Is eToro Safe Or Not?

Based on our live testing and our assessment of 20 key indicators, eToro is a legitimate broker with a safety score of 85/100. This is based on thousands of hours of live-money trading by members of our team and a balanced review of its regulatory licenses, track record, and analysis of over 200,000 user reviews.

Written By
James Barra

Fact Checked By
Tobias Robinson

Edited By
William Berg

Updated
August 28, 2026

eToro Safety Assessment

We took a methodological, data-driven approach to decide whether eToro is safe or not, with the broker receiving a score from 0 to 5 in each category, with scores added together to provide a total out of 100.

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eToro Safety Indicators
Metric	Score (0-5)	eToro Details
1. Regulated	5/5	Yes – eToro’s brokerage entities are regulated in multiple jurisdictions, including SEC/FINRA (US securities), FCA (UK), ASIC (Australia), CySEC (Cyprus), ADGM/FSRA (Abu Dhabi), MAS (Singapore), and FSA (Seychelles), with separate group entities holding MiCA, MFSA and GFSC permissions for crypto/payment services. All are ‘Category A’ in our regulator system except FSA, which is ‘Category C’.
2. Investor Compensation Schemes	5/5	Yes – US (USD $500k and $250k for cash), UK (GBP £85k), EU/Cyprus (EUR €20k). Coverage against eligible events like eToro’s insolvency in some regions where it’s licensed. Also up to 1 million USD/EUR/GBP private insurance for eligible large clients in some regions.
3. Age	4.5/5	Launched 16 January 2007 in Israel before expanding globally, giving it a long track record. Scam brokers often disappear after some weeks or months.
4. Listed On Stock Exchange	5/5	Yes – listed on US NASDAQ under ticker ETOR, bringing high levels of financial transparency. Fewer than 5% of the brokers we’ve tested are publicly listed.
5. Registered As A Bank	0/5	No. Brokers also operating as banks have to meet high compliance requirements regarding capital management.
6. Third-Party User Reviews	4.5/5	Large library of testimonials with 200,000+ across Trustpilot, App Store, and Google Play, with ratings of approx 4+/5 on Trustpilot, 4+/5 on Google Play, and 4+/5 on App Store. Good feedback overall with minimal safety issues reported.
7. Withdrawal Complaints	4.5/5	Some complaints concerning delays, hidden fees and other problems. It’s not uncommon for a broker of eToro’s size to have some withdrawal user frustrations, especially due to KYC and AML requirements. BrokerListings team members have experienced smooth withdrawals from eToro.
8. Handling Of Complaints	4/5	eToro replies to most serious complaints on platforms like Trustpilot, including the majority of withdrawal issues at our last checks. But its reliance on an AI chatbot makes for a subpar experience when dealing with withdrawal problems.
9. Regulatory Fines & Infractions	3/5	Yes – €50k CySEC settlement in 2013 over operational weaknesses; CAD $550k penalty + USD $1.79M disgorgement in Canada in 2018 for servicing Ontario residents without sufficient registration; €1.3M fine in Italy in 2023 for misleading “zero commission” marketing; USD $3,250 New Hampshire fine in 2024 for a late financial filing; and USD $1.5M SEC penalty in 2024 for operating an unregistered broker/clearing agency for certain crypto assets. ASIC also has an ongoing case against eToro over its CFD offering and customer screening, but no final penalty announced yet. Regulatory actions warrant awareness, but many brokers of eToro’s size have faced regulatory actions.
10. Accounts Audited By Big Four	5/5	Yes – accounts are often externally audited by one of the Big Four (Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG), notably EY. Reassuring sign that auditing heavyweights are scrutinizing eToro’s financials.
11. Hands-On Testing Experience	5/5	Members of the BrokerListings team have spent thousands of hours directly trading with real money on the eToro platform and app, with live accounts opened, trades placed on forex, crypto, plus US and global indices, and via its social trading tools. No serious reliability issues experienced.
12. Working Support	2.5/5	24/7 support via Tori (AI chatbot) with human assistance during business hours. But not always email, telephone or account managers in all regions and for all retail clients. We’ve sent 30+ queries covering accounts, fees and other topics, with responses typically under <2 mins.
13. Security	5/5	Yes – data encryption and firewalls, optional two-factor authentication (2FA) using SMS/phone verification, strong password requirements, verified email/phone details, and biometric Face/Touch ID access on the eToro mobile app. No widely reported hacks or data leaks.
14. Realistic Marketing	4/5	eToro does not guarantee profits or suggest its trading products or social trading network are an easy path to wealth. Risk disclaimers used during sign up, in client terms, with leverage in line with respective caps, e.g. 1:30 in the UK, EU and Australia. But marked down due to AGCM marketing action.
15. Industry Reputation	4/5	eToro is well-regarded by our brokerage experts and the wider retail investing community, especially for its copy trading features, user-friendly platform, and intuitive onboarding. Multiple awards and high-profile corporate sponsorships.
16. Segregated Client Accounts	5/5	Yes – used in all regions it operates, often at tier-one banks, including JP Morgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, Coutts & Co in Europe (can vary by region). This helps ensure client assets cannot be commingled with eToro’s operating funds and misused to e.g. pay off debts.
17. Negative Balance Protection (NBP)	5/5	Yes – used for retail investors in most regions, including via its offshore FSA-registered entity but not in some other countries, including the US, where it’s not legally required. US clients without NBP must carefully manage risk to prevent losses that can exceed account balances.
18. Number Of Clients	5/5	Over 40 million. One of the biggest brokerages globally, spanning over 75 countries, with millions of accounts used actively each month.
19. Transparent Fees	4/5	Clear ‘Fees & Charges‘ page on its website prior to sign-up with details on key fees, including account fees, conversion fees, margin fees, copy trading fees, and charges by asset class.
20. Company Transparency	5/5	Clear parent company (eToro Group Ltd), company address in the footer of each website, CEO and management team easily found on SEC filings and LinkedIn.
Total	85/100

Professional Opinion

I would trust eToro with my own money, and some of the BrokerListings.com team have done just that.

It’s one of the largest, more reputable brokerages with wide-reaching regulatory credentials, investor compensation in many regions, and positive user reviews overall from hundreds of thousands of ratings combined across multiple third-party platforms – something that’s hard to fake at that scale.

Whilst it has faced regulatory actions over its long history, including in the US, Europe, and Australia, and these should be kept in mind, they do not make eToro unsafe in my view.

I have personally reviewed hundreds of brokerages – both legitimate firms and scam platforms – and eToro stands out as one of the more trustworthy operations.

eToro web platform with chart and technical indicator overlaid

eToro online trading platform

Safest Alternatives To eToro

Whilst eToro is a legitimate, relatively safe broker, there are alternatives that are even more trusted. See our list of the safest brokers for online trading.

If you’re worried about safety, when starting with a new broker, consider trying their demo account, and when you switch to real-money trading, test small withdrawals until you’re comfortable you can extract gains without issues.

Whilst having reviewed eToro’s regulatory credentials, track record, and weighed our own experience using the eToro platform, and that of tens of thousands of other users, we believe eToro is relatively secure, however, no broker can ever be considered 100% safe. The very nature of online trading and the operations of brokerages is risky.