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Ten venues in one grid: the five forex brokers and the five crypto exchanges reviewed on this site. Filter by market, search by name or regulator, and click any column heading to sort. Everything in the table is taken from a primary source, and anything we could not read from one says so.
| Venue | Type | Entity and regulator checked | Published entry cost | Loss rate or reserves |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IG | forex | IG Markets Ltd, FCA 195355 | Spread only, EUR/USD from 0.6 points | 69% of retail accounts lose money |
| Saxo Bank | forex | Saxo Bank A/S, Danish FSA 1149 | USD 3 commission per FX trade under 50k units | 64% of retail accounts lose money |
| Interactive Brokers | forex | IB (U.K.) Ltd, FCA 208159 | Commission based, share CFDs from 0.5c per share | 57.9% of retail accounts lose money |
| Pepperstone | forex | Pepperstone Ltd, FCA 684312 | Razor: 0.0 pips plus GBP 2.25 per lot per side | 72.9% UK, 79.6% global |
| IC Markets | forex | IC Markets (EU) Ltd, CySEC 362/18 | Raw: 0.0 pips plus USD 3.50 per lot round turn | 72.52% EU |
| Binance | crypto | Binance Holdings Ltd., no EU licence | 0.100% maker / 0.100% taker | Self-published proof of reserves, no auditor named |
| Coinbase | crypto | Coinbase Inc., CSSF MiCA licence 2025 | 0.40% maker / 0.60% taker | cbBTC proof of reserves; exchange-wide not verified |
| Kraken | crypto | Payward entities, Central Bank of Ireland | 0.40% maker / 0.80% taker | Quarterly independently attested proof of reserves |
| Gemini | crypto | Gemini Trust Company, NYDFS charter | 0.600% maker / 1.200% taker | Audited accounts, SOC 1 and SOC 2 reports |
| Bitstamp | crypto | Bitstamp Europe S.A., CSSF MiCA N00000003 | Not verified from a primary source | Not verified |
What each column means
01
Entity and regulator
The specific company checked and its supervisor. Groups run several entities; the protections follow the one on your agreement, not the brand.
02
Published entry cost
Headline pricing at the lowest tier, from the provider own page. Not the total cost of trading, which includes financing, conversion and slippage.
03
Loss rate or reserves
For brokers, the regulator-mandated percentage of retail accounts that lose money. For exchanges, what independent attestation exists over reserves.
Three things the table cannot tell you
- 01Execution quality. Only your own fills against an independent feed can measure that.
- 02Withdrawal reliability. Test it with a small amount before it matters.
- 03Whether any of this is suitable for you. That depends on your circumstances and is not a question a comparison grid can answer.
A comparison table is a starting point for due diligence, never a substitute for it.