By Albert Czajkowski, Editor and founder of ForexRev

EXANTE Review 2026: Fees, Regulation and the €10,000 Minimum Deposit

EXANTE is a multi-asset broker founded in 2011 for experienced and wealthy investors: one multi-currency account gives access to stocks, ETFs, futures, options, bonds, currencies and metals on more than 50 markets (EXANTE says over 2 million instruments). EU clients are served by EXT LTD, a Cypriot investment firm licensed by CySEC (licence 165/12).

In short: EXANTE suits active investors who need many exchanges and asset classes in one place and can deposit at least €10,000. Its biggest strengths are low commissions on US stocks ($0.02 per share), no custody fee on stocks and ETFs, and free FIX/HTTP API access. Its biggest drawbacks are the high entry threshold, a €50 monthly inactivity fee on small, dormant accounts, a €30/£30 fee on every withdrawal and no MetaTrader. We checked all figures in this review against EXANTE’s own documents on 25 October 2026.

1. Is EXANTE regulated? Licences and safety of funds

Yes. Clients in the European Union are served by EXT LTD, an investment firm registered in Cyprus (HE 293592) and authorised by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) under licence 165/12. Under the MiFID II passport, EXT LTD can offer its services across the EU; in Poland it also has a branch in Warsaw (Emilii Plater 53).

• Other group companies: according to EXANTE’s website, LHCM LTD is regulated by the FCA in the United Kingdom and XHK Limited is licensed by the SFC in Hong Kong. EXT LTD itself operates in the UK (FCA FRN 589898) only for a limited time under the FCA’s supervised run-off regime, to complete pre-existing contracts.
• Client money: as a CySEC-licensed firm, EXT LTD must keep client assets separate from its own funds and is a member of the Cyprus Investor Compensation Fund, which covers eligible clients up to €20,000 if the firm fails.
• What compensation does not cover: market losses. Leveraged products (CFDs, margin forex, futures) can lose you more than you expect — EXANTE states that between 74% and 89% of retail CFD accounts lose money.

2. Is EXANTE a scam? Fines, lawsuits and fake websites

Searches such as “EXANTE scam”, “EXANTE fine” or “EXANTE SEC” are common, so here is what we found in primary sources (as of 25 October 2026):

• Licence: EXT LTD holds an active CySEC licence (165/12), which EXANTE publishes in every legal document — a scam operation would not hold an EU investment firm licence.
• Regulators’ warning lists: EXANTE and EXT LTD are not on the public warning list of Poland’s Financial Supervision Authority (KNF).
• The 2015 SEC case: Exante Ltd. — the group’s former Maltese company — was named among the parties in the US civil case SEC v. Arkadiy Dubovoy et al. (District of New Jersey, No. 15-cv-06076) about trading on stolen press releases. In the SEC materials we reviewed we found no judgment or penalty against Exante itself; media reports from 2023 say the claims against the firm were dropped.
• Fake websites: EXANTE warns that fraudsters copy its branding. The only official domains it lists are exante.eu, lhcm.uk, xnt.mt, ext.com.cy and xhk.asia — anything else using the EXANTE name is not the broker.

Our assessment: EXANTE is a regulated broker, not a scam. Its real risks are costs (inactivity and withdrawal fees) and the leverage you choose to use.

3. EXANTE fees: commissions, inactivity and withdrawals

EXANTE charges commissions instead of building its margin into prices. Trading costs are low for active investors with larger portfolios; small, passive accounts pay comparatively much.

When does the €50 inactivity fee apply? Only if all three conditions are met: your last trade was more than six months ago, you have no open positions and your balance is below €5,000. An account with a long-term position or a balance above €5,000 does not pay it.

Margin costs: EXANTE charges interest on negative cash balances. If your margin utilisation exceeds 100%, a daily charge of 100% a year applies to the excess, and a position closed manually by EXANTE after a margin call costs €90. For short selling of easy-to-borrow stocks EXANTE quotes a default rate of 12%; hard-to-borrow stocks are priced on request.

4. Forex trading at EXANTE

EXANTE offers major, minor and exotic currency pairs, including PLN, CZK, HUF and TRY crosses. You pay the market spread (EXANTE advertises spreads “from 0.3”) plus a commission of 0.005% of the trade value per side, and overnight rates on positions held past the end of the day.

Example: buying and later selling €100,000 of EUR/USD costs €5 in commission each way — €10 in total — plus the spread and any overnight charges. For a trader who moves large amounts, that is competitive; for someone trading small positions, a forex/CFD broker with MetaTrader and lower minimums is usually a better fit.

For retail clients, EU (ESMA) leverage limits apply to CFDs. EXANTE is not designed for €100 accounts, micro-lots or high-leverage scalping — it is built for investors who combine currencies with stocks, futures and options on one account.

5. Markets: stocks, ETFs, futures, options, bonds

• Stocks and ETFs from exchanges in the US, Europe and Asia, including the Warsaw, Prague and Istanbul exchanges.
• Futures and options on major derivatives exchanges such as CME and Eurex.
• Bonds — government and corporate, traded electronically or OTC.
• Metals and currencies, plus CFDs on selected instruments.

Everything sits in one multi-currency account, so you can hold balances in several currencies and avoid converting money for every trade.

6. Trading platform and API

EXANTE does not offer MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5 or cTrader. You trade on its own EXANTE Trading Platform, available for Windows, macOS and Linux, in a web browser and as an app for iOS and Android. It shows account balance, real-time market data and position overviews across all asset classes.

• FIX API (based on FIX 4.4) and HTTP API (REST and streaming: live and historical quotes, orders, trades, account data) — both free of charge.
• A demo FIX connection is available for one month once your account has passed verification.

7. Deposits and withdrawals

• Deposits: by bank transfer, after your documents are verified (usually about one business day). You can transfer in parts; live trading starts once the €10,000 minimum is reached. Accepted currencies include EUR, USD, GBP, CHF, AUD, CZK and PLN (the list depends on account type and country).
• Not accepted: transfers from crypto exchanges and wallets, sanctioned institutions and banks in restricted regions.
• Withdrawals: by bank transfer only, standard fee €30 / £30. If you funded the account by transferring securities and made only a few nominal trades, the fee is 0.9% of the amount (min. 30).

8. Pros, cons and verdict

9. Alternatives to EXANTE

• Saxo Bank — another multi-asset broker with a wide range of exchanges and bonds.
• DEGIRO — low-cost stock and ETF investing with no high minimum deposit.
• XTB — stocks, ETFs and CFDs with no minimum deposit and its own xStation platform.

Compare more brokers in our forex broker ranking and the ETF broker ranking.

10. How to open a EXANTE account — step by step

1. Register on the EXANTE website — EU clients should be served by an EU company: EXT LTD, Cyprus (reg. no. HE 293592) — CySEC licence 165/12. Check the company name in your client agreement before depositing.
2. Enter your personal details and complete the questionnaire. Before offering CFDs, an EU broker must assess your knowledge and experience (the MiFID II appropriateness test) and warn you if CFDs are not appropriate.
3. Verify your identity with a passport or ID card and a proof of address (e.g. a utility bill or bank statement), as required by anti-money-laundering rules.
4. Choose the account type and base currency. An account in the currency you deposit in saves conversion costs.
5. Fund the account — minimum deposit according to the broker: €10,000 / £10,000 or equivalent (individual). Deposits are accepted only from accounts or cards in your own name; available methods: bank transfer.
6. Install the platform (EXANTE platform (Windows, macOS, Linux, web, iOS, Android), FIX 4.4 and HTTP API) or log in via your browser. Practise on a demo account first, if the broker offers one.

11. What trading with EXANTE really costs

Below are the costs from the summary table above — taken from EXANTE’s website and documents when we updated this review:

• US stocks: $0.02 per share, minimum $1
• European stocks: e.g. Xetra, Euronext, LSE: 0.05% (min. €1 / £1)
• Forex: 0.005% of trade value per side + market spread
• Futures and options: from $1.50 per contract
• Custody fee: none on stocks and ETFs; bonds 0.3% a year
• Deposits / withdrawals: bank transfer; no deposit fee; withdrawal €30 / £30

How to work it out: on EUR/USD one pip on a 1-lot position (€100,000) is worth about $10, so a 1-pip spread costs about $10 when you open the trade. A commission quoted “per lot per side” is charged twice — on opening and on closing. Add overnight swaps for every night the position stays open and any currency conversion if your account currency differs from the instrument’s. On 0.1 lot all these amounts are ten times smaller.

Inactivity fee: €50/month — only if no trade for 6+ months, no open positions and balance below €5,000. If you plan a long break from trading, withdraw your funds or close the account so the fee does not eat into your balance.

12. Withdrawing money from EXANTE — how it works

You request a withdrawal in the client area. Under anti-money-laundering rules, funds usually go back via the method used to deposit (e.g. to the card up to the amount deposited by card) and only to an account or card in your own name. The first withdrawal may require full account verification, so upload your documents right after registering. Only free funds that are not used as margin can be withdrawn.

13. EXANTE compared with other brokers

For comparison, here is EXANTE next to other brokers whose reviews we updated in October 2026. Figures come from their summary tables — see the full reviews for details.

14. Leverage and client protection in the EU (ESMA)

As an EU investment firm, EXANTE applies the restrictions introduced by ESMA and adopted permanently by national regulators to retail clients:

• leverage up to 1:30 on major currency pairs, 1:20 on other pairs, gold and major indices, 1:10 on other commodities and indices, 1:5 on shares and 1:2 on crypto;
• margin close-out at 50% of required margin;
• negative balance protection — retail clients cannot lose more than they deposited;
• a ban on bonuses and trading incentives for retail CFD clients;
• a mandatory risk warning with the share of losing retail accounts — for EXANTE: Between 74% and 89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs (EXANTE).

Higher leverage is only available to professional clients who meet the MiFID II criteria — at the cost of some protections, including negative balance protection.

15. Tax on profits from EXANTE

Tax treatment depends on your country of residence. EXANTE generally does not file tax returns for you, so keep the annual statement of trades from the client area. For Polish residents: profits from a foreign broker are reported in the PIT-38 return (19% tax), with foreign-currency amounts converted at the National Bank of Poland average rate from the business day before each trade.

16. Glossary: terms to know before opening a EXANTE account

• Spread — the difference between the buy and sell price, paid on every trade.
• Pip — the smallest typical price move of a currency pair (0.0001 for EUR/USD).
• Lot — the standard position size: 1 forex lot is 100,000 units of the base currency; 0.01 lot (micro lot) is 1,000.
• Commission — a fixed fee per trade, usually on raw-spread (ECN/Raw) accounts.
• Swap — the daily cost or credit for holding a position overnight, based on the interest-rate differential.
• Margin — the part of the position value set aside as collateral; at 1:30 leverage about 3.33% of the position.
• Margin call and stop out — a warning and automatic closing of positions when equity falls relative to required margin.
• Slippage — execution at a different price than requested, common around news releases and price gaps.

17. FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions

Risk warning: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. Between 74% and 89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs (EXANTE). You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. This review is for information only and is not investment advice or a recommendation.

Some links on this page may be affiliate links — if you open an account through such a link, ForexRev may receive a commission. This does not affect the content or rating of the review.