Deriv, formerly Binary.com, has been running since 1999 and is best known for its synthetic indices and huge platform choice. Outside the UAE you’ll be signed to one of several offshore companies: Deriv (FX) Ltd in Labuan, Deriv (BVI) Ltd, Deriv (V) Ltd in Vanuatu, and two newer companies in Mauritius and the Cayman Islands.
Is Deriv regulated?
Each company has a regulator, but Deriv doesn’t publish licence numbers in its footer, and its terms only say that your company “depends on your country of residence and the products you wish to trade”. Because Deriv doesn’t say which company serves which country, we score the weakest licence it offers for CFD accounts: Vanuatu, tier 4 in our model. Negative balance protection is offered “at our sole discretion”, not guaranteed. Deriv is a member of the Financial Commission, an industry dispute body rather than a statutory compensation scheme.
In the UAE it’s a different story. Deriv Capital Contracts & Currencies L.L.C in Dubai holds a Category 1 licence from the Capital Market Authority (20200000243) and started onboarding UAE traders in October 2025. That’s tier 2, so our overall score understates Deriv for UAE residents specifically.
Deriv in your country
- UAE: served by the CMA-licensed Dubai company, with Arabic support. Leverage still goes up to 1:1000, far above the 30:1 retail cap at DIFC and ADGM brokers.
- Kuwait and Saudi Arabia: served by an offshore company; Deriv doesn’t say which.
- India: Deriv isn’t on the RBI Alert List, but Indian residents can’t legally trade forex with offshore platforms. See forex rules in India.
- Pakistan: no Pakistani licence, and offshore forex trading isn’t legal for residents. See forex rules in Pakistan.
- Malaysia and Singapore: both appear on Deriv’s excluded-country list as published on its MetaTrader 5 listing, even though one of its main companies is licensed in Labuan, Malaysia.
Costs
Deriv’s standard MT5 account has no commission and spreads from 0.1 pips globally, or from 0.6 pips on the UAE site; the UAE swap-free account starts at 2.2 pips. Gold starts at 0.16 under the UAE specification. Deriv doesn’t publish average spreads, so treat these as its own “from” figures.
Deposits and withdrawals
Deriv lists 72 payment methods with deposits from USD 5 and no deposit fees; withdrawal fees depend on the method. Card withdrawals take one working day and Deriv P2P up to an hour, by its own figures. Many traders in Asia fund through payment agents. Deriv says it isn’t affiliated with them and you use them at your own risk, so we’d avoid them.
Platforms and accounts
Few brokers match the choice: MT5, cTrader, TradingView, Deriv’s own trading app, a bot builder and SmartTrader. Swap-free accounts are available. Synthetic indices are Deriv’s own simulated markets generated by an algorithm, not real ones: Deriv sets the prices and is always your counterparty, so treat them as a separate product from forex.
Who Deriv suits
UAE residents who want a locally licensed broker with wide platform choice, and who set their own leverage sensibly. Elsewhere in our region you’re trusting an offshore company Deriv won’t name in advance, with no guaranteed negative balance protection.