eToro Review: Trusted, With a Cost Structure Worth Reading Twice

Quick facts

eToro is the rare broker in this category whose finances are a matter of public record. It listed on Nasdaq on 14 May 2025 at $52.00 a share under the ticker ETOR, which means its accounts, its client numbers and its open regulatory matters are filed with the SEC rather than described in a press release. For a sector where most firms publish a volume figure nobody audits, that is the single strongest transparency signal available, and it is most of the reason this review lands where it does.

The rating is 7.5 out of 10, which is the first point on the Trusted band. It is a genuine Trusted and it is not a comfortable one. Two things hold it there rather than higher: a cost structure with a conversion charge that most comparison sites do not mention, and three regulatory matters live or recent enough to matter. Both are set out below.

The licence check

Four entities, and which one you get depends entirely on where you live.

We read the CySEC entry ourselves on 5 September 2026. eToro (Europe) Ltd holds licence 109/10, dated 14 January 2010, company registration 200585, previously named RetailFX Ltd. Its permissions include dealing on own account, which is the field that matters: it means the entity is allowed to be your counterparty rather than only pass your order along. Its single approved domain is www.etoro.com, so the site you land on is the site the licence covers.

The FCA number is corroborated by the FCA’s own clone-firm warning of 26 May 2022, which names the genuine firm as ETORO (UK) LIMITED, 583263, at 24th Floor One Canada Square. That warning exists because someone was impersonating them, which is worth knowing for its own sake: check the domain before you deposit.

The Seychelles entity is the one to notice. If you are outside the UK, EU and Australia, the FCA and CySEC licences in eToro’s marketing do not apply to your account. You get a Seychelles securities dealer licence and no compensation scheme. That is normal for the industry and it is not what the advertising implies, so check the footer of the account-opening page before you fund it.

What it costs, including the part that is easy to miss

Start with a correction. The line that eToro is commission-free on stocks is no longer accurate, and eToro’s own fees page says so: a commission of $1 or $2 may apply when opening and closing a stock position, depending on your country of residence and the exchange. ETFs remain genuinely zero-commission on any size. Stock CFDs carry no commission but do carry overnight financing.

Spreads are quoted as a percentage of trade value rather than in pips, which makes eToro hard to compare against a normal spread table. EUR/USD and GBP/USD are 0.005% per trade, gold 0.01%, oil 0.04%, the major indices 0.007%. Crypto is 1.00% for standard accounts, falling with club tier. Stock and ETF CFDs are 0.15%.

The charge that catches people is currency conversion. eToro denominates accounts in USD, so a client holding pounds or euros converts on the way in and again on the way out, and pays it twice.

What eToro does not do is publish a rate. Its fees page states only that conversion rates vary by location and payment method, with discounts by Club tier, and gives no figure for any country. That is the largest recurring cost for most UK and European clients on this platform, and it cannot be compared against another broker from anything eToro publishes. Ask for the rate that applies to your country and payment method in writing before you fund the account, and note that figures quoted on comparison sites are not on eToro’s own page. Re-checked 9 September 2026.

Withdrawals are free from a local-currency account and $5 from a USD account, with a $30 minimum from USD and no minimum from local currency. eToro’s own fees page lists the inactivity fee as Free, re-checked 9 September 2026. The long-standing figure was $10 a month after twelve months of inactivity, and eToro publishes no note dating the change, so the current position is accurate and the effective date is unknown. If you are reading an older review quoting $10 a month, that is out of date.

Overnight financing on long stock and ETF CFD positions is 6.4% plus benchmark, divided by 365, with a triple charge one night a week. Non-leveraged stock and ETF buys are not charged. See the full fee breakdown.

Where the order actually goes

eToro (Europe) Ltd’s own RTS 28 filing for 2022 reports a single execution venue, eToro (EU) Ltd, taking 100% of trading volume and 100% of trade counts, for retail and professional clients, across every instrument class. eToro executes against itself.

This is legal, disclosed, and standard for CFD market makers. It is also the thing to understand about the model: your counterparty is the firm you are trading with, not an exchange. It is why the licence check above matters more than the spread table.

The three open matters

SEC, 12 September 2024, $1.5 million. eToro USA LLC was charged with operating an unregistered broker and unregistered clearing agency in connection with crypto asset trading. It settled, paid $1.5m, and agreed to stop trading nearly all crypto assets in the US. This concerns the US entity only.

ASIC, proceedings commenced 3 August 2023, still open. ASIC sued eToro Aus Capital Limited over its CFD product, alleging breaches of design and distribution obligations and of the licence duty to act efficiently, honestly and fairly, over the period 5 October 2021 to 14 June 2023. No penalty has been ordered. Any review telling you eToro was fined in Australia is wrong today. ASIC’s own later release of 20 January 2026 gives the commencement date as 3 November 2023, which contradicts its original media release; we have used the date on the original.

CySEC, open inquiries. eToro Group’s own Form 20-F for FY2025 discloses that CySEC has made inquiries into potential breaches by eToro (Europe) Ltd of product governance, including target market determinations, and of appropriateness and suitability obligations. No fine or settlement is disclosed. We note it because eToro disclosed it, which is more than most firms in this sector would.

Three matters in two years is why the complaint pillar scores 5.0 and why this review sits at the bottom of Trusted rather than the middle of it.

Two documents on eToro’s own site that are years out of date

The FSCS disclosure for eToro (UK) is dated 9 December 2021. The Investor Compensation Fund disclosure for eToro (Europe) is version 03.18, from March 2018, and it states the €20,000 ceiling without mentioning the 90%-of-claim cap that CySEC’s rules apply. Neither document is wrong on the headline number. Both are stale enough that a reader relying on them is reading five and eight year old paperwork about what happens to their money. For a Nasdaq-listed company this is an odd thing to leave lying around, and it costs points on transparency.

Who this suits

eToro is built around copy trading and a single proprietary platform. There is no MT4 and no MT5, and eToro’s own platforms page does not offer them. If you want to run an expert advisor or a custom indicator set, this is the wrong broker and no amount of regulatory quality changes that.

If you want a UK or EU regulated account with a real compensation scheme behind it, a public company with filed accounts, and a platform aimed at long-hold positions and social copying rather than scalping, it does that well. Check the conversion fee against how often you plan to move money, because that is where the cost actually lives.

What would move this rating

• Up: a penalty-free resolution of the ASIC proceedings, and refreshed FSCS and ICF disclosures on eToro’s own site.
• Down: an adverse ASIC judgment with a material penalty, a CySEC enforcement outcome, or any documented pattern of withdrawal refusals, of which we found none.

Sources

• CySEC register entry for Etoro (Europe) Ltd, licence 109/10, read 5 September 2026.
• FCA clone-firm warning naming eToro (UK) Limited, FRN 583263, published 26 May 2022.
• FSA Seychelles capital markets licensee list, read 5 September 2026.
• eToro regulation and licence page, terms and conditions, fees pages and CFD overnight fee schedule, read 5 September 2026.
• eToro (Europe) Ltd RTS 28 disclosure for 2022.
• SEC press release 2024-125, 12 September 2024.
• ASIC media release 23-204MR, 3 August 2023, and 26-004MR, 20 January 2026.
• eToro Group Ltd Form 20-F for FY2025, filed with the SEC.
• eToro IPO pricing release, 13 May 2025.

Scored on our published methodology. Compare against Capital.com, which is cheaper to hold positions with and has no listed parent.

Answered in detail

Rated higher on the same scale

Rated Trusted or Neutral against the same six pillars. These link to our own reviews, not to the brokers, and no broker can pay to appear here.

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