Risk disclosure

Prices of digital assets can move sharply within minutes, driven by news, regulation, large traders and changes in sentiment. A position can lose a large part of its value before you have a chance to react.

What helps: decide in advance how much loss you can accept, and keep each position small relative to your total savings.

Market risk also includes the effect of events outside any trader's control, such as sudden announcements from central banks, court decisions about particular assets or the failure of a large market participant. These can hit every asset at once, which means holding several assets does not always spread the risk as much as people expect.

In thin or very fast markets there may be too few buyers or sellers at your price. Orders can fill at a worse price than expected, which is called slippage, or may not fill at all.

What helps: prefer larger, widely traded assets and expect that the price you see may not be the price you get in a stressed market.

Liquidity can vanish exactly when you need it most, for example during sharp sell-offs or on public holidays when fewer participants are active. Spreads between buy and sell prices widen in those periods, which raises the real cost of every trade that the system places.

Connecting an exchange through an API key introduces risk. Connection errors, wrong settings or a leaked key can lead to trades you did not intend or to unauthorised access to the exchange account.

What helps: give the key trade and read rights only, never withdrawal rights, restrict it by address where possible and delete it if you are unsure.

API keys are also affected by the rules of the exchange itself. An exchange can change limits, suspend trading on a pair or revoke a key without notice, and an automated strategy that cannot place or cancel an order may leave a position open longer than you intended.

Your assets sit with third-party exchanges and payment providers. If one of them fails, is hacked, freezes withdrawals or becomes insolvent, you may not be able to recover all of your funds. We do not control those providers.

What helps: use exchanges you have researched, do not leave more on any one of them than you need and learn how each handles customer assets.

Our platform does not hold your assets on an exchange's behalf and cannot recover funds that an exchange has frozen or lost. Check each provider's published terms on customer assets, regulation and what happens if the provider becomes insolvent.

Software has bugs, servers fail and internet connections drop. A technical fault at our end, at an exchange or on your device can delay or interrupt activity, or cause an order to be placed late or twice.

What helps: check your dashboard regularly, turn on alerts and know how to pause activity yourself.

Operational problems can also come from outside the system, including internet outages, power cuts, device failures and mistakes in settings. A strategy running during a fault may behave differently from how it behaves in the simulator, so do not assume the live system and the simulator will always match.

Criminals steal passwords, trick people with fake websites and messages, and take over phone numbers. A compromised account can be used to place trades or move funds without your consent.

What helps: turn on two-factor sign-in, use a unique password, check the address bar and never share codes. See Security.

Social engineering is growing: fake support agents, fake investment groups and fake recovery services target people who have already lost money. Anyone who asks for an upfront fee to recover funds, or who contacts you first on a messaging app, should be treated with suspicion.

Algorithms and automated strategies are built on past data. Markets change, and a model that worked last month can fail this month. Automation can repeat a bad decision very quickly. It carries no guarantee of any result.

What helps: treat any past result as history, not a promise, and review strategy settings often.

Back-tested or simulated results are especially likely to look better than live results, because they are chosen with hindsight and do not capture every cost or delay. A strategy that is described as “proven” or “safe” should be treated with scepticism, including by us.

The platform may be unavailable during maintenance, upgrades or outages, including at moments when markets are moving. Features can change, and access can be limited where the law requires it.

What helps: do not rely on being able to act at a particular moment, and keep the exchange login details to hand.

Planned maintenance windows are announced in advance where possible, but emergency fixes cannot be. During an outage, open positions at an exchange may continue to move even if you cannot see them on our dashboard. Make sure you can sign in to the exchange directly.

Rules for digital assets in Australia are developing. A change in law can affect which assets or services are available. Gains and losses may also have tax consequences that you are responsible for reporting.

What helps: speak to a registered tax agent or licensed adviser about your situation.

Tax treatment depends on your personal situation and on how the assets are used. Keep your own records of deposits, withdrawals and trades, and download the activity exports we provide so that your tax agent has what they need at the end of the financial year.