eToro review: licences, stock commission and currency fees

Overview

eToro describes itself as a multi-asset investment platform and also offers copy trading (CopyTrader). This review looks at it as a place to buy real shares and ETFs. eToro says it was founded in 2007 and that it launched in the UAE in 2023. All facts below come from eToro’s own pages and were checked on 18 October 2026.

Licences and who they cover

eToro’s regulation page lists several companies. Those licensed for investment services are:

• etoro (Europe) Ltd: Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC), licence 109/10.
• etoro (UK) Ltd: Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), firm reference number 583263.
• etoro (ME) Limited: Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM FSRA), permission number 220073, for dealing as matched principal, arranging deals, custody and managing assets.
• etoro AUS Capital Limited: ASIC, licence 491139.
• etoro (Seychelles) Ltd.: Financial Services Authority Seychelles, licence SD076.
• etoro Singapore Pte. Ltd.: Monetary Authority of Singapore, licence CMS101824.
• etoro USA Securities Inc.: US broker-dealer registered with the SEC (8-70212) and a FINRA member.

Other group companies hold e-money or crypto authorisations. The pages we checked do not say which company opens accounts for readers in the Middle East, Africa or Latin America. Terms are published separately for “Middle East” and “Seychelles” clients, among others, so the company named in your account documents decides your regulator. We could not open the ADGM register entry for etoro (ME) Limited, so its number comes from eToro’s page.

Real shares or CFDs?

When you open a non-leveraged buy position on a stock, eToro says you invest in the underlying asset, recorded under your name. Short sales and leveraged positions are executed as CFDs, and eToro adds that “some non-leveraged BUY positions” are also executed as CFDs because of product restrictions; such trades are marked “CFD” in the trade window. eToro’s CFD warning says 51% of retail investor accounts lose money with CFDs.

Fees

• Stocks: a commission of $1 or $2 when opening and again when closing, by country and exchange. For residents of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Mexico, US stocks cost $1, while Australian, Hong Kong, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Tokyo listings cost $2.
• ETFs: no commission.
• Custody, inactivity, account opening: listed as free.
• Withdrawals: $5 from the USD account, minimum $30.
• Currency conversion: no single rate. Examples from the conversion table: AED costs 820 pips by card or bank transfer and 0.75% by online banking; MXN 2.50% by online banking; BRL, COP, CLP and PEN 3% by online banking.

The minimum first deposit “varies between $10 and $10,000” by region. The per-country list sits in eToro’s help centre, which did not load for us.

Deposits and withdrawals

eToro lists cards (Visa, Mastercard, Maestro), bank transfer, PayPal, Neteller and Skrill for deposits and withdrawals. Bank transfers take 4–7 business days to arrive; card and bank withdrawals up to 5 business days, e-wallets up to 2. Skrill is not supported in the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Chile, Colombia, Mexico or Peru, among others, and PayPal deposits are not available in Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Morocco, Peru or Saudi Arabia, among others.

Investor protection

eToro names the UK’s FSCS (up to £85,000) for etoro (UK) Ltd, Cyprus’s Investor Compensation Fund (up to €20,000) for etoro (Europe) Ltd, and SIPC membership for its US broker-dealer. It names no compensation scheme for its Abu Dhabi, Seychelles, Australian or Singapore companies. Crypto trading is outside the FSCS and ICF.

What we could not confirm

• Which eToro company serves your country.
• The minimum first deposit for your country.
• One currency conversion rate that applies to every reader.

We have not tested eToro with our own account yet; this review will be updated when we do.