Strong points
Admirals was launched in 2001 under the name Admiral Markets before being rebranded as Admirals in 2021 as part of its 20th anniversary. Its headquarters are in the United Kingdom, where it was founded, but it has since expanded beyond the UK and has offices in Cyprus, Estonia, Australia, and South Africa.
Admirals’ global reach makes it an online broker serving clients worldwide, with a few exceptions, such as the United States, where it is not authorized to operate. According to Forexbrokers.com, Admirals has 340 employees serving over 48,000 clients with over $82 million in client assets.
You can trade cryptocurrency CFDs on Admirals, as the company is regulated in Cyprus by the CySEC. This allows Admirals to operate across Europe while providing investor protections guaranteed by the regulator, such as €20,000 in compensation if the company goes bankrupt.
On Admirals, you have access to over 40 cryptocurrencies, ranging from popular ones like Bitcoin (BTC)and Ethereum (ETH) to lesser-known ones like Zcash (ZEC). All cryptocurrency products are offered in the form of CFDs, meaning you are only speculating on the price fluctuations of cryptocurrencies without holding tokens in a wallet.
In addition to cryptocurrencies, you can also trade other financial assets such as stocks, indices, currency pairs, commodities, ETFs, and bonds. This should allow you to have greater exposure to various financial markets and diversify your portfolio while hedging against risks to improve your performance.
Admirals has proven to be a solid choice for those looking to trade in cryptocurrencies and other financial markets. Therefore, this review is meant to highlight why the platform is so popular and whether it might be the right fit for you.
There are over 8,000 financial instruments available for trading on Admirals across different asset classes. So, while it is an excellent platform for investing and trading in cryptocurrencies, you can do much more from the same platform.
42 cryptocurrencies are currently listed on Admirals, and you can trade any of them through the provided trading platforms. The top 5 cryptocurrencies you will find on the platform include:
Some less popular cryptocurrencies are also available such as:
Although there is not a very wide range of cryptocurrencies on Admirals, 42 is a respectable number, especially for a new trader looking to gain exposure to the crypto industry. Besides, Admirals compensates for the limitation in cryptocurrencies by offering thousands of other assets.
In addition to cryptocurrencies, Admirals offers many other financial products that you can trade simultaneously on the same platform. The widest range is found in stocks, where you can find over 3,000 stocks from major exchanges. Some US stocks you can trade include:
Simultaneously, you can trade EU stocks, including those from France listed on Euronext Paris, such as:
Other asset classes can be traded through Admirals:
Since its inception, Admirals has primarily been a CFDs broker, although it now also offers some real stocks and ETFs (spot). CFDs (contracts for difference) are a form of derivative product, meaning that you do not buy the actual underlying asset but rather a contract on its market price, be it a cryptocurrency or another financial asset.
In the case of cryptocurrencies, for example, you cannot use such crypto CFDs to buy goods and services or transfer coins to another person’s crypto wallet. Nevertheless, a CFD accurately tracks the price of its underlying asset, allowing you to gain exposure to the crypto market without buying the actual coins.
Although you do not interact with the blockchain directly, such a contract between you and the broker (Admirals) grants you various advantages such as:
Perhaps the only downside to CFDs may be that you do not own the actual asset in which you are investing. For instance, you cannot transfer your cryptocurrency holdings to your wallet or use them for any other purpose.
Admirals accepts investors and traders from nearly all around the world and has worked to make the platform signup process very straightforward. You can start trading on Admirals today by following these 5 easy steps:
The first step to joining the Admirals community is to create a trading account on the company’s website. We recommend doing this on your desktop for easier navigation, but you can also use your mobile device.
After activating your account, a series of messages asking you to verify the details you entered previously will appear.
Confirm all the details you just provided and proceed to the verification stage.
Verification of these documents only takes a few minutes. During our review of Admirals, the process took less than 5 minutes and we were able to proceed to the next step.
To prevent unauthorized access, we recommend setting up two-factor authentication (2FA) on your account. By default, Admirals will send a code to your registered email when logging in, but you can also set up 2FA through your phone by SMS or Google Authenticator. Not only does this prevent unauthorized logins, but it can also be used to prevent certain activities such as withdrawals.
At this stage, you can already start trading on a demo account, but real trading begins when you put your actual funds at stake. Minimum requirements vary depending on the type of account you choose and the subsidiary you use. In any case, there are various options to fund your account.
Credit/debit cards are the most preferable because funds are deposited instantly, while bank transfers are better for larger deposits. Various payment providers are also available on the platform, such as Skrill, PayPal, Klarna, Neteller, SafetyPay, AstroPay, Trustly, Rapid Transfer, and NganLuong. Depending on your location, you may also find local payment solutions listed too.
At Admirals, the two main trading platforms you can use are MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5). Despite being the older version, MetaTrader 4 is still more popular among the two trading platforms because most traders have used it before. The 2 platforms can host Expert Advisors (EAs) or trading robots.
If you are already familiar with this platform, you can download it for free from the Admirals website and install it on your computer. Otherwise, visit your mobile phone’s app store, download the MT4 app, and log in using the details provided for your newly created account.
On the other hand, MT5 has more features than MT4, especially for investors who want to use advanced tools like level 2 market data. It is not as popular as MT4 and has fewer custom indicators, but the platform has many built-in tools and a growing community of developers.
Alternatively, use the Admirals web trader right from your browser without having to download any applications. It may take some time to get the hang of it, but it’s powered by TradingView and has all the tools necessary for analyzing the markets and making informed trading decisions.
Once you are logged in and your account is funded, it’s time to take the first step in crypto trading. The easiest way is to place an order through the trading platform you have downloaded. For instance, you can place a buy order for a certain number of Bitcoins at the current market price, and the order will be executed immediately.
You can also use limit orders to enter a specific price at which you want to buy or sell Bitcoin in the future. Copy trading is also available where you can see the performance of other traders. When you find one with what you consider good results, you can choose to copy their positions. This process is automated, so their trades are automatically replicated in your trading account.
Transactions on the Admirals platform can be charged through spreads or commissions, depending on the type of account you select and the trading platform you use.
| Trade.MT4 | Zero.MT4 | |
| Spreads | Starting from 0.5 pips | Starting from 0.0 pips |
| Commissions | Starting from 0.02 USD (Share and ETF CFDs)Forex is commission-free | Between $1.8 and $3.0 per 1 lot traded (100,000 units of currency) |
| Minimum deposit | 100 EUR | 100 EUR |
| Base currencies | EUR, GBP, USD, CHF, BGN, CZK, HRK, HUF, PLN, RON | EUR, GBP, USD, CHF, BGN, CZK, HRK, HUF, PLN, RON |
Note that the Zero.MT4 account does not allow trading in cryptocurrencies.
| Trade.MT5 | Invest.MT5 | Zero.MT5 | |
| Spreads | Starting from 0.5 pips | 0 pips | Starting from 0.0 pips |
| Commissions | Starting from 0.02 USD (Share and ETF CFDs)Forex is commission-free | Starting from $0.02 per unit for real stocks and ETFs Forex and metals – $1.8 to USD 3.0 per lot Indices – $0.05 to $3.0 per lot Energies – $1 per lot | Between $1.8 and $3.0 per 1 lot traded (100,000 units of currency) |
| Minimum deposit | 100 EUR | 1 EUR | 100 EUR |
| Base currencies | EUR, GBP, USD, CHF, BGN, CZK, HRK, HUF, PLN, RON | EUR, GBP, USD, CHF, BGN, CZK, HRK, HUF, PLN, RON | EUR, GBP, USD, CHF, BGN, CZK, HRK, HUF, PLN, RON | EUR, GBP, USD, CHF, BGN, CZK, HRK, HUF, PLN, RON |
Among the MT5 trading accounts, only the Trade.MT5 account offers cryptocurrency trading, while the Invest.MT5 account only offers real stocks and ETFs (spot), and the Zero.MT5 account has lower fees but fewer instruments.
While there are numerous online cryptocurrency brokers, many are not trustworthy, and many investors have been burned when a broker suddenly closes shop and disappears, manipulates the market, or refuses to process withdrawals. However, you should feel secure trading cryptocurrencies on Admirals, as the company is highly regulated.
Based in the United Kingdom, it is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under registration number 595450. The FCA is known to be one of the most rigorous financial regulators globally and ensures that brokers compensate their clients up to GBP 85,000 in case of bankruptcy.
For French residents, though, you will be trading through the company’s subsidiary based in Cyprus. The Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) is also among the most reliable regulators globally and provides compensation to investors up to EUR 20,000. Admirals itself offers compensation of up to EUR 50,000, following its own policy.
To expand its global reach, Admirals also has subsidiaries in Jordan and South Africa, both regulated by their respective local financial regulatory authorities. More recently, the company has registered with the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) and can now operate in Ontario and British Columbia.
The broker has stood the test of time, having been around for over two decades. During this period, it has received numerous awards, such as being named ‘Best Forex Broker in the Baltic Region’ and ‘Best of the Best’ by The New Europe magazine in 2012.
Its website is secure by encrypting user data and client funds are segregated so that users can always withdraw their capital, so we can confidently say that Admirals is a safe broker to use.
