Cryptocurrencies
Spread bet or trade CFDs on popular cryptocurrencies, including
bitcoin, ethereum and litecoin, as well as our unique range of
crypto indices. These are high-risk speculative products. High volatility
combined with leverage could lead to significant losses.
- 90,000 clients globally
- No minimum deposit
- Free sign-up
Segregated fundsFind out more
FCA regulatedFind out more
Why trade on cryptocurrencies with us?
There are a number of benefits to becoming a crypto trader with us.
Tax-efficient trading1
There’s no capital gains tax on profits from crypto spread bets and no stamp duty to pay when trading CFDs.
Go long or short2
Take a long or short position on your chosen cryptocurrency, and trade on rising or falling prices.3
Trade with leverage
Deposit 50% of the full value of your position to open a crypto trade.4
A regulated provider
CMC Markets UK is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), registration numbers 173730 and 170627.
Established company
Easily deposit or withdraw funds, and avoid the worry and hassle of dealing with an unfamiliar cryptocurrency exchange.
Award-winning support5
Speak to a member of our Client Management team 24 hours a day, from Sunday evening through to Friday evening.
1Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and can change or may differ in a jurisdiction other than the UK.
2Please note, we may, at our sole discretion, restrict your ability to go long or short.
3Learn more about cryptocurrency risks
4When trading using margin any losses will reflect the full value of the position.
5Awarded Best Telephone Customer Service & Best Email Customer Service, based on highest user satisfaction among spread betters, CFD and FX traders, Investment Trends 2019 UK Leverage Trading Report.
Giving crypto traders an edge
Continued investment in our HTML5 platform and mobile apps has been recognised through a number of industry awards, including Best Platform Features and Best Mobile/Tablet App, among spread betters, CFD and FX traders, in the 2019 Investment Trends UK Leverage Trading Report.
Create custom chart templates, save indicator settings and quickly organise charts to fit your trading screen(s) exactly how you like.
Use popular line, OHLC and candlestick charts, to more advanced charts such as kagi, line break and renko.
Get over 35 drawing tools to help you identify market structure and over 100 overlays, studies and inbuilt pattern scans including Bollinger Bands®, SMAs, ichimoku clouds, MACD, RSI, wedge patterns, double tops and many more.
Easily place and close trades, or edit stop-loss and take-profit levels directly from your charts. You can also display, modify or close any pending orders.
Discuss and share chart analysis, trade setups and commentary from our analysts and other CMC Markets traders, helping you to identify potential key moves and patterns in the markets.
Trade and manage your orders anywhere. Enjoy live streaming prices, live charts, advanced order ticket functionality and more.
Tailor your dashboard to suit you and your trading strategy. Simply resize, reposition or remove tiles and monitor the markets that matter to you.
Quickly see which instruments are experiencing significant movement. You can view the most traded instruments from the last seven days, hot products (based on recent trade volume), price movers and more.
Set up price, execution, market calendar, breaking news and price-mover alerts using the notification centre. Receive alerts in-app, or via push, SMS or email, so you never miss an important market event.
Quickly access your account and the markets, along with the reassurance that your account is always secure.
See the percentage of CMC Markets clients who have bought versus the percentage who have sold on a particular instrument. It’s updated every minute so you can gain an understanding of other clients' expectations.
Scan over 120 of our most popular instruments every 15 minutes for emerging and completed chart patterns such as wedges, channels and head and shoulders formations.
Monitor market-moving events in our real-time economic calendar and get live financial market news, all within our platform (powered by Reuters). Share traders can also access Morningstar research to help make more informed investing decisions.
Create customisable watchlists that automatically sync across devices. Mobile app watchlists will also save your chart analysis to your device for future reference.
Uncover new opportunities by filtering instruments based on performance and volatility measures over multiple timeframes, by type, country or sector.
Manage risk on every trade using flexible order placements. Set up default stop-loss and take-profit orders, trailing stops, partially close-out trades and more. You can also create guaranteed stop-loss orders for 100% certainty that your stop-loss will be executed at the exact price you want, regardless of market volatility or gapping.
Use boundary orders to control slippage in volatile markets, our price ladder to fill large orders, trade using unrealised profit and go long and short simultaneously on the same instrument.
Receive platform pop-ups and get alerts emailed to you, sent by SMS, or pushed to your mobile device when important price levels you’ve set up are breached or your pending orders are triggered.
Market volatility and rapid changes in price can cause your account balance to change quickly. We give you the ability to choose a preferred close-out method in our platform in the event that your balance falls below the close-out level.
| Instrument | Minimum spread* | Margin rate from** | Leverage equivalent | Holding cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin/USD | 80 | 50% | 2:1 | +0.0959%/- 0.0274% |
| Bitcoin Cash/USD | 3.8 | 50% | 2:1 | +0.0753%/- 0.0274% |
| Ethereum/USD | 4.5 | 50% | 2:1 | +0.0959%/- 0.0342% |
| Litecoin/USD | 125 | 50% | 2:1 | +0.0753%/- 0.0274% |
| Instrument | Minimum spread* | Margin rate from** | Leverage equivalent | Holding cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin/USD | 80 | 50% | 2:1 | +0.0959%/- 0.0274% |
| Bitcoin Cash/USD | 3.8 | 50% | 2:1 | +0.0753%/- 0.0274% |
| Cardano/USD | 36 | 50% | 2:1 | +0.0753%/- 0.0274% |
| Dash/USD | 12 | 50% | 2:1 | +0.0753%/- 0.0274% |
| EOS/USD | 3.8 | 50% | 2:1 | +0.0753%/- 0.0274% |
| Ethereum/USD | 4.5 | 50% | 2:1 | +0.0959%/- 0.0342% |
| Litecoin/USD | 125 | 50% | 2:1 | +0.0753%/- 0.0274% |
| Monero/USD | 160 | 50% | 2:1 | +0.0753%/- 0.0274% |
| NEO/USD | 38 | 50% | 2:1 | +0.0753%/- 0.0274% |
| Stellar Lumens/USD | 50 | 50% | 2:1 | +0.0753%/- 0.0274% |
| TRON/USD | 16 | 50% | 2:1 | +0.0753%/- 0.0274% |
| Instrument | Minimum spread* | Margin rate from** | Leverage equivalent | Holding cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Crypto Index | 80 | 50% | 2:1 | +0.0959%/- 0.0274% |
| Major Crypto Index | 80 | 50% | 2:1 | +0.0959%/- 0.0274% |
| Emerging Crypto Index | 60 | 50% | 2:1 | +0.0753%/- 0.0274% |
What are cryptocurrencies?
If you’re new to trading on cryptos, take a look at some of our helpful articles to get a better idea of what cryptocurrencies are and how they work.
Your questions answered
Learn more about trading cryptocurrencies with CMC Markets. Can’t find what you’re looking for? Get in touch
Pricing and costs
How much does it cost to open an account?
There’s no cost when opening a live account. You can also
view prices and use tools such as charts, Reuters news or Morningstar quantitative
equity reports free of charge. You’ll need to deposit funds in your account
to place a trade.
View the full list of cryptocurrencies on the platform
What is the minimum trade size on cryptocurrencies?
You can spread bet from £0.10/point on NEO, £0.05/point on bitcoin and £1/point on ethereum. You can see the minimum trade size for all instruments on the platform, in the ‘Product Overview’ under ‘Betting and Position Limits’.
What are the costs of trading on cryptocurrencies?
There are a number of costs to consider when spread betting or trading CFDs on cryptocurrencies, including spread costs, holding costs (for trades held overnight – this is essentially a fee for the funds we ‘lend you’ to cover the leveraged portion of the trade), rollover costs and guaranteed stop-loss order charges (if you use this risk-management tool).
The spread is the key cost involved in spread betting, and is the difference between the buy and sell price of an instrument. The narrower the spread, the better value you receive, because the market only has to move slightly in your favour to offer the possibility of a profit on your trade.
Some trades held open past the end of the trading day (5pm, New York time) are subject to overnight holding costs, which can be positive or negative depending on your trade direction and the applicable holding rate. Daily holding costs for Bitcoin/USD are charged at 0.0959% on long positions, and paid at 0.0274% on short positions. Overnight holding costs for most other cryptocurrencies are charged at 0.0753% on long positions, and paid at 0.0274% on short positions.
What are your margin rates on cryptocurrencies?
Margin rates on cryptocurrencies start from 50%. Margin rates show the percentage of the total trade value that you need to put forward to open a position.
Where do your prices come from?
Our automated pricing engine collates and checks thousands of prices per second streamed from our liquidity providers. The most representative price is then used to create the quotes on our platform. Our pricing is based on the underlying market. Learn more
Products and accounts
What the risks of trading on cryptocurrencies?
Cryptocurrencies can be particularly susceptible to volatility, so it’s important to understand the risks before you start trading. Learn more about the risks involved in trading on cryptocurrencies.
Why spread betting?
Spread betting allows you to trade tax-free on a wide range of financial markets 24 hours a day, from Sunday nights through to Friday nights. Trade on your phone, tablet, PC or Mac on a wide range of instruments using leverage. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and can change or may differ in a jurisdiction other than the UK.
What is leveraged trading?
One of the advantages of spread betting is that you only need to deposit a percentage of the full value of your position to open a trade, known as trading on leverage. Remember, trading on leverage can also amplify losses, so it’s important to manage your risk. Learn more
Is CMC Markets regulated by the FCA?
Yes, CMC Markets plc (registration number 173730) and CMC Spreadbet plc (registration number 170627) are fully authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK. Retail client money is held in segregated client bank accounts and money held on behalf of clients is distributed across a range of major banks, which are regularly assessed against our risk criteria.
Is CMC Markets covered by the FSCS?
Yes, your eligible deposits with CMC Markets are protected up to a total of £85,000 by the Financial Services Compensations Scheme (FSCS), the UK’s deposit guarantee scheme. If CMC Markets ever went into liquidation, retail clients would have their share of segregated money returned, minus the administrators’ costs in handling and distributing these funds. Any shortfall of funds up to £85,000 may be compensated under the FSCS.
What can I trade?
You can spread bet or trade CFDs on 12 individual cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum, litecoin and ripple, plus a number of other alternative coins. You can also trade on one of our three custom crypto indices, which offer you the opportunity to take a view on a basket of cryptos in one trade. Our crypto indices are All Crypto Index, Major Crypto Index and Emerging Crypto Index.
In addition to digital currencies, you can also trade on a huge range of other markets:
300+ forex pairs – EUR/GBP, EUR/USD, AUD/USD, GBP/USD,
USD/JPY and more
80+ indices – UK 100, Germany 30, US 30, US SPX
500, Australia 200 and more
100+ commodities – including Gold, Brent and West
Texas crude oil, Silver, Natural Gas
9,000+ shares – Apple, Netflix, Lloyds, Rio Tinto,
BP, Tesco, Amazon, Google and more
50+ treasuries – including UK Gilt, Euro Bund, Euribor,
US T-Bond, US T-Note 10 YR
Do you offer a demo account?
If you want to try trading on cryptocurrencies risk-free, you can open a demo account now with just your email address and a password.
How to start trading on cryptocurrencies
- 1
Apply
Complete and submit our straightforward online application form. Apply now
- 2
Fund
Deposit funds with a debit card, PayPal or bank transfer.
- 3
Trade
Once you’ve funded your new account, you’re ready to start trading.
You might also be interested in:
Markets to trade
Trade on FX, indices, cryptos, commodities, shares and treasuries from a single account.
Developing your trading skills
Access free trading webinars, platform guides, advanced trading strategies and more.
Breaking news & analysis
Get the latest economic news and analysis from our global market experts.
*A minimum spread is the lowest spread that will be shown on the given instrument. If the underlying market spread widens throughout the trading day, or you are trading out of hours, the platform spread may also widen. The spreads shown are for the first price available for the average market trade/bet sizes in the relevant instrument. The spread will widen for larger trade/bet sizes; see our platform for more information.
**Spreads, commissions and margins (as applicable) are provided for information only. Please refer to the product overview area of our trading platform for the most up-to-date information including trading hours and spreads.