TradeInformer understands that the number of brokers using MetaTrader 4 or MetaTrader 5, with a UBO from China, has fallen by upwards of 90% from its peak.
According to one source familiar with the matter, the figure includes both firms with their own terminals and using white labels.
The number of brokers with owners from the country is now less than 200, down from over 1,000 several years ago.
TradeInformer understands this was not specific to Chinese UBOs but is part of a wider, global clampdown aimed at stamping out bad actors from using the company’s products. For example, many brokers – including those with respected licenses – have been forced to redo KYC with MetaQuotes.
As noted in TradeInformer several times over the last couple of years, MetaQuotes is believed to have been pushed off the iPhone’s App Store because of a ‘pig butchering‘ scam operation based in Southeast Asia. However, it should be noted that the scammers were purportedly using a fraudulently obtained version of the company’s software.
The source said that this has resulted in MetaQuotes being particularly strict with companies based in the wider APAC region, making it much harder for companies to get approved to use MetaQuotes’s platforms.
MT4 useage down
Working out how many brokers are using MetaTrader products as a whole is difficult.
However, TradeInformer has been able to determine that the combined number of demo offerings and brokers on MT4, including those with multiple servers and those operating via white labels, was just shy of 4,600 at the start of 2018. This does not include those that did not take a mobile app.
We understand that the figure rose into 2019 before declining. Today it stands at 3,748.
It’s worth noting here that MetaQuotes stopped selling new MT4 license in 2018 as part of a push to get brokers to move over to MT5.
The result is that firms holding an MT4 license have themselves become an attractive purchase opportunity for buyers in the market. For instance, today acquiring a firm with a regulatory license and an MT4 license is very difficult, despite the demand.