HitBTC (hitbtc.com) was launched in 2013 as a provider of cryptocurrency exchange services. The company’s legitimacy has been evaluated based on the items listed below. Every individual item has been checked for the presence of obvious red flags or warning signals. If these are present, an explanation detailing what triggered them has been included. A detailed description of the reasons to evaluate each of the included items can be found below the table.
| Business | ||
|---|---|---|
| Total Flags: 10 (3 Warnings = 1 Flag) | ||
| Headquarter location |  | Uncertain/could not be confirmed (see Verified Address) |
| Experience |  | Less than five years (operating since 2013) |
| Verified Address | | HitBTC doesn't provide an address, and there's no business registration that can be used to find it (see Business Registration). Even the website's WHOIS information is privacy protected. |
| Verified Owner | | There's nothing confirming the current owners of HitBTC (see business registration). |
| Business Registration | | According to the official narrative HitBTC was built by HIT Technologies LP in the United Kingdom, while operated by Ullus Corporation K/S in Denmark. Ullus Corporation K/S is registered in the Central Business Register of Denmark under company number 35852492, but this company has ceased operating in 2015. Hit Technologies LP has company number SL016208 in the UK business register, and is registered as a limited partnership. According to the history the limited partnership has been dissolved in 2015 too. According to the legal section of the HitBTC website services are provided by "HIT Solutions Inc". A registration for this company couldn't be found at all. Altogether, no currently active business registration could be confirmed. |
| Financial Regulator Registration | | The Financial Services Register was searched for "HitBTC", "HIT Technologies" and "HIT Solutions", but these terms returned no relevant results. |
| Operating License | | Not regulated. |
| Service Disruptions & Unbusinesslike Conduct | | It turns out HitBTC is really hard to find (see Contact Information and Business Registration), and this is no coincidence. Even the website's WHOIS information is privacy protected. Together this combines to create a rather shady impression. |
| Audit | ||
| Financial Audit | | None |
| Governance Audit | | None |
| Website | ||
| Website Design |  | Good |
| Grammar on Website | | Good |
| Funding Options | | Various |
| Contact Information | | No address provided |
| Risk Disclosure | | Good |
| Persuasion | ||
| Source Credibility | | N/A |
| Social Proof | | N/A |
| Reciprocity | | N/A |
Note that items with a warning instead of a flag indicate that these could occur at a legitimate company. For example, legitimate companies may hand out some kind of referral bonus. Multiple warnings will, however, still trigger a flag. A description for the listed items is provided below. This list is meant to assist with identifying the most obvious dangers, and therefore does not provide any guarantees.
Headquarter Location
Even though Bitcoin’s legal status is uncertain in most of the developed world, there are certain countries that take a more hostile stance towards the digital currency industry. For example, trading Bitcoin in Bangladesh could lead to a punishment of up to 12 years in prison, and also Russia has considered jail time for Bitcoin users. Another example is China. The country didn’t ban Bitcoin, but it did ban banking institutions and employees from engaging in Bitcoin business through banking, as well as servicing or doing business with the Bitcoin industry.
Experience
Exchanges that have been running for a long time are more likely to have a battle-tested trading platform, as well as proper policies/procedures to deal with regulatory requirements and uncertainties.
Business Verification
First, you should never hand your hard-earned money over without knowing where it is going. Second, you should do a background check to avoid handing it to a known scammer. Be weary of people without an online identity. Scammers will typically try to hide their identity or conceal their true identity to avoid being easily discovered.
Business Registration
Businesses are typically required to register at the local Company Register. However, not every registration is equal, for example, Companies House (United Kingdom) does not actively check addresses and names. Hence a registration here doesn’t hold any real value. In any case, a failure to register would indicate that the company is most likely operating illegally.
Financial Regulator Registration
Similar to a regular business registration, some countries require Bitcoin exchanges and payment processor to register with the financial regulator. In the United States the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) ruled that these types of companies are money transmitters, and should therefore register as Money Services Businesses. As a result, these platforms must also comply with stricter regulation such as anti-money laundering laws.
Operating License
Being registered doesn’t equal having the proper operating license. To achieve a fully legal status the license needs to cover the activities of the company. In fact, even exchanges with a money transmitter license may still be operating in a regulatory grey area, because Bitcoin exchanges are special cases. This is why New York invented the BitLicense, and why some platforms are applying for an even stricter banking license.
Service Disruptions & Unbusinesslike Conduct
A businesses can be expected to behave professionally. This means that at a minimum a professional must comply with relevant laws and regulations. Besides the rules, professionals should also respect their customers and act in their best interests. It is hard to specify these “unwritten rules” of ethical behavior, but we certainly do know when they are broken.
Audits
Audits certainly do not root out every instance of fraud, but independent (public) audits do provide some comfort in the sense that systems, numbers and policies/procedures have at least been reviewed by a third party (preferably a professional).
Website Design
Amateurish, cluttered and disorganized websites can point to a scam as many scam sites use text and images from legit websites and other sources which may not work together very well.
Grammar on Website
Similar to the website’s design, limited English proficiency can point to a scam.
Funding Options
Even though cryptocurrency funding options are logical for a cryptocurrency company, it is also very convenient for scammers as the recipient essentially remains anonymous. Hence a lack of alternative funding options should still be considered a warning signal.
Contact Information
Legitimate companies have very little reason not to list their contact information.
Risks Disclosure
Fraudsters will do anything to provide a false sense of security. Actions may include misrepresenting, or even non-disclosure of risks involved.
Source Credibility
Persuasion is more likely when the source presents itself as being credible, expert and trustworthy. Common tactics used by scammers to make themselves look legitimate is to pretend to be someone they are not. Alternatively, credibility can also be attained externally with claims such as “Warren Buffet is already using this service”.
Social Proof
Fraudsters take advantage of herd behavior by creating the illusion of consensus or social proof that the service is legitimate with claims that “everybody is already using it”, or by setting up extensive referral programs in which members encourage their friends and associates to invest as well. This automatically triggers something in the mind that says: “if everybody [or someone from the inner circle] wants it, it must be good”.
Reciprocity
A business is likely to receive far more of our trust when it provides a lot of free value. This happens because of the rule of reciprocity, which causes us to tend to feel obligated to return favors after people do favors for us.
This was a great write up. It has made me think a lot about HitBTC. I’ve had lots of problems there lately and they do not address them properly or at all sometimes.
I am now considering leaving all together, I have made really great money there but it’s getting too risky. If they don’t address these concerns and soon, I’m out.
In december 2017 HitBTC made mass fraud of its users money. The AMM tokens issued in HITBTC, apparently way underpriced (at lowest increment for each market to be accurate) thus causing traders to get into a buying them. HITBTC, well aware of the issue, simply shut down withdrawals so saavy traders could not make their arbitrage BUT, left the markets opened for a full day to collect fees from the traders. After numerous reports from users, HITBTC finally decided to shutdown AMM trading, apologizing for their error through a supposedly friendly e-mail, telling everyone that they will restore order, accuracy and justice. Moreover, as a “security measure”, HITBTC also prevented every asset to be moved for a full week. After their absolute lack of communication, HITBTC simply decided to withdraw all AMM tokens from users accounts without notice, simply stating by a general e-mail that buyers were part of a fraudulent event which made HITBTC a victim and that they simply took away all “fraudulent” AMM tokens from buyers’ accounts and that they will not provide any refund ! This is pure and plain sight theft. HitBTC never warns traders about something is wrong with AMM tokens market. This issue was already reported to several authorities and medias. HitBTC removed any trading evidence of AMM tokens from its users accounts. HitBTC put back stolen tokens on the market. Take a look at AMM issue thread on HITBTC so you can get a better grasp of the situation : https://forum.hitbtc.com/discussion/2110/amm-issue-full-refund-requested#latest
I have been cheated by HITBTC and my funds are missing since 1 month and even they accepted it but not yet returned my money .
I lost 60 btg and 6 BTC . HITBTC HAS NOW STOPPED REPLYING
Lots people have thousands of unconfirmed transactions in line. support’s robot answering 2 standart email. Can’t withdrawal any coins from exchange.
Withdrawal of over 1000 TenX PAY tokens failed according to Etherium Block Chain Explorer in early November. Token is such a case never leave the sender. No tokens returned to account after two filings. That’s seven weeks ago. Now, after a week of waiting, over 200 of withdrawns Litecoins have not been sent.
WARNING!!! THIS IS A FRAUDSTER ENTITY!!! DISENGAGE HITBTC TODAY!
I knew something was up late Oct when fees increased to rediculous levels. .01 trade was NOT .01. A OPT trade fee was just as much as the tokens you were buying. EOS was .026 fee. The limited decimals on currency amounts were put there to generate lots of untradable “coin dust”. I pulled my tokens and started warning people. All before this shit storm started. Now the shits hitting the fan. Their facebook is Wall-to-Wall complaints. I logged in and all my coin dust is not showing, and trade reports are not available. Thank GOD I got out. I wonder how much they skimmed me for during the time I did trade.
I received an email from hit btc alerting me to confirm my account application for Hitbtc, when I didn’t even have an account with them. I am guessing they are trying to pull in more unsuspecting victims to their fraudulent exchange. After reading all the people’s comments who have been outright stolen from, I will never use this exchange. Thanks for the warnings everyone and my sympathy to those who lost money.
I had a problem with my cellular phone and lost 2FA on Google Authentificator…. I give them all the information they need and still have no answer and the problem still unresolved……. They make me crazy, they don’t answer my email…… Cannot get to my account….. The customer service is very very bad. As soon as get in my account, I transfered everything (wish I had no problem with that also) and close everything…… Do not trusted them.
I have the exact problem with them.
I’m always surprised by people who don’t want to take responsibility for what they do, who only want to blame others. Guys, Hitbtc (or any other exchange) is not to blame if you didn’t look at its fees before you started to trade.
Some people say that Hit is a scam. But most of these people either didn’t trade here at all or didn’t understand. And when you ask “Why?”, Few people can answer. I have been trading on Hitbtc for 2 years. This is a decent exchange for intraday trading. And if you use it correctly, the profit will be with you.
My name is Arman, I’m a professional trader. Hitbtc is an universal exchange for intraday and long-term trading. I’m professionally engaged in both types of crypto currency trading and I can say that Hitbtc is the best for this at the moment. I always think how to increase my profit, and to earn more money through less effort. Let’s start with the banal, or rather with the fees of the exchange. A widely discussed topic in various forums. But, nevertheless, many people still pay large fees for transactions of small volume. I don’t see any sense just to give money to the exchange Therefore, I will say at once – the lowest fees from reliable large exchanges here – at Hitbtc. In addition, if you predict that the currency is likely to go in any direction and make a limit order, then this exchange pays you 0.01% of the volume of the transaction. This is called rebate. The second advantage of this exchange is the huge amount of currencies and tokens, most of which you have never even heard of. I don’t use a lot of different currencies for trading, because I have such a strategy. But if you use a lot of currencies in your trade, Hitbtc will be more convenient for you than other exchanges. The third plus I consider the security and reliability of the exchange. Although most of the top exchanges have about the same level of protection, this level is not lower for Hitbtc than other exchanges. Therefore here Hitbtc also has a big plus. I listed these 3 indicators affecting trade, which we can control by the choice of the exchange. I would also like to say about the stable work of the exchange. I won’t say that it is ideal. I’ve had a couple of times when I couldn’t buy or sell currency for a while. But this problem is found everywhere in all exchanges. Therefore, Hitbtc is no worse than other exchanges. In any case, always rely on yourself, check the exchanges yourself, count your risks and think before you do something. This is a cruel and stressful activity, but, perhaps you will succeed! I wish you a profit!
This exchange is perfect. Try to use it yourself and you will understand what I mean. Most of all I am pleased, of course, the fees. And the level of security that this exchange offers. As far as I understand, this is one of the most reliable exchanges at the moment.
HitBTC is a solid exchange platform which gives you competitive trading opportunities. They also made a great job at designing an intuitive and user-friendly interface. Sign-up is easy and the navigation throughout the site is simple. This platform is also very useful for beginner traders.
Like placing orders and spend free time in TrollBox while my money are working for me.
Well there was a lot of negative information towards this exchange… Which is strange as it is not the worst exchange on the market, not at all. As for me, the most striking point on Hitbtc is that everything is concentrated in one place.
Looks like its main focus is to implement cutting-edge technologies to cryptocurrency trading. I have to note that their developers have worked on a very impressive set of protection matters for their users as well. looks like HitBTC takes its traders’ account security “very seriously” so I’d call it trustful.