About Bok Chain

Who runs this desk

Bok Chain is run by a small editorial team that writes and checks the pages you read here. We are writers and researchers, not traders selling a system, and we do not manage money for anyone.

We keep the desk deliberately small so that every page can be read and re-checked by the same people who wrote it. If a page carries a weakness about a broker, that weakness stays in the text.

What this desk is not

Bok Chain is not a broker, bank or licensed financial adviser, and nothing here is personal advice. We do not open accounts, hold funds, execute trades or recover money for readers.

The regulator fact we rely on is this: FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK) and CySEC, and an FxPro entity holds an FSCA licence in South Africa — check which entity your own account is opened with. That is a statement about the broker, not about us.

How to Challenge Something Published Here

You challenge something published here by identifying the exact sentence and the fact you believe is wrong, and the desk will re-check it against the source we hold. If the sentence states a number, name the number and where it appears; if it describes what a cost depends on, say which dependency you think is missing. For bitcoin (BTC/USD) material, useful challenges point to the instrument specification, the leverage cap of up to 1:200 for retail and up to 1:500 for eligible or professional clients depending on instrument, or the margin example where a 0.10-lot position needs about $385.00. A specific challenge gets a specific answer.

The desk responds to a challenge by correcting the page if the challenge is right, and by explaining the source if the challenge is wrong. We do not defend a sentence because it was ours; we defend it only if the grounded fact still supports it. If a reader in South Africa points out that a funding method was named that is not local cards, bank transfers in ZAR or e-wallets, that is a valid challenge and the page is changed. If a reader asks us to print a spread or a minimum deposit as a number, we will explain why we describe what the cost consists of and what it depends on instead.

Challenges are handled in the order they arrive, and a challenge that concerns a safety or regulatory statement is treated as urgent. The regulator caveat is a good example: if a reader believes the entity serving South Africa is misstated, the desk will restate the caveat exactly as given, that FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK) and CySEC, and an FxPro entity holds an FSCA licence in South Africa, and remind readers to check which entity their own account is opened with. We would rather correct a page than leave a misleading sentence standing.

The Editorial Standard a Number Must Meet Before It Appears

A number appears on this site only when it is grounded in a fact we hold and can restate exactly, otherwise the page describes what the number depends on. For bitcoin (BTC/USD), that means the instrument code, the lot size of 1 BTC and the pip value of 1.0 are stated as fixed specifications, and the reference price near 77000.0 is labelled as a reference rather than a live quote. Leverage is stated as a cap: up to 1:200 for retail and up to 1:500 for eligible or professional clients depending on instrument. No other ratio is printed.

The standard also forbids praising a cost we were not given a figure for. We do not call a spread competitive, tight, low or best because those words are unsupported claims when no number sits behind them. Instead we say what the cost consists of and what it depends on, such as the account entity, the instrument and market conditions at the time of the trade. A South African reader comparing brokers should leave with a clear picture of the components of cost, not a adjective that flatters one provider without evidence.

Where a worked figure is available, it is used exactly as given. At the South African retail cap of up to 1:200, a 0.10-lot bitcoin position needs about $385.00 margin, and that is the only margin figure we print. We do not extend the example to other lot sizes or other leverage ratios because doing so would create numbers we were not given. The same discipline applies to funding: local cards, bank transfers in ZAR and e-wallets are named as methods, but no minimum deposit is stated as a number.

How the desk is paid

Affiliate links are the only revenue on this site. If you open an account with a broker through a link here, the broker may pay us a referral fee, and that fee never changes what a page says about the broker.

Payment does not buy a rating, a place in a ranking or the removal of a weakness. Where we cannot verify something, the page says so rather than filling the gap with a claim.

How the Site Is Funded and Where That Funding Stops

The site is funded by the commercial relationships it discloses, and that funding does not buy a favourable sentence about a broker, a spread or a trading outcome. A broker relationship may cover the cost of running the desk, but it does not change the rule that a number must be grounded or described by what it depends on. For bitcoin (BTC/USD) pages, this means we will not print a spread, commission, swap or minimum deposit as a number for any provider, because those figures are account-specific and we were not given them. Funding keeps the desk running; it does not license an unsupported claim.

What funding does influence is the choice of topics we can afford to cover in depth, such as explaining the margin example at 1:200 where a 0.10-lot bitcoin position needs about $385.00, or setting out the South African leverage cap of up to 1:200 for retail and up to 1:500 for eligible or professional clients depending on instrument. What it does not influence is the verdict on safety, regulation or cost. A reader in South Africa should be able to see the regulator caveat exactly as given: FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK) and CySEC, and an FxPro entity holds an FSCA licence in South Africa, so check which entity your own account is opened with.

The boundary is simple to state: funding may determine which subjects get a full treatment, but it never determines whether a claim is accurate. If a commercial partner would prefer a sentence that praises a cost without a number, that sentence does not run. The desk would rather publish a shorter page that says what a cost consists of and what it depends on than a longer page built on invented figures. That is the trade-off we accept, and it applies equally to every broker and every instrument we cover, including bitcoin.

What This Desk Assumes About the Reader

This desk assumes you are an adult in South Africa who is considering bitcoin (BTC/USD) trading and wants precise, sober information rather than encouragement. That means we assume you understand that 1 standard lot equals 1 BTC and one pip equals 1.0, and that a reference price near 77000.0 is a reference, not a promise of execution. We assume you know that leverage is a cap, up to 1:200 for retail and up to 1:500 for eligible or professional clients depending on instrument, and that using the maximum available is not a strategy. Trading is high-risk and can lose more than you expect.

We assume you will fund in rand where that is natural, using local cards, bank transfers in ZAR or e-wallets, and that you will check which entity your account is opened with before relying on any regulatory statement. The caveat is stated plainly: FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK) and CySEC, and an FxPro entity holds an FSCA licence in South Africa, so the entity on your own account matters. We do not assume you have a professional classification; the higher leverage cap of up to 1:500 is for eligible or professional clients depending on instrument and is not a default.

We assume you want the cost conversation handled honestly, which is why we describe what a spread, commission or swap consists of and what it depends on rather than printing a number we were not given. We assume you would rather read a page that says a 0.10-lot bitcoin position needs about $385.00 at 1:200 than a page that flatters a broker with words like competitive or low. If those assumptions fit you, the rest of the site should read as a toolkit rather than a sales pitch, and you should be able to challenge anything that does not meet the standard.

How This Desk Makes Decisions and Who Is Accountable

Decisions on this desk are made by the writer who signs the page, not by a committee, and that writer is accountable for every number and claim published. For bitcoin (BTC/USD) material, the writer checks the instrument specification first: 1 standard lot equals 1 BTC and one pip equals 1.0, with the reference price near 77000.0. Any leverage statement is tied to the South African cap of up to 1:200 for retail and up to 1:500 for eligible or professional clients depending on instrument. If a figure cannot be traced to a source we hold, it is described by what it depends on rather than stated as a number.

Accountability sits with the same writer when a correction is needed, and the correction is made on the page rather than in a private note. That means the original wording is replaced with accurate wording and the change is visible to any reader who returns. We do not publish a bitcoin cost figure we cannot attribute, and we do not present a spread, commission, swap or minimum deposit as a number because those are broker-specific and change with account type and market conditions. A reader in South Africa should be able to see who stands behind a sentence and hold that person to it.

The decision to publish or hold a section is based on whether the facts are grounded, not on whether the section is commercially convenient. If a topic requires a number we were not given, the section says what the cost consists of and what it depends on instead of inventing a figure. This is why our bitcoin pages describe margin using the worked example at 1:200, where a 0.10-lot position needs about $385.00, rather than quoting a leverage ratio we cannot support. The writer who signs the page is the person who decides that the threshold has been met.

The Limits of What This Desk Can Tell You

This desk cannot tell you what a specific broker will charge you on a given day, because spreads, commissions, swaps and minimum deposits are account-specific and were not given to us as numbers. What we can tell you is what those costs consist of and what they depend on, such as the instrument, the account entity and market conditions. For bitcoin (BTC/USD), we can state the specification, 1 lot equals 1 BTC and pip equals 1.0, and the reference price near 77000.0, but we cannot turn that into a live quote or a guaranteed execution price. Trading is high-risk and past conditions do not repeat.

We also cannot tell you which leverage you will be granted, only the cap that applies in South Africa: up to 1:200 for retail and up to 1:500 for eligible or professional clients depending on instrument. The worked example at 1:200, where a 0.10-lot bitcoin position needs about $385.00, illustrates the mechanics of margin but does not predict your own requirement. We cannot tell you that a strategy will work, and we will not present a trading outcome as a guarantee. What we can do is keep the numbers we print grounded and describe the rest by its dependencies.

Finally, we cannot replace the regulator or your own checks on the entity that holds your account. The caveat is exact: FxPro is licensed by the FCA (UK) and CySEC, and an FxPro entity holds an FSCA licence in South Africa, so check which entity your own account is opened with. We can restate that caveat and explain why it matters, but we cannot confirm the status of your individual account. If a question falls outside those limits, the honest answer is that it depends on facts we do not hold, and we will say so rather than invent a figure.