Risk scorecard
Each area is scored 0 (clean) to 10 (worst). Higher means more risk.
Regulation
7/10 · HighA genuine Vanuatu Financial Dealers Licence, confirmed Active on the issuer's own register in the broker's own name, but a tier-4 offshore licence with no compensation scheme, and no onshore licence anywhere despite the Australian presentation.
Identity & transparency
6/10 · HighCredit for naming its exact licensed entity and company number, which match the register. Against it: the Australian entity behind its Australian face is deregistered, the recorded main domain is unregistered, the Sydney address is a serviced-office suite and ownership is undisclosed.
Withdrawals & conduct
3/10 · LowNo fund-integrity complaints found on any platform swept. One service-quality report from October 2025 that the trading account area returns an error, which is an access problem rather than a money problem.
Reputation
6/10 · HighAlmost no independent footprint after five years of trading: no Trustpilot profile for the domain, nothing substantive on the main trader forums, two positive third-party comments from 2024 and one unanswered client question. Thin rather than negative.
Website claims
6/10 · HighDescribes itself as fully regulated and adhering to strict regulatory standards, and asserts segregated client money with top banks, all resting on a Vanuatu-only licence. It also maintained an Australian identity after its Australian company was deregistered.
Operational history
4/10 · ModerateRoughly five years verified from independent records, domain 25 May 2021 and company 27 May 2021, which is real and creditable longevity. Tempered because the operation has contracted sharply: one of three domains left and the onshore company struck off in 2025.
Who they are
A quick desk file on the company behind the brand.
- Brand: VTGM, trading publicly as ValkTrade
- Legal entity: Valk Trade Global Limited, incorporated in Vanuatu, company number 700557
- Former Australian entity: Valk Trade (AUS) Pty Ltd, ACN 650 543 632, registered 27 May 2021, deregistered 18 April 2025
- Registered: Kumul Highway, Port Vila, Vanuatu. The Australian arm used a serviced-office address at Australia Square Tower, 264-278 George Street, Sydney
- Website: valktrade.com is the only live site. vt-gm.com and valktrade.com.au do not resolve
- Only licence: Vanuatu VFSC Financial Dealers Licence, classes A, B and C, active since 12 July 2022
- Offers: CFDs on forex, precious metals, energy and indices, on MetaTrader 5
- Not accepted: residents of the United States
- Age claim: the operation dates to May 2021 on both its domain and its first company. We found no founding-year claim on its own pages, and the older founding dates that circulate on third-party listings are not supported by any record we could find
Regulation
Who really oversees this broker, and what each licence is worth to you.
Proof of regulation on an official register: Yes
We confirmed this broker on a genuine regulator’s register.
Licences the broker publishes
Vanuatu Financial Services Commission (VFSC)
Why we reached this verdict
How the evidence adds up.
We could not substantiate a scam, and we will not call one on this evidence. But three things stop us treating VTGM as a safe place to send money.
- The licence is genuine, and it is also the weakest kind. We found Valk Trade Global Limited, company number 700557, listed as Active on the Vanuatu regulator's own licensee list. The broker's own risk warning names exactly that entity and exactly that number, so it is wearing its own licence and not somebody else's. A Vanuatu Financial Dealers Licence carries no compensation scheme and no statutory protection of client deposits.
- The Australian side of the business is gone. Valk Trade (AUS) Pty Ltd was registered on 27 May 2021 and deregistered on 18 April 2025, with its ABN cancelled on 23 April 2025. The operation nevertheless kept an Australian face: a Sydney serviced-office address and a .com.au domain. There is no Australian financial services licence behind any of it, and no Australian entity left to stand behind it.
- Two of its three domains have died. vt-gm.com, the address recorded as its main website, is not merely offline. It is not a registered domain. valktrade.com.au does not resolve. valktrade.com is still served and certificates for it were still being issued in August 2026, so the operation is not abandoned, but it is running on one domain out of three.
- There is almost nothing to check it against. Trustpilot has no profile for valktrade.com. The main trader forums return nothing substantive. Two positive comments from 2024 and a single unanswered client question from October 2025, reporting that the trading account area returns an error, is the whole visible record for a business that has been trading since 2021. That absence cuts both ways, and it is the main reason our confidence is only medium.
- What is not here matters too. No regulator warning, no alert-list entry, no enforcement action, no clone finding, and not one report of a refused withdrawal, a frozen balance or a demand for an extra payment before funds are released. Those are the signals that would move this into scam territory, and none of them are present.
Vanuatu does not publish a searchable company registry, so the contracting entity itself cannot be dated from a public record. The operating age rests on the domain and on the Australian company, which both begin within two days of each other in May 2021.
Evidence ledger
Every finding, with its source and how strongly it points.
E1Valk Trade Global Limited, company number 700557, is listed on the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission's own Financial Dealers Licensee List with licence classes A, B and C, licensed 12 July 2022, status Active. This is the broker's licence, held in its own name.
E2The broker's own published risk warning states that Valk Trade Global Limited is incorporated in Vanuatu, company number 700557, regulated by the VFSC, with a registered address on Kumul Highway, Port Vila. The entity name and number match the register entry exactly, so the clone test passes on both name and company number.
E3vt-gm.com, the domain recorded as this broker's main website, is not registered to anyone. The .com registry returns no record for it.
E4DNS confirms vt-gm.com does not resolve, returning a non-existent-domain status with no address records.
ModerateGoogle Public DNS resolverE5Valk Trade (AUS) Pty Ltd, ACN 650 543 632, was registered on 27 May 2021 and deregistered on 18 April 2025. The operation kept presenting an Australian identity after that date.
E6The Australian Business Register records ABN 16 650 543 632 for VALK TRADE (AUS) PTY LTD as cancelled from 23 April 2025, with the entity based in NSW 2000 and not registered for GST.
E7valktrade.com was registered on 25 May 2021, with a registry expiry of 2031 and Cloudflare nameservers. This dates the operation's domain leg and matches the incorporation of its first company two days later.
ModerateVerisign .com registry lookupE8In December 2021, seven months after registration, valktrade.com was still serving a website-builder placeholder page rather than a broker site. Trading therefore began after that date, and no earlier brand occupied the domain.
E9Certificate transparency logs show 152 certificates for valktrade.com, the earliest in April 2022 and the most recent issued in August 2026, across login, filing, admin, api, mail and www subdomains. The infrastructure is still being actively maintained.
E10Trustpilot holds no review profile at all for valktrade.com. For a broker trading since 2021, the absence of any per-domain review page is a notably thin footprint.
E11A client question published on 31 October 2025 and tied to valktrade.com reports that clicking through to the trading account produces an error, with sections of the site broken or inaccessible. This is a service and access complaint, not a complaint about money being withheld.
E12No Australian business or company record exists under the name Valktrade. Searches of the Australian Business Register return no matching entity for that name, confirming the Australian trading identity rested solely on the now-deregistered Valk Trade (AUS) Pty Ltd.
E13The broker's site describes itself as fully regulated and adhering to strict regulatory standards, and states that all retail client money is held in segregated client money accounts with top banks. Its only licence is Vanuatu's, which carries no compensation scheme and no statutory protection of client deposits.
E14The client portal stack was independently scanned in August 2023 and August 2024 at login.valktrade.com under the title Start trading with VALKTRADE, confirming a real, long-running client-facing trading operation rather than a shell site.
E15A sweep of regulator warning and alert lists and of the main trader platforms returned no entry naming VTGM, ValkTrade, Valk Trade Global Limited, valktrade.com or vt-gm.com, and no fund-integrity complaint of any kind.
The other side
The strongest case in this broker’s favour.
The fair case for VTGM, and it is not a weak one:
- It holds a real licence and it holds it in its own name. We checked the Vanuatu register directly and the entity and company number on it match the entity and company number the broker publishes in its own legal disclosure. Many operations of this size fail that test.
- It is not new. The domain was registered on 25 May 2021 and the first company was registered on 27 May 2021. Around five years of continuous existence is real history, not a claim.
- The corporate story is coherent rather than evasive. The site names its Vanuatu entity, its company number, its regulator and its Port Vila registered address, and it excludes United States residents. That is more disclosure than a great many offshore brokers offer.
- There is a real technical operation behind it: MetaTrader 5, and a working stack of client-facing subdomains for login, filing and account administration, with certificates still being renewed in August 2026.
- Nobody is accusing it of taking their money. Across every platform we swept, there is not a single fund-integrity complaint. For a five-year-old broker, the complete absence of withdrawal complaints is a genuine point in its favour.
- An Australian company being deregistered is not by itself misconduct. Companies are struck off for unpaid annual fees and for simple consolidation of a group into one entity, and no enforcement action accompanied it.
What would change this
What we would need to see to revise the verdict.
Concrete things that would move this verdict in either direction:
- Towards safe: the Vanuatu licence remaining active while the operation restores a coherent public presence, publishes a working verification link to its own register entry, and accumulates a real, checkable review record showing withdrawals being paid.
- Towards safe: an Australian or other onshore licence appearing on a regulator's register in the name of the entity that actually holds client money.
- Towards scam: credible, specific reports of withdrawals being refused, balances being adjusted away, or any demand for a tax, fee or insurance payment before funds are released. A single well-documented instance of that last one would change our conclusion on its own.
- Towards scam: any regulator warning or alert-list entry naming valktrade.com, VTGM or Valk Trade Global Limited.
- Towards scam: the Vanuatu licence moving to lapsed, suspended or cancelled while the site continues to accept deposits.
- Towards defunct: valktrade.com going the way of the other two domains. At that point the question stops being whether it is safe and becomes whether existing clients can get their balances out.
Check it yourself
Official registers and warning lists. Verify every claim first-hand.
Vanuatu VFSC Financial Dealers Licensee List
The Vanuatu regulator's own list. Search it for Valk Trade Global Limited, company number 700557.
ABN Lookup record for Valk Trade (AUS) Pty Ltd
Australian government register showing this ABN cancelled from 23 April 2025.
ASIC-sourced company profile, Valk Trade (AUS) Pty Ltd
Records the company registered 27 May 2021 and deregistered 18 April 2025.
ValkTrade home page as published in October 2025
The broker's own legal disclosure naming its Vanuatu entity and company number.
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers about this broker’s safety.
Is VTGM a scam?
We did not find the evidence to call it one. VTGM holds a genuine, active Vanuatu licence in its own name, and we found no report anywhere of a client being refused a withdrawal. We still rate it high risk, because its Australian company was deregistered in April 2025, two of its three domains no longer resolve, and there is almost no independent client record to check it against.
Is VTGM a fraud?
We found no evidence of fraud. There is no regulator warning naming VTGM, Valk Trade Global Limited or any of its domains, no enforcement action, and no fraud-related court record we could locate. That is not the same as a clean bill of health: the risk here comes from weak protection and a shrinking business, not from anything a regulator has alleged.
Is VTGM regulated?
Yes, but only in Vanuatu. Valk Trade Global Limited, company number 700557, appears as Active on the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission's Financial Dealers Licensee List, licensed on 12 July 2022 for classes A, B and C. It holds no licence from any onshore regulator.
Is VTGM regulated by ASIC in Australia?
No. There is no Australian financial services licence behind this operation. Its Australian company, Valk Trade (AUS) Pty Ltd, was a plain private company, not a licensee, and it was deregistered on 18 April 2025. Treat any suggestion of Australian regulation as incorrect.
What is a Vanuatu VFSC licence actually worth?
Very little in terms of protection. Vanuatu is a low-tier offshore jurisdiction with light supervision of retail forex. There is no compensation scheme, no statutory protection of client deposits, and no realistic route to redress from Vanuatu if your money is not returned. The licence proves the company exists and is permitted to deal. It does not protect you.
Can I withdraw my money from VTGM?
We found no reports of refused withdrawals, which is genuinely reassuring as far as it goes. We also found no verified reports of successful ones, because the client footprint is so thin. If you hold a balance, test a small withdrawal now and keep the dates, amounts and ticket references.
Is my money safe with VTGM?
It is not protected. The site states that retail client money is held in segregated accounts, but under a Vanuatu-only licence there is no compensation scheme and no regulator that will make you whole if the firm fails. Given the deregistered Australian company and the two dead domains, we would not leave a balance here.
Why does vt-gm.com not open?
Because it no longer exists as a domain. vt-gm.com is not registered to anyone, so nothing can be served from it. valktrade.com.au also fails to resolve. The only live site is valktrade.com.
Who owns VTGM?
The operating company is Valk Trade Global Limited, a Vanuatu company, number 700557, with a registered address on Kumul Highway, Port Vila. Beneficial ownership is not disclosed on the site, and Vanuatu does not publish a searchable company registry, so the individuals behind it are not on the public record.
How old is VTGM?
About five years. The valktrade.com domain was registered on 25 May 2021 and the first company, Valk Trade (AUS) Pty Ltd, was registered on 27 May 2021. The Vanuatu licence followed on 12 July 2022. The domain sat on a website-builder placeholder page as late as December 2021, so trading began after that.
Is VTGM a clone of another broker?
We found no evidence that it is. Third-party listings label it a suspicious clone, but we tested that directly and it does not hold up: the entity name and company number in the broker's own legal disclosure match the entity and company number on the Vanuatu register exactly. It is using its own licence, not another firm's. Note separately that similarly named but unrelated firms exist, so match on the domain rather than the name.
What should I do if I already deposited with VTGM?
Request a withdrawal of a small amount straight away and document everything. If it is not paid, escalate in writing, then report it to your own national financial regulator and to your bank or card provider, and ask whether a chargeback is still possible. Do not pay any fee, tax or insurance charge presented as a condition of releasing your funds. That demand is the clearest warning sign there is.
What should I check before depositing with any broker?
Find the licence number on the broker's site, then look it up on the regulator's own register rather than on the broker's page. Confirm three things match: the entity name, the licence status and, where the register shows it, the website. Then check whether the regulator is onshore with a compensation scheme or offshore with none, and search the exact domain for withdrawal complaints.
What we recommend
The practical takeaway from everything above.
If you are considering VTGM, or already have money with it:
- Do not treat it as a regulated broker in the way that word is normally understood. Its only licence is Vanuatu's, which means no compensation scheme and no protected client money if the business fails.
- If you already have a balance, test a withdrawal now, for a small amount, and keep the records. Note the dates, the amounts and every ticket reference. An operation that has lost its onshore company and two of its three domains is not the one to leave a balance sitting with.
- Check the licence yourself before you send anything. The Vanuatu list is public. Search it for Valk Trade Global Limited and confirm the status still reads Active.
- Do not rely on the Australian association. There is no Australian financial services licence here, and the Australian company was deregistered in April 2025.
- If you are contacted by anyone offering to recover funds from this or any broker for an upfront fee, treat it as a second scam. Legitimate recovery does not work that way.
- If you have lost money, report it to your own national financial regulator and to your bank or card issuer, and ask about a chargeback if the payment is recent enough.
This is an independent assessment of risk, not a legal ruling. Scores and verdicts follow the Wikilix broker-safety methodology and can change as new evidence appears. Review scores are treated with caution when a broker’s reviews look manipulated. Last reviewed September 3, 2026. If any detail here is out of date or incorrect, or you represent this broker, please contact us.