If you are promised ECN, 100% bonuses, and low commissions, it does not necessarily mean that the broker is trustworthy. In this Hankotrade review, you will find out why the company is extremely dangerous to deal with, for example, due to being placed on the red list by the CFTC Financial Commission, among many other reasons.
Brief Overview
- 🖥Official Website: https://hankotrade.com
- ✈️Contact Address: Blake Building, Corner Houston & Eyre Street, Belize City, Belize
- 📞Customer Support: support@hankotrade.com
- 🔐Licensing and Accreditation: –
- ⏳Track Record: 2020
- 🧰Specialization: brokerage service
- 🤝Terms of Cooperation: $10, 1:500
- 💰Additional Services: 100% bonus, partnership program, PAMM
Hankotrade.com Examination
The first impression — the website looks modern, targeted at beginners, but attempts to appear “respectable”. There is a lot of empty marketing and far too many words that say nothing concrete. The color scheme combines white and dark blue — typical for “financial” websites. All illustrations are standard stock images. Little figures with coins, charts, and computers — this is not a visual identity, but a cliched set you can find on hundreds of pseudo-broker sites. There is no logic or meaningful content. It all looks like a Tilda template thrown together in a couple of hours.
Hankotrade constantly emphasizes “low commissions”, “institutional trading”, “transparency”, “customer support”, and “accessibility”. However, there is not a single word about regulation, legal information, financial reports, partners, or the company’s background.
At the top of the page is a standard menu with sections about the broker, account types, tradable assets, the platform, partnership opportunities, additional tools, and bonuses. Next to it are buttons for login and registration. By the way, the site is only available in English.
Company Contacts
In the contact section, Hankotrade provides a legal address in Belize and an email address. There is also a contact form. At the same time, the broker suggests getting in touch by phone or via Skype, but does not provide any details for these communication channels. There is a link to an Instagram account in the site’s footer, but for some reason, no other social media accounts are listed. The account has over 20,000 followers, yet the last post was published over a year ago — on 25 April 2024. Has the company ceased operations? Or are client complaints becoming more frequent?
Key Conditions
Hankotrade offers three types of accounts to its clients:
- STP — from $10 deposit, spreads from 0.7 pips, and zero commission.
- ECN — $100 and more, spreads from 0.0 pips, and a commission of $2 per lot.
- ECN Plus — from $1,000, the same zero spreads, but with a commission of $1 per lot.
All accounts promise 1:500 leverage, negative balance protection, and an Islamic (swap-free) version. Additionally, the broker provides a demo account for testing and getting familiar with the platform. Notably, the platform is proprietary and is called HankoX.
The broker claims to be a “True ECN”, supposedly routing trades directly to the interbank market. However, it simultaneously offers commissions as low as $2 and even $1 per side. This is absolute nonsense.
For comparison:
- IC Markets (one of the most well-known true ECN brokers, licensed by ASIC) charges $3.5 per side ($7 round turn) on a Raw account.
- Pepperstone — $3.5–$3.76 per side, depending on the platform.
- Admirals (formerly Admiral Markets) — around $3–4 per side as well.
Hankotrade’s rates are half of that. This is either a deliberate loss for the company or simply a fake ECN model. With ECN brokers, such conditions are economically unviable — commissions cover the costs of liquidity, order processing, and infrastructure. Here, it feels as though the company is simply generating its own prices within its platform and not routing trades to the market. A classic dealing desk. Which means a conflict of interest.
A leverage of 1:500 for an ECN broker is pure nonsense. Real liquidity providers at these volumes do not offer more than 1:100. And one final suspicious element — the 100% bonuses, which are also impossible if the company is truly routing traders’ positions to interbank liquidity.
Exposing Hankotrade
We are dealing with an offshore company registered in Belize. This is a country where obtaining a “licence” costs just a few hundred dollars, and no genuine regulator monitors the activities of brokers. The firm does not hold licenses from the FCA, ASIC, CySEC, or any other respected authority. This means no one will protect your funds if they are simply frozen or disappear. No insurance, no oversight, no guarantees — just a glossy facade and fairy tales about “interbank liquidity”.
These are precisely the kinds of schemes that most often trap beginners. You transfer funds via cryptocurrency, which means you can no longer retrieve them through the bank. You accept a “bonus” — and then you are denied a withdrawal. And if you manage to profit, they may simply void your trades under the pretext of “violating terms”. Hankotrade is not a broker. It is an illegal platform operating without rules and outside the law, where everything is designed to drain your deposits.
One more interesting and important point. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has added Hankotrade to its RED List, indicating that the company is operating without the required registration and may pose a risk to investors. Here is the link to that entry from the CFTC: https://www.cftc.gov/node/241186.
This makes it clear that the company offers no guarantees whatsoever. Client deposits are neither protected nor insured. Moreover, Hankotrade blatantly lies about being an ECN broker — a serious red flag for potential fraud. Interestingly, the CFTC’s red list entry mentions the Seychelles as the jurisdiction, but the company is currently based in Belize. It appears the scammers are relocating from one place to another to cover their tracks.
What Reviews Do Users Leave?
There are surprisingly many reviews about Hankotrade online. Even more surprising is the overall rating — over 4 out of 5 stars. How can such a platform have a positive reputation? Clearly, these are fake comments. They are written in the style of “good broker”, “they are the best”, “great help & they always respond on time”, and other such nonsense. There is not a single piece of evidence that the company consistently pays out funds to traders or allows trouble-free trading.
At the same time, there are negative reviews as well — and they tend to be more detailed and informative. Users report withdrawal issues, including delays and refusals without explanation. Some traders claim that their profitable trades were removed from their trading history without notice.
Conclusions
Hankotrade has been engaged in its illegal operations for quite some time, which is why we strongly advise caution and recommend not risking your money. There are no guarantees of reliability here — only lies and fake benefits used by fraudsters to lure inexperienced traders onto their illicit platform.
Pros/Cons
- The broker offers a demo account.
- Illegal operations. There are no licenses displayed on the official website.
- Fake positive reviews. The comments are repetitive and provide no evidence of the company’s honesty or reliability.
- The organization is listed on the CFTC Red List.
- Hankotrade lies about being an ECN broker. In reality, the business model used does not involve routing orders to liquidity providers, which creates a direct conflict of interest.
I advise avoiding Hanko Trade at all costs. It is a fraudulent broker – they blocked my account after I managed to make over $1,000 in net profit within a week. Luckily, my initial deposit was not large enough to significantly impact my life. But that is not the point – the reality is that the platform does not want you to profit. If you become a successful trader here, you will inevitably be blocked
I see no reason to trust this company. As an experienced trader, I strongly advise against taking the risk. There is no license, no insurance, and their legal entity is based in an offshore jurisdiction. If you run into any issues, no one will help you. Look for brokers regulated by authorities like the FCA, CySEC, and so on. Only then will you have protection and guarantees. That is the only way. Forget about hankotrade.com
Because of the fake positive reviews, I believed them and invested $1,500. I lost every last cent. It is impossible to trade profitably here, only unprofitably!! The platform constantly lags, the spreads are enormous, and customer support seems non-existent!