SmartCapital – Can You Trust This Broker?

Website URL: https://thesmartcapitalinvest.com/

Founded: 2018

Regulations: None

Languages: English

Deposit Methods: Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin (BTC)

Minimum Deposit: $5,000

Free Demo Account: Yes

Number of Assets: N/A

Types of Assets: Cryptocurrencies

Trading Accounts and Conditions

SmartCapital offers its customers the following types of trading accounts:

• Basic Account: To be able to trade on this broker’s Basic account, you need to first deposit a minimum of $5,000.
• Standard Account: To trade on the Standard account, the minimum deposit you are required to make first is $25,000.
• Advanced Account: To trade on the Advanced account, you first need to deposit a minimum of $100,000.
• Premium Account: To open a Premium account with SmartCapital, you first need to make a deposit of at least $500,000.

This broker has not provided information on the trading conditions, so we don’t know what the spreads or leverage ratios offered are.

SmartCapital – Advantages

Despite trying our best to give a balanced review, we were unable to find any advantages to trading with this broker. Therefore, we have left this section of our review empty.

SmartCapital – Disadvantages

Here are the many reasons why trading with SmartCapital would not only be a disadvantage, but also a danger to you:

• Unlicensed Broker

SmartCapital claims to be a leading alternative multi-asset investment firm that is owned and operated by a company called Smart Capital LP. The company claims that it is based out of New York, USA.

To be able to operate in the US, a company needs to be licensed to operate by the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission), and also be a member of the NFA (National Futures Association). And to become a member of the NFA, a broker needs to have a minimum of $20 million in operational capital, which is pretty much what is needed for a bank in Switzerland. This is the main reason why there are so few brokers that operate in the United States.

We also carried out a search of the relevant registries in the US to confirm whether this company was actually authorized to operate in that country, and we found no evidence of that. Which means that this broker is operating illegally.

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• Blacklisted by CONSOB and CySEC

During our search for SmartCapital’s regulation status, we came across some even more worrying news – this broker has been blacklisted by two top European regulators – the CONSOB of Italy (Commissione Nazionale per le Societa e la Borsa) as well as the CySEC of Cyprus (Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission).

Both the regulators have clearly stated that this broker is operating illegally in their countries and that contracting with them would be extremely risky.

• Market Maker Offering to Manage Clients’ Accounts

SmartCapital, in its website, states that it can manage its clients’ accounts for them. The problem is that SmartCapital is a broker, and brokers, by the very nature of their business, are market makers. This means that they stand to gain when their customers lose money on the markets.

Therefore, when a broker offers to manage its clients’ accounts, it is considered a serious conflict of interest, since the broker would stand to gain from its customers’ losses.

Considering the fact that SmartCapital is a blacklisted and unlicensed broker, allowing them to manage your funds would be tantamount to just giving them your money.

• No Terms and Conditions Mentioned

Every broker is required to present its Terms and Conditions (also called the Client Agreement) as it clarifies the contractual relationship between them and their customers. This is a critical legal document that outlines the clients’ rights and as well as the brokers’ rights and responsibilities.

Without this document, if a client still goes ahead an opens an account with the broker, they are basically signing away their rights. And if anything were to go wrong, such as losses due to fraud or scamming, the trader would not be able to do anything.

And SmartCapital has omitted its Terms and Conditions completely. This means that the traders who have signed up with this broker have no rights and can lose all their money or be charged any amount of fees, and there is no way that they can complain against this broker.

• Limited Payment Methods

The only way that payments can be made with SmartCapital is through cryptocurrencies. The two cryptocurrencies that are accepted for payments are Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The reason this raises a red flag is that crypto-payments are virtually untraceable. Furthermore, all transactions are permanent, which means that once the money is transferred via either BTC or ETH, there is no way you can reverse that transaction.

With traditional methods such as debit or credit card payments or bank wire transfers, you can request for a charge back if you believe that you have been scammed.

• Trading Platform Doesn’t Work

When we registered and account with SmartCapital and accessed the broker’s platform, we found that there actually wasn’t any trading platform. All we saw was a simplistic dashboard, where the only thing you would be able to do is deposit money via BTC or ETH.

This is a clear indication that this broker is a scammer that is out to get your money any way it can.

• Absurdly High Minimum Deposit Requirement

This broker expects its customers to make a minimum deposit of $5,000! This is absurdly high, considering that the industry average stands at about $100-$250. In fact, some of the most reputed brokers expect you to make a minimum deposit of just $5.

Conclusion 

We can clearly state that this broker is a clear-cut scammer and that if you invest your money with them, you are sure to lose all that you have put in. We recommend that all traders stay far away from SmartCapital.

SmartCapital

2.5

User Experience

3.3/10

Payment Options

2.3/10

Security

2.1/10

Support

2.4/10

Reputation

2.5/10

Pros

• None

Cons

• Unlicensed Broker
• Blacklisted by CONSOB and CySEC
• Market Maker Offering to Manage Clients’ Accounts
• No Terms and Conditions Mentioned
• Limited Payment Methods