolio

Another unique feature of eToro is its portfolio offerings. You can now buy specific cryptocurrencies in addition to investing in one of its four cryptocurrency portfolios. All of these are carefully created and rebalanced quite often by the platform. All these portfolios have different cryptocurrencies that also include altcoins.

Investing in a portfolio means that you should be prepared for the added risks of trading cryptos. Many investors are considering coins other than Bitcoin and Ethereum for investment and these portfolios offer the right variety to traders.

Theme based investing and diversification options on eToro

If you wish to opt for a portfolio, you have to go for a higher minimum investment of at least $500 (which varies as per the portfolio you choose). As per experienced traders and expert analysts, you are recommended to invest a maximum of 5% of your overall portfolio in cryptos. Considering this, many beginners may want to gather some experience before going for this tool.

The Portfolios offered by eToro are as follows:

• Market Portfolios that have a specific segment of the market as its focus. It includes the likes of tech, finance, gaming, etc. eToro takes key assets from each segment and brings them all into one Portfolio.
• Top Trader Portfolios that have various traders as its focus. It brings the top traders on the platform into one bracket and allows users to invest in their collective experience.
• Partner Portfolios, which are created by eToro’s partners. These are among the leading financial institutions across the globe. This segment operates like Market Portfolios.

eToro Social Trading 

Social trading is one of the highlights of the eToro platform and refers to a combination of social media and online trading to foster a peer-to-peer approach to community-powered financial trading. Social trading of assets online has proven to be beneficial for both new and experienced investors alike.

The concept is to give investors a certain level of transparency on the performance metrics of each trader on the platform, thus enabling them to follow the traders of choice, exchange knowledge within the community, understand why certain trading decisions have been made, and emulate successful trades for beneficial outcomes.

The eToro CopyTrader features allow users to do exactly that, copy and trade successful moves on the platform automatically. Users can choose which investor they want to copy and mirror their positions automatically with a click of a button. At the same time, they have complete control over any potential losses with the stop-loss feature which they can use to limit trades and activities.

The minimum amount for copying a user is $200, while the maximum amount that can be automatically copy traded is $500,000. There is an upper limit of copying 100 traders simultaneously as well.

Even without using the CopyTrader function exclusively, users can view millions of trading portfolios, key insights, and relevant statistics, besides risk scores on eToro. Worldwide users other than those in the US enjoy complete access to all public profiles worldwide, while clients in the US have their access limited to other US users alone.

Knowing and understanding the strategy of other traders

The social trading feature on eToro works very much like a social media platform, offering interactive and informative feeds of user thoughts and comments all throughout. As soon as you log in to eToro, you will see a general feed covering opinions on crypto, markets, and investing by fellow users.

You may then navigate to one coin or managed portfolio at a time, just like social media platform profiles. Here, you can view unique feeds with user posts related to that specific offering only.

New, as well as experienced investors, can use these comments and insights to breed trading ideas or simply understand the nuances of online trading. However, you have to keep in mind that these are individual endorsements, and not assured facts with quality checks placed on them.

Staking with eToro

Users, who own and hold supported crypto assets on eToro, can earn rewards through staking. The process is executed by eToro on the users’ behalf. Just like an investor earns interest by holding money, users on eToro can stake their crypto assets and earn rewards (which are more crypto assets) for holding them.

As it is a regulated platform, the process is convenient and secure. eToro pays staking rewards to users every month for the supported crypto assets. Users do not have to carry out any task. They are paid by the platform without any action on their part.

Staking yield on eToro

The staked crypto assets belong to eToro users and eToro effectively executes the staking procedure for them. The platform takes cautionary measures to ensure safety against added risks while staking. eToro allows users to be free from the complications of staking cryptos on their own. While staking, the platform charges a small fee by keeping a minute percentage of the rewards. It uses these funds to pay for operational, technical, and legal costs.

eToro’s Staking Service is not applicable for holdings using CFDs, copy portfolios, copy trading, or short positions.

How are staking rewards calculated?

• eToro takes snapshots of a user’s holdings every day at 00:00 GMT, showing the user’s eligible staking units for open positions.
• By month-end, all snapshots of the month are divided as per the number of days of that month to calculate the average daily amount.
• An individual user’s monthly reward is calculated on the average daily amount. After calculating the monthly reward percentage per crypto asset, eToro adds the applicable club member percentage.

Who are eligible for staking rewards?

eToro users holding any of the supported crypto assets are eligible, with certain exceptions. The ones not eligible are-

• For Cardano (ADA) and Tron (TRX): All eToro US users; UK residents registering on the platform on or after 8 February 2022.
• For ETH 2.0: All eToro US users; UK residents registering on the platform on or after 1 February 2022.

Stake Crypto on eToro

Your capital is at risk

eToro Wallet 

The eToro wallet is the only avenue for transferring coins off the eToro platform so that users can be assured of maximum security for crypto holdings. This eToro wallet is known as eToro Money and is offered in the form of a separate mobile application that investors can use to deposit and withdraw money in actual cryptocurrencies.

The wallet’s private keys are guarded by the eToroX, which acts as a custodian of your crypto assets. The eToro Money wallet has been designed to resemble the look and feel of the eToro mobile application itself, and also comes with support features for social trading.

Open an eToro Wallet

Your capital is at risk

Payment Methods on eToro

The best part about investing on eToro is the wide variety of approved payment options available which has made it simple to deposit funds into your account and start trading. Several globally accepted payment methods have also been included, making it convenient for many users to trade on the platform irrespective of their location.

Deposits can be made into your eToro account via bank credit and debit cards, virtual credit cards from reputable brands, PayPal, Neteller, or even Skrill. For investors living in the UK, a direct bank transfer is also enabled.

All the payment methods allowed on eToro are fast, seamless, and reliable. money transferred is reflected in your account within a few minutes, thus enabling faster trading for all.

An important point to note, however, is that there is a minimum deposit limit to be followed. Investors must make a payment of at least $200 to begin trading on the platform. The pegging of this amount has been associated by eToro as the minimum value that can yield a significant profit for the platform, besides helping depositors make the most of their trades.

How to Open an Account on eToro?

To Open an Account on eToro, follow the steps below-

Sign Up

• On the www.eToro.com page, click on the “Create an account” or “Trade Now” button.

• On the web page that follows, look for an electronic form so that you could enter all the personal data and proceed with opening a new trading account.

• Fill in the relevant information on the form. You can also log in via Facebook or Gmail.
• Carefully review your information before submitting it. Spend time to familiarize yourself with the Terms & Conditions and privacy policy of eToro.
• After you review all the terms, indicate your agreement by checking the appropriate box.
• Click on the “Sign-Up” button to submit your information.
• eToro and all associated brands are in full compliance with Directive 2005/60/EC of the European Parliament and the Council, on the Prevention of the Use of the Financial System for Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing.
• As a mandate according to the above-mentioned EU laws and regulations, all investors must undergo the KYC process.
• As far as the KYC process is concerned, newly registered investors must provide a Confirmation of Residence. You can use a bank statement or utility bill that has the last 3 months’ statement.
• You can submit Proof of Identity by using a copy of your valid passport, or any other officially issued photo ID.
• New investors are also requested to complete a questionnaire that helps eToro to offer customized packages to investors. The questionnaire might have queries related to the professional status of new investors, their knowledge of the trading market, financial liquidity, investment targets, risk appetite, etc.

Fund your account

Once your account is verified, you can proceed to fund your account. You can take advantage of various payment methods to make deposits. These include debit cards, credit cards, and wallets like PayPal. For the UK and US-based users, the minimum deposit is $10.

Buying Crypto

You can click on ‘Trade Markets’ on the sidebar, choose ‘Crypto’ from the top of the search filter and go for the desired cryptocurrency. Click ‘Buy’ to set an investment amount and confirm.

Buy Crypto on eToro

Your capital is at risk

Why eToro stand out of the crowd?

eToro is one of the most prominent and renowned online trading platforms across the globe for good reason. The user-friendly online broker has slowly but certainly become a vibrant hub for investors, offering unmatched investment experience on the open market.

The reasons behind its popularity are many. From enabling all transactions on the platform in real-time to offering a dedicated and comprehensive mobile application for any location, eToro places due focus on investors’ interests and convenience.

Here are some of the best attributes of eToro that help it stand out of the crowd and establish its league in the field of online assets trading:

Customer Support

eToro’s intuitive and interactive interface is paired with its supportive real-time service. Users can engage easily and in real-time with team members via live chat. Fast and efficient contact channels are supported on the platform for users to be able to send in queries or ask for help through emails, phone calls, or chat services.

This is ideal considering that trading activities happen 24×7 and customers can need support at any hour or minute of the day.

Beginner-Friendly

eToro is a great trading choice for brokers in the world of investing, with its array of useful tools and features that make both its web platform and mobile application extremely user-friendly in the first place.

Unlike other platforms that do not provide sufficient analysis for beginners to make the best decisions on investments, eToro offers features like extensive educational resources, social trading, and copy trading to ensure that new investors can place their best foot forward.

They can conveniently assess their risk score, weekly and monthly trading volumes, average profits, losses, and holding times for every investor they are interested in emulating. These key insights are instrumental in building their skills, understanding, as well as portfolio as successful investors themselves.

Trading tools

eToro offers comprehensive in-house trading support for its users through an array of tools and a team of experts who can manage your investment portfolio with ease. The convenient alternatives available for investors on the platform reduce the time wasted on handling lengthy processes independently. There are plenty of options for users to choose from based on their investment goals.

For instance, customers can choose the Building Corporate Investment Portfolio option to gain access to experienced professionals who can then guide you towards building a portfolio matching the standards of leading banks. This includes the Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, and so on.

You may even decide to build a portfolio featuring stocks from companies yielding regular dividends, in which an in-house expert will help you access stocks of leading brands.

Is eToro legitimate?

eToro is the ideal platform for those who are new to investing, considering its exhaustive combination of online trading and social media emulation. There is a wealth of educational content available on the platform to improve and brush up your skills as a trader, besides plenty of opportunities for big profits with the Copy Trading feature.

Novices can also take due advantage of the free demo account feature to test the waters first before investing actual money. Even for investment veterans, the eToro platform has numerous incentives, insights, and opportunities to thrive. Experienced investors can share their knowledge with fellow users to improve their performance while earning a healthy income out of it.

High-level security offered by eToro

Overall, we can conveniently call eToro a legitimate and friendly trading platform for all sections of investors. The intuitive platform interface comes with educational courses on learning to trade for beginners.

In a nutshell, eToro is right for you if you are interested in investments in stocks, commodities, liquid currencies, indices, exchange-traded funds, and cryptocurrencies on a regulated, secure platform. It is the perfect destination for buying and selling an impressive array of cryptocurrencies with a straightforward fee schedule along with the benefit of social trading.

Comparing eToro with Top Exchanges

eToro vs Bybit

• Regulation

eToro is a highly regulated platform and a popular cryptocurrency platform available in the United States. Bybit is a popular cryptocurrency derivatives exchange, but it is not available in the U.S.

While eToro is beginner-friendly and is sometimes not preferred by traders looking for advanced technical analysis, Bybit has a wide range of advanced trading tools.

Unlike eToro, Bybit is not regulated. Despite not having any regulation, it offers top-notch security and commits to zero downtime. It claims to handle 100,000 transactions per second, making it faster than other platforms in the industry. This is one aspect that makes Bybit attract many investors as traders want to avoid the hassle of server downtime at all costs.

• Unique features

eToro has features like copy trading, social trading, copy portfolio, etc., but Bybit does not offer these features.

• Leverage, deposits, withdrawals, fee

Bybit offers crypto derivatives exchange up to 100x leverage whereas eToro offers 30:1 for major currency pairs, 20:1 for non-major currency pair, major indices, and gold, 10:1 for commodities except gold and non-major equity indices, 5:1 for individual equities, 2:1 for cryptos.

Bybit has a Dual Price Mechanism so that traders do not suffer from trade/ price manipulation. You can set stop-loss and derive profit at the same time while placing a limit order on Bybit.

Bybit has an in-built Tradingview, including comprehensive indicators. On Bybit, the withdrawal charges vary according to assets (for instance, it is 0.0005% for BTC) and on eToro, it is flat $5.

eToro enables instant deposits through Paypal, Neteller, Skrill, etc. while Bybit does not handle fiat deposits directly.

• KYC

There is no KYC process on Bybit unless you want to withdraw 2 BTC per day, but the KYC process is mandatory on eToro. Both eToro and Bybit have a user-friendly interface.

• Compatibility 

Both the platforms are available on a desktop and can be accessed on apps available for Android/ IOS devices.

• Customer Support

These two exchanges have dedicated customer support. The customer support service of Bybit operates 24/ 7 whereas, on eToro, the customer services are offered 24/ 5. eToro is preferred by beginners and seasoned investors whereas Bybit is more suitable for investors with substantial trading experience.

Comparison between top Crypto Platforms