GatesFX review
GatesFX advertises 1:1000 leverage and a 100% deposit bonus with unlimited use. Its registered address is The Sotheby Building in Rodney Bay, Saint Lucia, the same building given by HeroFX, and its own page states two different bonus ceilings, $25,000 and $10,000.
| Verdict | avoid |
|---|---|
| Regulators | not verified |
| Maximum leverage | 1:1000 |
| Platforms | MT5, TradeLocker |
Two things on the GatesFX front page decide this review, and both are stated by the firm rather than inferred by us: 1:1000 leverage and a 100% deposit bonus offered on every deposit, unlimited times.
Either one on its own tells you which rulebook applies. Together they describe the product precisely.
The bonus is banned where brokers are supervised
Deposit bonuses to retail clients are prohibited under ESMA rules in the EU, by the FCA in the UK, and by ASIC in Australia. A firm offering to match 100% of your deposit is not serving you from any of those places.
The reason regulators banned them is mechanical rather than moral. Bonus credit typically counts toward your margin but is not yours to withdraw, so it enlarges the position you can open without enlarging the money you can take out. A trader with $1,000 and a $1,000 bonus is trading a $2,000 account and can lose $1,000 of real money twice as fast.
The withdrawal condition is the part to read before the headline. In this structure a withdrawal usually voids the bonus and often the profits attributed to it. That condition, not the percentage, is what the offer is.
The firm’s own page gives two different ceilings
On the same front page GatesFX states that it matches deposits up to $25,000 in one place and up to $10,000 in another, both described as unlimited use.
That is a small thing and we would not build a verdict on it. It is worth reporting for one reason: the bonus terms are the most consequential text on the site, and the site cannot state them consistently.
The address is one we saw earlier today
The GatesFX footer gives LTD, registration number 2024-00396, at The Sotheby Building, Rodney Village, Rodney Bay, Gros Islet, Saint Lucia. A second address, La Place Creole Building in the same district, also appears on the page.
We reviewed HeroFX earlier the same day. Its footer gives Register No. 2023-00356 at Ground Floor, The Sotheby Building, Rodney Village, Rodney Bay, Gros-Islet, Saint Lucia.
Same building, consecutive registration years. We are not claiming common ownership and there is no evidence of it. Buildings like this one are what a company formation agent provides: a registered address shared by many unrelated companies. The useful inference is narrower and still worth having — Saint Lucia registration through a formation agent is a route, and two brokers marketing to the same audience took it.
Leverage of 1:1000 and what the marketing says about it
The site advertises tiers up to 1:1000 with the line “More margin = Larger lots = More Opportunity.”
That equation is arithmetically true and omits the other half. More margin also means a smaller adverse move wipes the position: at 1:1000, a move of one tenth of one percent against you consumes the margin. Our page on leverage limits by regulator has the caps each supervisor sets and why they set them there.
Registers we hold in full
| Register | Result |
|---|---|
| ASIC (Australia), 6,525 licensees | GatesFX not found |
| CySEC (Cyprus), 248 investment firms | not found |
| FCA register, incl. unauthorised firms | no entry, checked 12 August 2026 |
No regulator is named anywhere on the site we read, so these results are expected. As always, the FCA line covers firms it authorised and firms it warned UK consumers about, and absence from it is not a clean record.
What we checked, and what we didn’t
We read the firm’s front page, bonus offer and footer, and searched three registers we hold locally. We have not opened an account, deposited money, claimed a bonus, or tested withdrawals.
Before depositing anywhere that offers a bonus, one question settles most of it: send support a message asking, in writing, what happens to the bonus and to profits earned on it when you request a withdrawal. The answer is the offer. Everything on the landing page is the wrapper.
Sources
- GatesFX — account terms, bonus offer and footer
- ASIC Financial Services Licensee Register
- CySEC — register of Cypriot investment firms
- FCA — Financial Services Register