Disclaimer: 80.6% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money.

Trade Ethereum, Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ripple with Plus500

First, a general comment on CFDs.  CFD markets are not the most transparent – the rates are set by the operator who acts as market maker (is the opposite side to your trade).  Reputable market makers – of which Plus500 should be counted – make their money by balancing their books between the buy and sell orders and earning the commission charged.  Those that don’t properly balance their books are compensated directly from a trader’s losses – and since the market maker sets the underlying price one can easily see the conflict of interest.

This is an entirely different model than a straight exchange, in which users trade directly against one another and the exchange makes money solely from the fee.  Those willing to collateralize their trades in bitcoin – meaning first buy bitcoin directly – should check out an exchange like bitmex, which has extremely low fees, an entirely transparent pricing index, entirely adjustable leverages up to 100:1, and requires only an email to begin trading.  That being said.

Plus500 is one of the most well-respected CFD providers in the market. Founded in 2008, the platform offers a massive number – four digits and the first digit does not start with a 1 – of instruments for trading, including equities, indexes, commodities, Forex, ETFs and, more recently, cryptocurrencies. The trading platform was developed to target mass market traders, and offers an extremely intuitive interface and top-rated mobile applications for Android and iOS.

For our purposes, we focus specifically on cryptocurrency trading. Traders can open long or short orders on Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin and Ripple, with leverages of 30:1 for bitcoin and ethereum, and 10:1 for Ripple and Litecoin. In comparison to its crypto trading peers, this represents the widest variety of instruments one may find, with leverages higher than almost all the competition.

So, amongst cryptocurrency trading platforms, Plus500 is one of the best, offering a very intuitive platform, a number of cryptocurrencies with the highest available leverages in the market, with relatively low spreads, albeit it high premium rates (charged on overnight positions).

We should of course emphasize that trading leveraged CFDs can move very quickly – particularly in volatile markets like cryptocurrencies. When trading crypto CFDs, be aware that your capital is at Risk!

Opening an Account

Most people choose to start with a demo account, which requires only email and password to set up. Once you would like to transfer to a real money account, you will need to fill in additional biographical information, accept terms of use and a conflict of interest statement, a number of trading questions, and finally, a photo ID scan, and perhaps a beneficiary statement which could include a quick video chat with a support rep.

Depositing and Withdrawing

Depositing is quite simple, with bank transfers, credit cards, paypal, money orders and skrill accepted. Plus500 waives any deposit charges, though they do reserve the right to pass on incurred currency conversion fees. You are, however, responsible for withdrawal fees.

Cryptocurrency Trading on Plus500

Within or without the crypto trading marketplace, Plus500 has earned a reputation as perhaps the most intuitive and user-friendly trading platform in the wider CFD marketplace. The platform is designed to appeal to the mass market, to entry-level traders seeking a straightforward solution for the buying and selling of instruments.

To open a trade, pick the category of instruments you would like from the left-hand navigational panel. Virtual currencies are located under the Forex tab (for illustrative purposes only).

This will populate the corresponding instruments above the chart. Clicking on short or long next to any particular instrument will open the trading slip (illustrative purposes only).

The amount field will display your position after leverage – the required margin will be shown below. Profit taking and stop loss options are easily established within the same trade slip. An additional box titled “guaranteed stop” is basically insurance that your stop loss will be honoured, even in the event that the market moves to quickly to actual liquidate the order. This is available at an additional fee and limited to specific instruments, but might be well worth using if possible. A click on the advanced trading link opens a “trailing stop” box, which allows a constant method for locking on profit, and a limit order option. There is also an info link, which provides additional information about the instrument, things like the premium rate and time, margin requirements, and leverage available.

If a limit order is placed, the pending order will be filed under the “orders” tab, from which the trade slip may be accessed for editing as required. Once the order has been filled, or if a standard market order has been set up, the order will be shown under “open positions”. Open positions are simply closed from the Open Position window, with a simple click of the close button. Of course, once closed the order history is shown under “closed positions”.

The chart has a lovely little feature which shows the rate at which your order has been executed, where your limit order sits in relation to the current price, as well as stop loss and take profit lines.

Crypto instrument specifics

The maintenance margin is the equity required in the account once the position is opened. I the maintenance margin is not maintained, the position may automatically be closed. The minimum contract size will change based on price. Generally equivalent to approximately 500-$750 worth of the underlying asset.

Plus500 Cryptocurrency Trading Spreads and Premium Rates

Spreads and margin amounts are changing constantly. Leverages can get as high as 30:1.  Note that premium rates, or the charge on positions held overnight, is extremely high, amongst the highest of all crypto trading platforms reviewed. If you are planning to hold positions overnight, perhaps have a look at some of the other cryptocurrency CFD brokers.

Plus500 Mobile

Plus500 has iOS and Android applications that are widely acclaimed throughout the market.

Support

Plus500 has no phone support, and at times their responses seem templated. However, they are quick to respond via live chat and email, and offer local support in English, Russian, Arabic and Hebrew.

Might Look Elsewhere if:

You are willing to actually buy bitcoin.

Unless you absolutely MUST keep your deposit in government-issued, it is quite difficult to come up with any reason to trade crypto CFDs rather than an actual crypto derivatives exchange.  The Bitmex derivatives exchange offers lower fees, massive liquidity with tiny spreads, a greater variety of cryptos, transparent pricing, and email-only registration. 1broker is, in our opinion, the leading spot to buy mainstream CFDs using bitcoin.

If you are still shopping around, have a look at our Crypto CFD comparison tool.

Additional Bits and Bobs

We should make note that Plus500UK Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 509909). We also believe it implicitly understood that the cryptocurrency market is quite volatile, and of course capital invested in leveraged cryptocurrency CFDs is at risk of loss.

Bottom Line

Plus500 is a well established and regulated CFD brokerage. It is one of only a handful that offers cryptocurrency trading, and a wide variety of instruments are represented. The spreads are very reasonable, though overnight positions get hit with a relatively high premium rate.

Click here to trade cryptocurrency at Plus500