Washington, D.C. — The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced it has filed charges against five entities for operating as unregistered futures commission merchants (FCM). The entities, which claim to be based in either New York, N.Y. or at the same street address in Los Angeles, California, are Cryptostockoptionstrade Ltd, Global Smart Option Broker Ltd, Hypertradingoption Ltd, Stockbrokertechniques Ltd., and SprintTrade. Each complaint seeks an order directing the respondent to cease and desist from committing violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations.

“Today’s actions reflect the CFTC’s on-going efforts to enforce the registration requirements in the Commodity Exchange Act, which safeguard market participants and maintain market integrity,” said Acting Director of Enforcement Gretchen Lowe.

Case Background

The complaints allege that from approximately July 2022 to present, the entities have operated as FCMs and claim to be regulated by the CFTC, but in fact are not registered as required by the CEA.

As alleged, all the respondents claim to be one of the leading platforms offering binary options, forex and spreads. Four of the five websites also tout purported customer testimonials apparently claiming to have earned significant funds trading binary options with that respondent. As alleged in the complaints, none of these entities are registered with the CFTC in any capacity. 

The CFTC strongly urges the public to verify a company’s registration with the CFTC before committing funds. If unregistered, a customer should be wary of providing funds to that entity. A company’s registration status can be found using NFA BASIC. More information can be found at cftc.gov/check.

The Division of Enforcement staff members responsible for this case are Christopher Giglio, Elizabeth C. Brennan, David W. Oakland, Lara Turcik, K. Brent Tomer, Lenel Hickson, Jr., and Manal M. Sultan.