ThinkMarkets Review 2026

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Score: 80/100 (updated 2026-10)

Fees: Only Spreads
Products: Bitcoin, Altcoin · Derivatives · Margin Trading
Regulation: FCA, ASIC, CySEC
Not available in: US, Canada, Belgium, India, Russia, Japan
Min. deposit: none

Score basis: fees 25% · product depth 20% · security & regulation 25% · usability 15% · track record 15%

Visit ThinkMarkets

What changed since the last update: Primarily a forex/CFD broker with crypto CFDs. SPAC listing (Toronto) terminated Dec 2023; CySEC entity for EU clients. 2025: Japanese subsidiary left the group (now Asahi Markets). Dec 2025: Chaos ransomware claims a 512 GB data leak (incl. KYC records). Sep 2026: weekend trading extended to oil and indices.

What ThinkMarkets Is

ThinkMarkets is a multi-asset forex and CFD broker founded in Melbourne in 2010 as ThinkForex and rebranded in 2016. The group is now headquartered in London and Melbourne and says it serves clients in more than 165 countries.

The crypto point needs making early. ThinkMarkets is a forex and CFD broker first, and cryptocurrencies are offered only as CFDs – never as spot assets you can withdraw to a wallet.

A planned Toronto Stock Exchange listing via a merger with SPAC FG Acquisition Corp. was mutually terminated in December 2023. The group remains privately held and does not publish consolidated audited accounts.

That matters for transparency. Without public accounts, outside assessment rests on regulatory filings and licensing rather than financials.

What ThinkMarkets Costs

There are two main retail account types. The Standard account has no minimum deposit and no commission on most CFDs, with costs built into the spread.

An independent comparison from July 2026 put average EUR/USD spreads on Standard at about 1.1 pips. That is mid-table for the sector rather than market-leading.

The ThinkZero account offers raw spreads from 0.0 pips plus commission on forex and metals. The same source lists USD 3.50 per side per lot, GBP 2.50 for UK clients and EUR 3.00 for EU clients, with a USD 500 minimum deposit.

Crypto CFDs carry no commission. Costs come from the spread and overnight financing, and ThinkMarkets does not publish fixed crypto spreads in a comparable format.

Crypto spreads should be checked live on the platform before trading, since the hero fee line "only spreads" understates the financing cost on held positions. Swap charges apply to anything carried overnight.

Professional accounts with different conditions are available to eligible clients in some jurisdictions. Classification changes both leverage and protections, so it is not a cosmetic switch.

What You Can Trade

ThinkMarkets advertises more than 4,000 instruments across forex, indices, shares, commodities, ETFs, futures and crypto CFDs. That figure is the company's own, and MetaTrader carries a smaller range than ThinkTrader.

Crypto CFDs cover Bitcoin, Ethereum and other major coins, long and short. Weekend crypto CFD trading is available in certain jurisdictions, and in September 2026 weekend access was extended to crude oil and major indices.

Leverage is dynamic and entity-dependent. Retail clients under the FCA, CySEC and ASIC entities are capped at 30:1 on major FX, and crypto CFDs are far tighter at 2:1 in the EU and Australia.

The FCA ban on selling crypto derivatives to UK retail clients still applies. Clients of offshore entities can access much higher leverage, with the crypto product page advertising up to 1000:1 – a figure extreme even by offshore standards that should be reconfirmed against the current product page.

Platform coverage is a strength. ThinkTrader runs on web, desktop and mobile, alongside MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, a TradingView integration and copy trading.

Is ThinkMarkets Safe and Regulated?

Licensing is the strongest part of the file. An independent register check in July 2026 confirmed FCA authorisation for TF Global Markets (UK) Limited, FRN 629628, and ASIC AFSL 424700 for TF Global Markets (Aust) Pty Ltd.

CySEC licence 215/13 covers TF Global Markets (Europe) Ltd. The group also holds DFSA (Dubai/DIFC), FSCA (South Africa, FSP 49835) and FMA (New Zealand) authorisations, plus CIMA (Cayman Islands) and FSA (Seychelles, SD060) offshore entities.

The former Japanese subsidiary left the group in 2025, so the JFSA licence no longer belongs to ThinkMarkets. Client funds are held in segregated accounts.

UK retail clients are covered by the FSCS up to GBP 85,000, and eligible EU clients by the Cypriot ICF up to EUR 20,000. Negative balance protection applies under the FCA, CySEC and ASIC entities.

Clients routed to the Seychelles or Cayman entities – which covers many in Asia, Africa and Latin America – have no investor compensation scheme. Checking which entity your account sits with is the single most useful thing a new client can do.

Restricted jurisdictions include the US, Canada, Belgium (national retail CFD ban), India, Russia, Saint Lucia, Bermuda and sanctioned countries. Japan is no longer served following the 2025 exit.

One security incident stands out. In December 2025 the Chaos ransomware group listed ThinkMarkets on its leak site and claimed to have stolen and published 512 GB of data, reportedly including client KYC records and employee passport scans.

ThinkMarkets made no public statement at the time of reporting. There are no reports of client funds being affected.

Support record and platform feel

One Trustpilot complainant discovered through AFCA that their account sat under the Saint Lucia entity, outside Australian jurisdiction – a reminder of how much the contracting entity matters here.

The broader record is solid: a TrustScore of 4 out of 5 across roughly 530 reviews, about 65% five-star against 21% one-star, with replies to 89% of negative reviews, usually within a week.

The split tells the real story. Positive reviews praise platform stability, fast execution and responsive account managers; the one-star block is dominated by withdrawal delays and escalating document requests when money moves out, with several 2026 reviewers describing waits of days to two weeks that chat agents could flag but not resolve.

Support itself runs 24/7 and multilingual – better coverage than most mid-size brokers offer. ThinkTrader is polished on mobile and web with a gentle learning curve for a CFD platform, and MT4/MT5 are there for traditionalists.

Deposits, withdrawals and the weekend edge

Weekend trading on crypto, crude oil and major indices – in eligible jurisdictions – is the practical differentiator. For short-term traders who want to open or manage positions while other CFD venues are closed, that is genuinely uncommon.

Deposits are free on ThinkMarkets' side and run through cards, bank transfer and regional e-wallets, with most card and e-wallet deposits crediting near-instantly. Withdrawals return by the funding method, and bank transfer is the preferred route for larger amounts.

Standard KYC verification typically completes within a day. The Trustpilot record shows extra verification is sometimes demanded at withdrawal rather than onboarding, so expect possible document requests when cashing out.

There is no public REST trading API for retail clients. Automation runs through MT4/MT5 expert advisors or the TradingView connection, and ThinkCopy covers copy trading.