HotForex is now HFM. If you have been searching for HotForex bonus terms, a HotForex login, or a HotForex review and finding pages that talk about a different brand, this is the missing explanation. The broker founded in 2010 as HotForex announced its rebrand to HFM — short for HF Markets — on May 2, 2022, moved to the hfm.com domain, and kept operating as the same company under the same group management. The hotforex.com domain still resolves rather than 404ing, and the brand’s own site now lives at hfm.com — though hotforex.com answers automated requests with an HTTP 403 bot-wall response, so the redirect itself can only be observed in a full browser session (see the source note below). Every promotion the brand runs today is published under the HFM name, and the lineup has changed materially since the HotForex era: the 100% Supercharged Bonus is gone, the 20% Top-Up Bonus is the live deposit match, and Shield 500 is the live welcome offer. This guide covers what the rebrand changed, what happened to existing accounts and regulation, and the current verified offer lineup.
Availability note: HFM promotions are not available to retail clients in the EU, UK, Australia, or the US, where regulators ban trading incentives. Offers run through the group’s international entity rather than its CySEC, FCA, or DFSA arms, and several are region-specific — the eligibility line for each one is stated below.
The Short Answer
| Question | Verified answer |
|---|---|
| Is HotForex still operating? | Yes — under the name HFM since May 2022 |
| Same company? | Yes — founded 2010 as HotForex, rebranded, same group and management |
| What happened to hotforex.com? | The domain still resolves; the brand’s site is hfm.com. Automated requests to hotforex.com return HTTP 403 (bot wall), so the redirect is observable only in a full browser session |
| Why the change? | The company said “forex” no longer described a business spanning 1,200+ products across nine asset classes |
| What happened to accounts? | The broker stated at the European rebrand stage that client accounts and portfolio access were unaffected; the client area was renamed |
| Regulation today | FSCA (South Africa), FCA (UK), CySEC (Cyprus), DFSA (Dubai), FSA (Seychelles), CMA (Kenya) — per our Matrix record |
| Are HotForex-era bonuses still available? | Not under that name, and the biggest one is gone: the 100% Supercharged Bonus was withdrawn. The live offers are the 20% Top-Up Bonus and Shield 500 |
If you only wanted to know whether the broker disappeared: it did not. It renamed. For the full trust assessment of the company as it exists today, see Is HFM legit? and the scored HFM review.
The Rebrand Happened in Two Stages
Most rebrand explainers treat this as a single event in 2022. It was actually two, three years apart, which is why some traders remember the change happening much earlier.
Stage one — Europe, January 2019. The European arm, HF Markets (Europe) Ltd, dropped the HotForex name and began trading as HF Markets with effect from January 28, 2019. The announcement came days after the firm secured a new FCA licence, and the broker stated explicitly that there would be no changes to clients’ accounts or their ability to access their trading portfolios during the transition. The client portal, then called myHotForex, was renamed myHF.
Stage two — everything else, May 2022. On May 2, 2022, the group announced that the HotForex brand and the hotforex.com domain were being phased out in favour of HFM and hfm.com across the rest of the business — the offshore operations plus the licensed subsidiaries in Kenya, South Africa, and Dubai. The stated reason was that a name built around “forex” no longer described the offering: by then the broker was marketing more than 1,200 products across nine asset classes. Group CEO George Koumantaris framed the change as adopting “a shorter, more memorable and modernized name”. Coverage at the time noted the company was serving around 3.5 million live account holders and had recently secured a licence in Kenya.
Two details matter most for anyone arriving from an old bookmark:
- This was a rename, not an acquisition. No change of ownership was announced, the founding year stays 2010, and the same CEO fronted the announcement.
- The promotions did not simply carry over unchanged. Unlike some rebrands, HFM’s offer lineup has since been reshaped — the HotForex-era flagship, the 100% Supercharged Bonus, is no longer offered on the international site. Details below.
Rebrand sources: “BREAKING: HotForex Rebrands to HF Markets to Reflect Broad Offerings”, financemagnates.com, published May 2, 2022; “HotForex announces rebrand into HFM”, leaprate.com, published May 3, 2022; “HotForex Europe to Rebrand as HF Markets at End of January”, financemagnates.com, published January 24, 2019. All three accessed August 17, 2026. Domain behaviour independently checked by our team on August 17, 2026: automated requests to hotforex.com return HTTP 403, but a full browser session lands on hfm.com.
What Changed vs What Stayed the Same
| Changed | Stayed the same |
|---|---|
| Brand name: HotForex became HFM (HF Markets) | The company — founded 2010, continuous operation, same group management |
| Domain: hotforex.com gave way to hfm.com | Platforms: MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, and the broker’s own app |
| Client area: myHotForex became myHF | The multi-entity structure, with promotions run offshore and tier-one licences held separately |
| Positioning: multi-asset broker rather than forex-first | The $5 entry point and emerging-market focus, especially across Africa |
| The bonus menu: the 100% Supercharged and 30% Rescue bonuses are withdrawn | The promotion-led business model — HFM still runs one of the largest offer suites we track |
The regulatory footprint recorded in our Broker & Bonus Matrix spans six jurisdictions: the FSCA in South Africa (HF Markets SA (Pty) Ltd), the FCA in the UK, CySEC in Cyprus, the DFSA in Dubai, the FSA in Seychelles, and the CMA in Kenya. As with every multi-entity broker, the licence that applies to you depends on where you live — and bonus-eligible clients are onboarded under an international entity, not the CySEC, FCA, or DFSA ones, because those regulators prohibit retail incentives. The promotions hub’s own legal footer names HF Markets (SV) Ltd, registered in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (company registration 22747 IBC 2015), as the operator behind the offer terms, and the current terms documents carry matching “HFSV” branch codes. The entity-by-entity breakdown is in Is HFM legit?
What Happened to HotForex Accounts?
At the European rebrand stage the broker said clients’ accounts and access to their trading portfolios were unaffected — the branding, the website, and the app changed, not the account infrastructure. Nothing in the 2022 announcement suggested a different approach for the rest of the business: the client base moved to the HFM brand rather than being asked to re-register.
If you are returning to a dormant HotForex account years later:
- Log in at hfm.com — the old domain leads there anyway. Do not trust any site still presenting itself as a live, deposit-taking “HotForex”.
- Expect fresh verification. After a long dormancy, any broker will re-run KYC before restoring deposits or withdrawals. Have identity and address documents ready.
- Ask support about legacy balances and legacy bonus credit. We have no verified record of how individual dormant accounts or old bonus credits were handled, and HFM’s current terms forfeit bonus credit after 60 days of inactivity. Ask HFM support directly rather than relying on third-party claims.
Does HotForex Still Have a Bonus?
Here is the honest answer: there are no HotForex-branded bonuses, because there is no HotForex-branded broker. Searches like “HotForex 100% bonus” and “HotForex no deposit bonus” lead to pages describing offers under a name retired in 2022 — and, worse, several of those offers have since been withdrawn under the new name too.
What our verification found, checked on August 7, 2026 against HFM’s own terms documents:
- The 100% Supercharged Bonus is withdrawn. The former flagship — a 100% match up to $50,000 in credit, with per-lot rebates layered on top — is absent from the international site: its promotion pages no longer resolve and its official terms links redirect away. Our Matrix marks it expired. If a page is selling you a 100% HFM deposit match today, it is out of date.
- The 30% Rescue Bonus is withdrawn on the same evidence — no official trace on the current site.
- The $50 no deposit bonus is expired. It was an Asia-focused offer, and stale “$50 HFM bonus” pages still rank for it. The evidence trail is documented in our HFM no deposit bonus status page.
Stale bonus listings are the single most common trap in this niche — the pattern we document in our fake no deposit bonus warning. The same thing happened with another broker rebrand we cover: JustForex is now JustMarkets.
HFM’s Live Offers in 2026
All figures below come from our Broker & Bonus Matrix, verified on August 7, 2026 against HFM’s official terms-and-conditions documents. Confirm the live version in your client area before claiming — the PDFs there are the binding text.
20% Top-Up Bonus (active)
The live deposit match: 20% on transfers into a dedicated Top-Up Bonus account, up to $5,000, available on MT4, MT5, WebTrader, and the HFM app. The exact percentage and cap are set inside the Client Area and can range from 10% to 100% depending on the campaign you are shown. Per the official terms (v2026/03) there is no trading-volume requirement — the “bonus ÷ 2 in standard lots” figure that circulates is not in the document. The credit itself cannot be withdrawn under any circumstances; profits made trading with it are withdrawable without restriction; any withdrawal removes bonus credit proportionally; the credit is forfeited after 60 days of inactivity; phone verification is required to activate. Not available in the EU, UK, Australia, or the US.
Shield 500 (active)
HFM’s welcome offer for first-time depositors, and the clearest sign of where the broker’s growth is focused — its deposit currencies include Kenyan shillings, Nigerian naira, and Ghanaian cedis, and our record lists Kenya, Nigeria, and Ghana as the eligible markets. Deposit at least $10 (or the local-currency equivalent) and keep it in the account for the first 25 days; trading losses during that window are covered up to $500, credited as tradable bonus at midnight on day 25. Leverage is fixed at 1:1000 (1:500 during news). Per the current terms (v2026/03) there is no volume requirement. The credit is never withdrawable; your own deposit and any profits are. Crypto deposits are ineligible, only one account per client qualifies, and any withdrawal on or before day 25 disqualifies you permanently. Be clear about what this is not: your deposit is real money that can be lost — the mechanism converts early losses into credit, it does not remove risk.
The rest of the live lineup
- Return on Free Margin — 2% to 3% annualized on daily free margin from a stated $1,000,000 monthly pool, requiring at least 5 lots a month on forex or metals with trades held over 3 minutes, paid monthly and withdrawable.
- Trophy Road loyalty — points per $1 million of loyalty volume across four ranks, with a headline catalogue running up to $500,000 in total rewards.
- Virtual to Real Demo Contest — free monthly entry on demo funds, prizes of $2,000 / $1,000 / $500 credited to live accounts, with residents of China and Bangladesh excluded per the contest terms.
- Traders Arena — the replacement for the old $1,000 Traders Awards, and a geographic trap worth naming: it is open exclusively to residents of Malaysia, Brunei, and Singapore. Traders in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, or India cannot enter.
HFM also rotates regional seasonal campaigns — one was live on the promotions hub when we looked on August 17, 2026 — that are not yet in our Matrix. We do not publish figures for offers we have not verified; read that campaign’s own terms in the portal.
The full breakdown with terms tables sits on the HFM bonus page, with country-specific claiming detail for Nigeria and Kenya, and the entry-cost picture in the HFM minimum deposit guide. If the current lineup suits you, you can open an HFM account here — the same company you knew as HotForex.
How to Be Sure You Are On the Real HFM
Rebrands create a window for impostors, because searchers looking for the old name land on whatever fills the vacuum. Three checks:
- The current domain is hfm.com. Typing hotforex.com should take you there. A site resolving as a live, deposit-taking “HotForex” with its own login is not the real broker.
- Verify licences on the regulators’ registers, not the logo. The FCA, CySEC, FSCA, DFSA, and CMA all publish searchable public registers. Clone sites copy branding; they cannot copy register entries.
- Be suspicious of “exclusive” legacy offers. Anyone promising to unlock the old HotForex 100% Supercharged Bonus through a special link is describing a promotion that HFM no longer offers — the setup we cover in common forex bonus scams.
For how HFM compares against the other big multi-entity bonus broker serving the same markets, see XM vs HFM, and for the wider verified market, our deposit bonus pillar and no deposit bonus pillar.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is HotForex the same as HFM?
Yes. HotForex rebranded to HFM — short for HF Markets — with the group announcement published on May 2, 2022, and the European arm had already adopted the HF Markets name effective January 28, 2019. It is the same company, founded in 2010, with the same group management; no acquisition or change of ownership was announced. The hotforex.com domain leads to hfm.com, which our team confirmed in a browser check on August 17, 2026.
Why did HotForex change its name?
Because the name no longer described the business. In the May 2022 announcement the company said that having “forex” in its name did not reflect an offering that by then spanned more than 1,200 products across nine asset classes, and its CEO described the move as adopting a shorter and more modern name. The rebrand covered the offshore operations and the licensed subsidiaries in Kenya, South Africa, and Dubai, following the European entity’s earlier switch in 2019.
What happened to my HotForex account after the rebrand?
At the European rebrand the broker stated there would be no changes to clients’ accounts or their ability to access their trading portfolios — the branding and the client portal name changed (myHotForex became myHF), not the accounts themselves. Log in at hfm.com, expect a fresh KYC check if the account has been dormant a long time, and contact HFM support about any legacy balance or old bonus credit: current terms forfeit bonus credit after 60 days of inactivity, and we have no verified record of how individual dormant accounts were handled.
Does HFM still offer the 100% HotForex bonus?
No. The 100% Supercharged Bonus — the HotForex-era flagship, a 100% match up to $50,000 in credit with per-lot rebates — has been withdrawn from HFM’s international site, and our Matrix marked it expired on August 7, 2026 after its promotion pages and official terms links stopped resolving. The live deposit match is the 20% Top-Up Bonus, up to $5,000, with no volume requirement in its official terms. Any page still advertising a 100% HFM match is out of date.
Which HFM bonuses can I actually claim in 2026?
Verified live as of August 7, 2026: the 20% Top-Up Bonus (up to $5,000, no volume requirement, credit non-withdrawable, profits withdrawable), Shield 500 (first-time depositors in Kenya, Nigeria, and Ghana; up to $500 of first-25-day losses converted to tradable credit from a $10 deposit), Return on Free Margin, the Trophy Road loyalty program, and the monthly demo contest (China and Bangladesh excluded). Traders Arena is live but restricted to Malaysia, Brunei, and Singapore. Expired: the 100% Supercharged Bonus, the 30% Rescue Bonus, and the $50 no deposit bonus.
Is HFM regulated the same way HotForex was?
The licences sit with the same group and the structure did not collapse in the rebrand. Our Matrix records six regulators across the group: the FSCA in South Africa, the FCA in the UK, CySEC in Cyprus, the DFSA in Dubai, the FSA in Seychelles, and the CMA in Kenya. What matters for you is which entity opens your account, because that determines both your protections and whether you see any promotions at all: bonus-eligible clients trade under the international entity named in the promotions terms, not under the FCA, CySEC, or DFSA arms. Our Is HFM legit? analysis walks through the entity structure and what each licence does and does not cover.