Accounts for trading Bitcoin

Bitcoin denominated accounts have very low deposit and withdrawal fees and almost instant funding. If someone has opened a bitcoin account he could share his experience with us. Some of the brokers that offer such accounts are Evolve Markets, SimpleFX, BTC-E, FXChoice, FxOpen, InstaForex. I would like to know if there any other brokers as well.

I have not yet made the decision on owning Bitcoin denominated account. However, I have realized that investors and a section of analysts do somehow think that this could be the currency of the future. But again, Bitcoin is quite volatile at the moment which also raises some questions on owning an account denominated on this currency. I will take my time at the moment and observe perhaps for another year to see how things pan out. But trading/ well I like trading BTC/USD.

Hi there,
Some brokers might seemingly be completely loosing control on their Bitcoin trading offer.
One of mine (a pure ECN and one of the most agressive in term of leverage with 5% margin or 20:1 leverage) is currently in trouble.
I wanted to enter on retracement (well... on H1) but no way, MT5 kept showing a banner mentioning that only position closing transaction was allowed. During the all day I was observing that their quotes to close a position (long for the most of their clients I guess) was well below the average quotes seen everywhere else.
That is quite frustrating but the worst is that I was left facing a fait accompli, having received no information from them which I consider a serious issue and breach of confidence.
I let you judge here is the conversation I just had with their live customers support:


AlexisThu, 12/07/17 08:08:01 pm Europe/Zurich
Hello Philippe. How may I help you?


Philippe08:09:50 pm
Hello, I would like to understand what is going on with Bitcoin on your platform please. I do not remember having received any notice by email about it but it looks I am unable to buy any at the moment with a message indicating that only position closing are allowed... Please explain.


Alexis08:11:19 pm
As per our Risk Management Department decision and due to extreme volatility within the Bitcoin Market your exposure the BTCUSD trading has been restricted.

It is a decision from our risk management team, to prevent over exposure on client accounts. We do apologise for any inconvenience caused and liquidity should resume as soon as possible.


Philippe08:17:15 pm
My risk you mean, wouldn't it be rather your risk? When your company started offering Bitcoin the volatility was a well-known issue. How could it become a problem all of a sudden? Should your company care that much for my risk (now that I am making money at last) to the point that your company is suddenly completely changing the rules of the game, the least your company should do if it has any respect left for its customers is to at least give them the choice of their action by giving them acurate information in a timely manner, or did I miss something?


Alexis08:18:28 pm
If you have an open position you may leave this open if you wish
However clients are restricted to opening new positions on BTC USD


Philippe08:19:45 pm
I am waiting for a more convincing explanation. Please forward my comments to your managers.


Alexis08:20:10 pm
Our LPs do not accept BTC orders at the moment as there is no available liquidity
We do apologize for the inconvenience but unfortunately we have no control over it


Philippe08:22:33 pm
Then do not go where you have no control...

BTCUSD is mostly new for brokers and I think they're trying to work it out. There's nothing to compare it to and it surprises everyone everyday.

To be honest, I think the leverage offered is so high that they're over exposing themselves and the risk guys probably stepped in.

Don't be surprised if the margin requirement changes soon, especially after todays madness.

Cheers,
Piplife

Ok, it seems the true ECN broker has (quite unknowingly) resumed offering complete trading access to its crypto instruments:

MatthewMon, 12/18/17 04:31:12 am Europe/Zurich
Hello Philippe. How may I help you?

Philippe04:31:42 am
Hello, it seems Bitcoin has resumed trading normally on your platforms, correct?

Matthew04:32:33 am
No sorry it is currently unavailable

Philippe04:32:51 am
It is I just opened a position...

Matthew04:33:15 am
Can i confirm the account number ?

Philippe04:33:29 am
please
xxxxxxx
mt5

Matthew04:33:44 am
One moment
Yes it is still disabled however since this may have occurred through a technical issue which we have fixed now.04:38:06 am
You may keep your position.

Philippe04:40:14 am
This is not what I read on my MT5 (mobile) under the details regarding the instrument it is written: trading - complete access-

Matthew04:40:46 am
Yes we allow full access however of 2 weeks ago we disabled it.
Please be aware that, due to unprecedented volatile market conditions for the pair, to offset the substantial market risks for our clients, the pairs may be set to close only as there are limits to the size of positions we can carry, especially on unregulated markets like Cryptocurrencies considering the very thin liquidity received from our LPs until we are comfortable with the market conditions again and able to continue offsetting risk with our crypto hedge counter parties.04:41:05 am

Philippe04:44:02 am
Yes and now you just told me it it is still unavailable if I do not mistake. I now understand why I did not receive any mail two weeks ago to inform me about the temporary suspension. Nor that I received no notice informing me of the resumption of normal trading condition (as I was told I would in a previous chat) since yourself are not correctly informed about it. It seems your company has a serious problem with communication both internal and with its customers.

Matthew04:45:35 am
Sorry Philippe, we apologise for the miss communication that has occurred. Have you been put on the list to be notified when it will be back up ?

Philippe04:45:53 am
That is what I was told indeed

Matthew04:46:53 am
Yes Philippe i can put you on my list

Philippe04:46:53 am
And I guess this is the kind of information that should not circulate confidentially on a list of selected customers...

Matthew04:47:01 am
No

Philippe04:49:29 am
Ok but please stop justifying your company's decisions with the risk taken by your clients which is your daily bread, this is going from embarrassing to close to insulting. It is obviously your risk that is in question here.


Not really reassuring.

Would you rather have your broker manage its risks or go belly up like with the CHF unpeg?

Hi jhehe, that is NOT the question here and I guess you know it.
It is not because the house is in fire that I should only care about calling the firemen, someday I need to know why and how the fire started.

I have the same problem with XM.Markets since today.
Not possible to open a new positon to buy, just close.
courious how this will go on... and if i will get my profit!

there is no ecn for crypto(no commission collected on broker side if u pay attention) when you put a order for crypto, the broker is your market maker. so they have the right to manage their risk above your trade as per PDS

I wonder who are their liquidity providers for this. Someone knows?

there is no lp. as banks are not in the business of transecting crypto. for crypto, brokers are mirroring prices off crypto specific exchanges and making a market for clients. OR they have tied up with an exchange such as gemini to STP your order which i highly doubt is unlikely.

Hi Imperial888,

I was using the broker which presents itself as "true ECN". You will easily find it. By the way they just again turned Bitcoin trading off. What a pathetic joke...

IG is great as it allows 24/7 trading so no weekend gap BUT their leverage is very limited even nearly null. Other brokers offering 24/7 trading include Avatrade but they have a questionable reputation seemingly regarding withdrawals. I tried Pepperstone, 10x 24/5 but spreads quite wider than the other big Aussie I was mentioning before. Checked Tickmill spreads are just prohibitive.

Hello,
I too am a victim of XM Australia.
I had pending Buy Stop orders that should have been executed and to this day would still be profitable even after the current downturn.
Effectively they have stolen profits. They have even removed the capacity to profit from short positions.
I agree that they are limiting their risk exposure under the ridiculous pretence of protecting us from ourselves.

NOTE - I firmly believe that XM and alot of other global brokers acting alone, but in unison, have deliberately stopped trading, to restrict long positions feeding the uptrend.
I also firmly believe these same brokers are hedging their risk with Short positions driving the price down. Smells like price manipulation!
Unfortunately, I don't think that will work because there are just too many retail traders jumping in via the coin exchanges.

I might also add, that I was never informed, e-mail or otherwise, of their intention to switch to CLOSE ONLY mode.

I WAS however e-mailed twice within 2 days to advise margin requirement increased from 20% to 33% and then subsequently increased from 33% to a ridiculous 50%.

At that stage I had Floating balance of $8000 and equity of $9000.
YET - I had a negative free margin of -$2500.
THAT MEANT although I had over $9000 available funds I could not even open an order for 0.01 lots of AUDUSD. (When trading was possible)

They have effectively closed my account, hoping that the price falls and takes my money

Here is another brilliant chat with PS this morning:

Chat Transcript with Philippe
Chat started on 20 Dec 2017, 06:48 AM (GMT+0)
(06:48:04)*** Philippe joined the chat ***
(06:48:04)Philippe: Hi, when did you change your margin on cryptos please?
(06:48:08)Pepperstone Support: Hi there, welcome to Pepperstone.
(06:48:11)*** Pepperstone Chat joined the chat ***
(06:48:15)Pepperstone Chat: Monday
(06:48:17)Pepperstone Chat: To 1:5
(06:48:39)Philippe: When did you send notice by email please?
(06:49:16)Pepperstone Chat: Friday
(06:49:25)Philippe: what time please?
(06:50:25)Pepperstone Chat: Would have been around the close of market, but was only sent to those with open positions
(06:51:09)Philippe: Really? and why not to other live account holders?
(06:52:42)Philippe: Any live accoumt holder being susceptible to take a position at any time this is a clear disadvantage not to get informed in due time.
(06:53:12)Pepperstone Chat: Actually, the email was sent out to clients on Wednesday
(06:53:22)Philippe: what time please?
(06:57:46)Philippe: Are you still there?
(06:57:50)Pepperstone Chat: One moment please and I will check for you.
(06:57:57)Philippe: thanks
(07:00:05)*** Pepperstone Live Chat Support joined the chat ***
(07:02:08)Philippe: I am afraid you will not find it...
(07:03:09)Pepperstone Chat: Sorry, I am just looking through when it was sent
(07:03:14)Philippe: sure
(07:04:48)Pepperstone Chat: Okay, it was sent to clients around the early afternoon on the 14th of December AEDT
(07:05:23)Philippe: can you check I was sent it as well please?
(07:08:26)Philippe: This discussion in getting pathetic as such an important information should be easyily identified. Bye.
(07:09:20)*** Philippe left the chat ***

IC MARKETS

I was with them for several years but had the miss fortune to be with them when they suspended trading in BITCOIN at $12000 at the time I was short and had the experience of 38 minutes to close my trades which I ended doing with the trading desk . A week or so later when the market was at 16000 I contacted the support and was informed that we could not trade to lack Volatilitybut in reality the volumes had trebled in actual fact . When the market hit the 19000 plus and had shown a spinning top candle on the daily chart I was keen to SHORT it . I trade with 2 bitcoin trades one with 5-1 target and I with no target . This debacle as cost me 20,000 minimum . I will never trade with them again . There response IS A JOKE !

Ctrl/Cmd+V
Amy Pepper (IC Markets)
Dec 27, 20:59 AEDT
Dear John,
Thank you for contacting us.
Yes, Bitcoin has now resumed trading since we are now able to offset risk with our hedge counter party. Due to the extreme volatility of the Crypto currenices it has also been necessary to increase margin requirements (Bitcoin leverage is now set to 1:5, and other Cryptos to 1:2). Please note that these leverages are very much inline with the wider market.
We do understand that our not accepting new positions on Bitcoin caused some inconveniences for our clients, and for that we sincerely apologise. Please do note though that we will only ever act in the best interests of our clients, and any decisions such as these are not taken lightly, and will always have been fully considered by our experienced risk management team.
Please do not hesitate to contact us should you require further assistance with anything,
Kind Regards,
Amy Pepper | Head Of Customer Support | IC Markets

Please note when we were allowed to trade the margin was 1000 per 1 BITCOIN it know is $3700 also there competitors IG & PEPPERSTONE trade on the week ends but IC MARKETS does not let you manage your positions on the week end so you get a big gap !

There must be many clients like me there had there cake and eat it there not disclosed the real reason there market makers caught with there pants down hence the big change in margins also please note any existing positions could be closed but no new ones opened .
Any interested in joining me in a CLASS ACTION due to there actions please PM me there is nothing in there disclosure of this instrument to trade that they could suspend trading for over 21 days ! Best John

Hi,

I'm looking to trade Bitcoins, Litecoins during the weekends, however do any brokers open at the weekends? AAFX are open on Saturdays but not on Sundays anyone recommend a broker who opens on Sundays for cryptos?

Thanks.

Open an account on any crypto exchange?

Check SimpleFx.

I'm looking for a platform that is user friendly, has high trade volume, and limited counterparty risk.