The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has added 34 new names of unregistered platforms to its Registration Deficient List (RED List) that are illegally offering financial services in the country. The added names are Algobit, Ltd., Cent Projects, Ltd., Alis Capital Inc., CloseOption, B.O TradeFinancials, CryptoBO, Bitpay Options, CryptoSphereFX, Bluegate Financial Services, DestroFX, Capital Forex Trade, Direct Cryptos, Capital Trading Hub, Dynamics FX Trade, Capitalone Trade, Expirex Trade, FXBrew, QuickFXTrade, FX Optimax, Renesource Capital, FX-Cryptex, SageFX, HankoTrade, Stockinvestmentfx, IQFXTrade, Swissglobaltrade.org, Menne Market Ltd., The Traders Domain, Octave Trade, Tifu Global Limited, Pocketoption, TradingDeskFX, Prime Crypto FX, and Wolves Trade FX. Illegal Platforms These platforms are primarily offering derivatives trading with forex, cryptocurrencies and other asset classes. Some of them are even offering binary options, which are allowed in the US under heavy regulations but banned in the UK and EU. “A firm is added to the RED List when the CFTC determines, from investigative leads and public inquiries, that it is not registered with the Commission and appears to be acting in a capacity that requires registration, such as trading binary options, foreign currency (forex), or other products,” the regulatory announcement stated. To offer derivatives products in the US, platforms need to be registered with the CFTC and also be a member of the National Futures Association (NFA). However, none of the 34 companies added to the RED list are licensed to operate in the United States. At least one is falsely claiming to be regulated by the CFTC, while a few seem to have some offshore license. Several of these platforms operators have now taken down the platforms. Almost all of them look like to be fraudulent platforms, at least one even taking deposits only in Bitcoin. Last month, French regulators blacklisted 20 such illegal forex trading platforms, while regulators of Cyprus, Italy, and the UK regularly update their warnings list.
This article was written by Arnab Shome at www.financemagnates.com.
