Octa

The Cyprus company is licensed by CySEC and serves EU clients. The global site, octabroker.com, has been run since 2026 by Versustrategy Inc of Saint Lucia, which names no regulator or licence.

• StrengthOcta Markets Cyprus Ltd holds CySEC licence 372/18, issued 10 December 2018; the register lists Octa as an approved trade name and www.octaeu.com among its approved domains.
• Highoctabroker.com is operated by Versustrategy Inc, registered in Saint Lucia (business registration 2025-00917). Its footer and customer agreement name no regulator and no licence.
• Observationoctafx.com, the brand’s former global site, returned HTTP 410 (Gone) on 9 October 2026. The licence numbers of its former offshore companies in Mauritius (GB21027161) and the Comoros (T2023320) now appear under a different brand, Elev8.

CySEC identified Pavel Prozorov as ultimate owner of 95% of the Cyprus company in 2025 and suspended his voting rights. The Cyprus company’s 2025 disclosures refer to a proposed new owner who is not named, and the owner of Versustrategy Inc is not disclosed.

• StrengthOcta Markets Cyprus Ltd publishes annual disclosure reports drawn from its audited accounts; at 31 December 2025 it reported own funds of €1.435 million and a capital ratio of 168.48%.
• MediumThe Cyprus company’s 2025 disclosure report refers to ongoing engagement with CySEC on the approval of a proposed ultimate owner, who is not named.
• ObservationThe owner of Versustrategy Inc is not disclosed. Secondary sources report that the Octa brand was sold to it in 2026; we could not confirm a sale from primary sources.

EU clients are covered by CySEC’s Investor Compensation Fund, and the Cyprus company commits to segregated client accounts. Clients of octabroker.com contract with a company that no financial regulator supervises, with no compensation scheme and only discretionary negative balance protection.

• StrengthOcta Markets Cyprus Ltd states that it is a member of the Investor Compensation Fund and holds client money in segregated accounts with institutions in the European Economic Area.
• HighVersustrategy Inc’s customer agreement describes negative balance protection as discretionary and allows the company to withhold it where it deems a client’s actions fraudulent, intentional or abusive. It contains no commitment to hold client funds in segregated accounts, and disputes go to arbitration in Saint Lucia.

Not assessed in a desk audit. Spreads, slippage and fill quality can only be measured with live accounts.

CySEC acted against the ultimate owner of the Cyprus company in 2025. In India, OctaFX’s former local broker settled with SEBI in 2025, and the Directorate of Enforcement has filed money-laundering prosecution complaints against OctaFX and 54 others.

• HighOn 25 August 2025 CySEC decided (announced 3 September 2025) that the influence exercised by Pavel Prozorov, as ultimate owner of Octa Markets Cyprus Ltd, is prejudicial to its sound and prudent management. It suspended the voting rights attached to his shares, 95% of the company’s capital, and barred him from management duties. No fine was imposed.
• HighIndia’s Directorate of Enforcement filed a prosecution complaint on 1 October 2024 and a supplementary complaint on 20 December 2024 before the Special Court (PMLA) in Mumbai against OctaFX and 54 others, and the court took cognisance on 24 December 2024. By October 2025 the ED reported attaching assets worth over Rs 2,681 crore and said Mr Prozorov had been arrested in Spain. These are the ED’s allegations, not findings of a court.
• MediumOn 18 July 2025 Tauga Private Limited, formerly OctaFX India Private Limited, settled with SEBI for INR 32 lakh, without admitting or denying findings that it was associated with the unauthorised octafx.com platform and suppressed that association. Its broker registration was cancelled on 9 July 2025.
• ObservationOctaFX or its companies have been named as unauthorised by regulators in India (RBI Alert List, since 2022), Singapore (MAS, 2020), Malaysia (2020), Spain (CNMV, 2023), Canada (BCSC, 2021) and Pakistan (2022), and Indonesia’s Bappebti blocked its websites in 2021. Under our methodology these warnings are recorded but not scored.

Not assessed in a desk audit. Uptime, incident history and security controls require evidence from the firm or live monitoring.

No Great Place to Work certification was found. Octa reports a charity programme in Nigeria and Indonesia from 2023 to 2025, with named partners and projects in literacy, water and education.

• ObservationNo Great Place to Work certification was found in Great Place to Work’s public listings.
• ObservationCommunity contribution is reported by Octa itself; we found no independent reporting of amounts.