I think what happened to PaxForex spooked them, and if they can show they have put USA on the same list as Afghanistan and North Korea, then that will keep them off the CFTC radar.
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Interesting, thanks for sharing!
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Are you a high net worth individual?
Then you are probably considering getting a second passport.
And it makes total sense.
With a second passport at hand, you can dramatically increase your personal and economic freedom.
Who wouldnât want that? Having dual citizenship â or even multiple citizenships â is an important step to internationalizing your life so that no single government âownsâ you.
Looking after your growing net worth, tending to your business, and balancing family life all at the same time is hard work. You donât need to worry about what happens if there is civil unrest or if your government suddenly decides to raise the tax rates.
Not if you have âcitizenship insuranceâ. Not if you have a second passport.
A second passport will ensure that you reap all the benefits â tax optimization, improved travel potential, protection against controlling governments and more â counterbalanced by an acceptable (to you) level of risk.
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https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8291-20?utm_source=govdelivery
October 21, 2020
Washington, D.C. â The Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight (DSIO) of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission today issued an advisory to futures commission merchants (FCMs) regarding the holding of virtual currency in segregated accounts. The advisory provides guidance to FCMs on how to hold and report certain deposited virtual currency from customers in connection with physically-delivered futures contracts or swaps. The advisory also provides guidance that FCMs should follow when designing and maintaining risk management programs concerning the acceptance of virtual currencies as customer funds.
âAt the CFTC, one of our core values is to provide clarity to market participants,â said DSIO Director Joshua B. Sterling. âAs Chairman Tarbert has stated, the CFTC is committed to fostering responsible fintech innovation and improving the regulatory experience of registered firms where doing so is consistent with our rules. This advisory furthers these critical goals and will provide additional certainty on these issues as the Commission works to establish a holistic framework for digital asset derivatives.â
Itâs quite the circus. The Deribit crackdown today made my head spin and then I went and looked at the spreads for options on Ledger X in the US and it is so bad I thought I was going to pass out. I don;'t know what is going on in the united states but the exchanges cannot get liquidity or leverage or products to save their life. At least with forex you can trade on OANDA as a fallback, but with crypto no option even exists. They say it is 37% margin but it is 67% margin at interactive brokers and tradestation, and the big commodity brokers that only deal with companies are the only ones that really go lower. It truly is incompetence. They are just boomering and knee capping the market for crypto. It just staggers my mind to think that they messed up this badly with forex and crypto regulations and the language they use is so double speak and so out of touch. They will not do anything to life a finger to make a liquid meaningfully useful onshore crypto derivative exchange
I mean it is enraging. If youâre sitting in six figures of bitcoin and you canât hedge it with reasonable leverage youâre at a fundamental disadvantage, nevermind the altcoins. Being forced to trade AUD/JPY at 25 x leverage is degrading enough, but I have actual commercial needs to manage my crypto portfolio and these assholes expect you to deal with 1% round trip fees on coinbase!
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Sure is a circus. Since they monitor this thread, someone from the CFTC should pop on and speak here. Hereâs the bottom lineâŚI now believe there are backdoor deals between the CFTC and the brokers they âregulateâ. I mean letâs call it like it is, these brokers are allowed to get away with horrible trading conditions (spreads, frozen platforms, price spikes, etc) and nothing is done about it. I looked at IG spread on GBPAUD yesterday, it was over 7 lol. I pay 2.3 now. So step in here CFTC and tell it like it really isâŚwhy canât I trade with Dukascopy with Swiss regulation or any Australian broker with ASIC regulation. These regulators actually protect my funds also while you PROHIBIT your brokers from doing so. Youâre not protecting me, you are hindering me. Stop insulting our intelligence and just call it like it isâŚthe CFTC benefits when we lose to the garbage brokers under their watchful eye.
To be a US citizen and be on the same list as Afghanistan and North Korea, are you kidding me.
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maybe then AAFX is the way to go. Anybody use them? I created a free account but didnât dive into them yet.
And where is the post counter on this thread? You know how tough it is to use the page-scroll to get to the bottom of 10,000 posts???
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just downloaded a demo ECN to take a peek. They offer the usual suspects + stocks and commodities. Only 3 Cryptos to trade (and all BTC vs). Spreads on Forex seem typical, spreads on Indices are high (and count points like EagleFX, SageFX, etc), spread on BTCUSD is a joke and the largest of any broker I have accounts with. but if they are untouchable (if anything is these days) it is what it is and an option
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is there a way these brokers can bypass using U.S. Data centers /Server?
Probably not, due to most LP,s are going to have a presence here. If Iâm understanding everything correctly, the broker cannot have anything at all tied to US. I donât think there are many LPâs in Dominica or the Marshall Islands. What is truly enraging is for some of us, this is our livelihood. They are actually cutting off our ability to provide for our families. What would be the outrage if they did this to other professions? It wouldnât be tolerated, this is just absolute bullshit. St. Lucia here I come.
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i guess the only to go is Second Passports and Citizenship
From that articleâŚ
If youâre a US citizen, note that owning a second passport doesnât change your US tax filing or paying obligations. So long as youâre an American citizen, you must pay tax on your worldwide income. Also, offshore banks will continue to report to the IRS under FATCA.
I wonder if even a second passport would work; you are still a US citizen.
What really upsets me about this is what MrInvisible shared earlier, âif you have high 7 figuresâŚyou would be an ECP exempt from dod frank able to live in the US and trade with the large EU/AUS brokers.â
That sounds a lot like enable the mega rich to get richer and keep the regular guy/gal down, even the guy/gal with high 6 figures down. Who the heck came up with that âland of the freeâ law? We are going to force you to use crappy brokers so itâs really hard for you to ever qualify to be ECP except, but if you are already really wealthy you can trade with better brokers?
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Regarding trading BTC- I hear you. Take a look at evolve markets. Youâll need to trade from a VPS. Fee is 0.075 per trade and spreads are usually 1 to 2. In the old days I didnât use them because the account currency was BTC. This Summer they added USDT so I started up with them again.
Edit: Leverage info
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Exactly, as I stated I am now convinced the CFTC and the horrible brokers they regulate are in each otherâs pockets. The CFTC is like a market maker broker, when we lose, they win. I am absolutely positive just based on all the facts before us.
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I have an account with them too, but been trying to keep Evolve on the âlow downâ for fear someone malicious is really reading this thread. They are the âAceâ in our pocket, at least mine 
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From my experience, there are different tiers of discrimination against Americans depending on the broker:
In 2019 @SmallPaul mentioned an Aussie broker that was taking US clients. Indeed they were until you arrived at the verification phase. I donât recall every detail, but in the end they disqualified me because I am an âAmercian Tax payerâ It didnât matter that I have residency in a foreign country. Translation: âRenounce your citizenship and call us backâ.
The next tier is residency- If you can prove you live outside the U.S. but have residency in an approved country, some brokers will establish an account even if you hold a U.S. passport. I have accounts with two such brokers. Iâm only stating this to let the group know there are possibilities with foreign residency. Even if itâs part-time 
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Thanks for sharing! Itâs nice to know there are options like that available, and from this point would just need to do our own homework
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Yâall got my hopes up for something new.
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I access them from a Virtual Private Server outside of the USA. Most of the brokers have their servers in London, so my VPS is in Londonâeven at the same datacenter. The next best place would be Amsterdam; AAFX, Tradersway, and FXChoice have their servers there. I donât promote this practice; itâs use at your own risk kind of thingâthe reason I have not mentioned it much on this thread.
Right now Iâm sitting on 2 main offshore brokers as my mains, then adding a 3rd specialty broker later just for crypto trading. Then eventually adding FTMO into the mix as my base, then copy trading to my 2 main offshores which I can substitute others in/out as The Man and his Stupid Rules force me.
Pretty content with that. Down the road thereâs the possibility of living outside the US and having more choices, but thatâs for later.
Also pretty content to never trade with another US-based broker as long as I live, just out of spite
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