Contents
What the rules actually say (checked 3 November 2026)"Registered" and "licensed" are not the same wordYou tap where Futures should be and nothing is thereWhat happens to the money you already have thereIf you want a licensed provider, check it yourself firstTax, briefly
What the rules actually say (checked 3 November 2026)
The Financial Markets Authority has a consumer page about cryptocurrencies that calls them high-risk, speculative products, says they are "not regulated in New Zealand" and are "not viewed as financial products". That page carries its own last-updated date of 28 November 2022, so treat it as background rather than a fresh 2026 statement. Nothing on it says a New Zealander commits an offence by trading crypto or crypto derivatives — the obligations it describes fall on the businesses that offer the service.
The same page is blunt about leverage. It says your risk goes up if you invest in the futures market through contracts for difference (CFDs), because these are typically offered with leverage, so you pay only part of the trade value upfront; if the trade goes against you, you still owe the full borrowed amount plus your losses.
Read that as a warning about leverage, not as a description of a crypto perpetual. A CFD is a private deal with a broker: they quote the price, they are the other side of your trade, and their rules and costs apply.
A perpetual on a crypto exchange works differently. Your trade is matched against other traders, and the exchange sets the fees and decides when to close a losing position — this is called liquidation. If you use isolated margin, the exchange normally closes the trade while your deposit still covers the loss, so the damage stops at the money behind that one trade. In a very fast market it can still end worse than planned. The difference between the two products is in futures vs CFDs, and what really happens when a leveraged trade goes badly is in can you end up owing the exchange.
"Registered" and "licensed" are not the same word
This is where most pages about New Zealand get muddy. The FMA says a New Zealand-based crypto trading platform must be on the Financial Service Providers Register and must belong to a dispute resolution scheme — a free service that takes your complaint and deals with the firm if the firm will not sort it out with you. Being on the register itself means only that a company has entered its details in a public list.
The FMA also tells you to check whether your New Zealand dollars sit in a trust account — money kept apart from the company's own, so it is not spent on running the business. That is a question you can ask a firm directly and expect a clear answer to, in writing.
A licence is a separate thing again. The FMA keeps a list of the people and businesses it has granted a licence or authorisation to, and it says plainly that you should deal only with licensed businesses, because then you have access to free dispute resolution. That list uses real licence categories — it names StoneX Financial Pty Ltd as a licensed derivatives issuer, for example. Whether a crypto perpetual fits inside such a category is a question for the FMA or a lawyer, so if a firm claims it does, ask them which licence covers the crypto product.
You tap where Futures should be and nothing is there
Say you have 100 USDT sitting in a Binance account you opened from Auckland, you have read a couple of guides, and you go looking for the Futures menu. You get spot and nothing else. The reason is in the terms, not in your app.
If you signed up from New Zealand, the company behind your account is a local one — InvestbyBit Limited, trading as Binance New Zealand, with its registered office in Takapuna, Auckland. Its Terms of Use for New Zealand were last updated on 17 August 2026.
Those terms say the company is registered on the New Zealand register of financial service providers, and then add two sentences worth reading twice: "Binance New Zealand is not licensed by a New Zealand regulator to provide the Binance Services", and that its registration "does not mean that Binance New Zealand is subject to active regulation or oversight by a New Zealand regulator". Its FSP number is FSP1003864, which is what you type into the register to look the company up yourself.
If something goes wrong, some complaints can go to the Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman — a free complaints service for customers of financial firms. The terms also say that cover does not stretch to the platform as a whole, so do not count on it as your safety net.
The terms contain no product list at all — the words futures, options, margin, leverage and perpetual do not appear in them. What clause 20.5 does say is that residents of some countries "may only be able to access some, but not all, Binance Services", that Binance may change the services available to you from time to time, and that you must not attempt to get around any such restriction. New Zealand is one of the places where Binance does not offer derivatives, together with the UK, Australia, Brazil, South Korea and Hong Kong — so a missing Futures menu is a business decision by this company, not a bug in your app.
Other exchanges are a different story, and an honest one is short: Bybit and OKX do not name New Zealand on their published restricted-country lists, but not being on a list is not the same as holding a New Zealand licence. The only answer you can rely on is the product list inside your own account today, because services change and old news articles are not an official source. The same pattern repeats everywhere, which is why it pays to check futures availability exchange by exchange before you deposit anything.
So your realistic options are: buy crypto on spot, use a firm whose New Zealand licence you have checked yourself, practise with no money at all, or open another exchange's app and see what is actually offered to a New Zealand account — knowing that you would be dealing with a company that is not supervised here.
The order of questions matters. "Is this exchange on a banned list?" is the easy question. The useful one is "does this firm hold a New Zealand licence for the leveraged product it wants to sell me, and who handles my complaint if it goes wrong?" The FMA's position is that using an offshore provider increases your risks and removes the protection you would have from a New Zealand-based one.
What happens to the money you already have there
Nothing dramatic happens on its own. The New Zealand terms say that if an account is closed, you must withdraw all your digital assets within 90 days, and they set out a dormant-account process after 90 days without a withdrawal or access, with notice sent to your registered email address. Clause 20.5 also warns that if you travel to a location on Binance's List of Prohibited Countries — defined there as Singapore, Malaysia, Canada and any other location Binance designates — services may be unavailable and access blocked, which would affect your ability to trade or even to watch existing orders and positions.
Three sensible habits follow from that, and they are our suggestions rather than anything the terms demand: keep the email address on the account current so you actually receive notices, export your trade and transfer history while you still have access, and do not leave a balance sitting somewhere you have stopped using. Trying to reach products that are not offered to New Zealand residents is the one thing the terms explicitly forbid.
If you want a licensed provider, check it yourself first
Before trusting any firm that advertises crypto CFDs or crypto derivatives to New Zealanders, do the checking in this order.
- Open the FMA's list of licensed providers and find the firm by name. Check which licence it holds and that it is still current.
- Look up its details on the Financial Service Providers Register — address, services, and which dispute resolution scheme handles complaints about it.
- Ask whether your New Zealand dollars are held in a trust account, kept apart from the company's own money.
- Confirm the firm actually offers the crypto product you want, not just shares or currencies; a licence category alone tells you nothing about the instrument list.
- Remember what you would be buying: a CFD is a deal with that broker, not with a market of other traders, and the broker sets the price, the costs and the rules.
If a platform found you through social media, promises returns or makes withdrawals difficult, treat that as the end of the conversation. Our checklist for spotting a fake exchange walks through the warning signs, and why beginners lose money on futures covers the mistakes that cost people more than any licensing question.
Tax, briefly
Inland Revenue treats cryptoassets as a form of property, and says the tax treatment depends on the characteristics and use of the asset rather than what it is called; buying and selling crypto is not subject to GST. IRD also says you need to file an income tax return, the IR3, when you have taxable income from a cryptoasset activity. An update dated 1 September 2026 notes that New Zealand has adopted the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, an international framework that increases the visibility of crypto-asset activity. How your own trading is taxed depends on your situation, so read IRD's cryptoassets pages or talk to an accountant before you guess.
Is it illegal for me to trade crypto futures in New Zealand?
Nothing on the FMA's public consumer page says an individual commits an offence by trading crypto or crypto derivatives. The rules it describes apply to the businesses offering the service — registration on the FSPR, membership of a dispute resolution scheme, and FMA licensing for licensed categories. The practical limit is what each firm chooses to offer you: Binance, for one, does not offer derivatives to New Zealand accounts at all.
Why can't I find Futures in my Binance account in New Zealand?
Binance's New Zealand terms say residents of some countries can access only some services and that Binance may change what is available. The terms list no products at all, and New Zealand is one of the places where Binance does not offer derivatives, alongside the UK, Australia, Brazil, South Korea and Hong Kong. The terms also say you must not try to get around a restriction.
Is Binance New Zealand regulated by the FMA?
Its own terms, updated 17 August 2026, say it is registered on the New Zealand register of financial service providers but "is not licensed by a New Zealand regulator", and that registration does not mean active regulation or oversight. Some complaints can go to the Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman, a free complaints service, but the terms say that cover does not stretch to the platform as a whole.
Is a crypto CFD the same as a perpetual futures contract?
They share the leverage idea and nothing else. A CFD is a contract with the broker who quotes you the price and takes the other side. A perpetual on a crypto exchange is matched against other traders, with the exchange setting fees, margin and liquidation rules. The FMA's warning about owing the borrowed amount is about broker CFDs, so read the terms of whatever you are actually being offered.
What about Bybit, OKX or a DEX instead?
Neither Bybit's nor OKX's published restricted-country lists names New Zealand, but that is not the same as holding a New Zealand licence to sell you a leveraged product. The FMA's position is that using an offshore provider increases your risks and removes the protection a New Zealand-based provider would give you, including local dispute resolution. Check inside the app during sign-up what is actually offered to your account.
Where can I practise if no provider will take me?
Demo and paper trading cost nothing and teach the parts that actually hurt beginners: position size, stop placement, how fast a leveraged loss grows. Start with learning futures for free and practising without real money, and treat any provider decision as a separate, later question.
Sources and fact-check
Exchange terms were checked against official documents on November 3, 2026. Terms change — before you trade, check what matters to you in the exchange app and in your contract’s specs.
FMA: Cryptocurrencies (consumer guidance)Binance New Zealand: Terms of Use – NZ (17 August 2026)Inland Revenue: Cryptoassets
