A screen balance is not custody
Some sites and apps call themselves portfolio generators, AI traders, or copy-trading bots. They show a chart, a rising balance, and a button to deposit. That screen can be drawn before any of your assets arrive. It is not the same as ETH at an address you control, and it is not a withdrawal you have already received.
A name in a search box is not a verdict either. This page does not label every unfamiliar trading brand as a scam. It explains a documented pattern, then the checks to run before you send anything.
What the CFTC said about AI trading claims
On January 25, 2024, the CFTC Office of Customer Education and Outreach published the customer advisory AI Won't Turn Trading Bots into Money Machines (Release 8854-24). It says fraudsters use public interest in artificial intelligence to promote automated trading algorithms, trade-signal strategies, and crypto-asset trading schemes that promise unreasonably high or guaranteed returns.
The advisory is direct: AI technology cannot predict the future or sudden market changes. It also says scammers have claimed huge returns, sometimes tens of thousands of percent, or a 100 percent win rate, for bots that place trades and for algorithms that only send buy and sell signals. Claims of high or guaranteed returns are a fraud warning sign. Strangers and social-media promoters of those claims should be ignored.
The Mirror Trading court record
This is one case, not a label you can paste onto every site with a chart.
On June 30, 2022, the CFTC announced a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas against Cornelius Johannes Steynberg and Mirror Trading International Proprietary Limited (Release 8549-22). The complaint charged a commodity pool that accepted bitcoin, which the CFTC valued at more than $1,733,838,372, from about May 18, 2018 through about March 30, 2021. The CFTC said the defendants solicited through websites and social media, falsely claimed a proprietary bot, accepted at least 29,421 bitcoin from at least 23,000 people in the United States and more worldwide, and misappropriated all of the bitcoin they accepted. Those were charges at that date.
On April 27, 2023, the CFTC announced that Judge Lee Yeakel had entered an order of default judgment and permanent injunction against Steynberg on April 24 (Release 8696-23). The order requires $1,733,838,372 in restitution and an equal civil monetary penalty. The CFTC said the order finds Steynberg liable for fraud, including the false proprietary-bot claim, and finds that all bitcoin accepted from pool participants was misappropriated. The same release said the CFTC's case against Mirror Trading International was still continuing, and that a restitution order may not return money if the wrongdoer does not have the funds.
The January 25, 2024 advisory, citing those two releases, adds details that the judgment announcement itself does not. It says customers could buy in for as little as $100 in bitcoin, that the bot was marketed as guaranteeing at least 10 percent a month, and that Steynberg created fake customer accounts and balances with MetaTrader demo accounts. It says very little money was actually traded, and that the operation was a Ponzi scheme. Read the advisory for that wording. Do not treat a later summary as a substitute for the court order.
Where to go next on this site
If the pitch arrived in Telegram, WhatsApp, or a similar chat, the signal-group guide covers why a winning screenshot is not a track record, why one small withdrawal is not proof, and what to refuse before you send ETH.
If someone claiming to be exchange support asks for a code, a recovery phrase, or remote access, leave that conversation. The fake-support guide tells you to open help from a bookmark and check the live account yourself.
If you want the ETH balance of an address you already control, the portfolio tracker looks up a public Ethereum address through a public node. That lookup sends the address to the node. It does not verify a trading website, and it does not display a generated trading profit.
Checks before you deposit
Run these in order. Stop at the first one you cannot complete.
1. Write down the exact domain
Copy it from the address bar, not from a chat or an ad. The CFTC advisory says to check how old that domain registration is at lookup.icann.org. A new domain is not proof of fraud, and an old domain is not proof the operator is real.
2. Search the legal name, not only the brand
Look for the company and the people behind the site. The advisory says to research that background before you trust a trading bot or a signal seller with money.
3. Reverse-image-search the people
The same advisory says to reverse-image-search key personnel. A recycled headshot is a reason to stop, not a reason to deposit and see what happens.
4. Treat a guaranteed return as a stop sign
The advisory says AI cannot predict the future, and that unreasonably high or guaranteed returns are a fraud warning sign. A promised 10 percent every month is the kind of claim the Mirror Trading pitch used. It is not evidence.
5. Do not fund a balance the site already drew
A profit shown before you deposit is a graphic. Do not send crypto, a recovery phrase, or a wallet approval to activate it.
6. Read any token approval before you sign
A portfolio display does not need permission to spend your tokens. If a site asks for that signature, check the spender and the amount first.
7. Get a second set of eyes
The advisory says to talk the pitch over with a financial advisor, a trusted friend, or a family member before you send money.
8. Count the costs
The advisory also says to consider fees, spreads, and subscription costs. Those costs change the result even when a strategy is real.
Portfolio-generator FAQ
Is every crypto portfolio generator a scam?
No. A dashboard is not proof either way. The CFTC advisory published on January 25, 2024 says AI cannot predict the future, and that unreasonably high or guaranteed returns are a fraud warning sign. Check the operator and the domain before you send assets.
Can a trading site show a balance that is not real?
Yes. The same January 25, 2024 CFTC advisory says Cornelius Johannes Steynberg created fake customer accounts and balances with MetaTrader demo accounts in the Mirror Trading International scheme. A number on a website is not the same as assets you can move from a wallet you control.
What did the court find about Mirror Trading International?
On April 24, 2023, Judge Lee Yeakel of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas entered a default judgment against Cornelius Johannes Steynberg. The CFTC release of April 27, 2023 says the order requires $1,733,838,372 in restitution and an equal civil penalty, and finds that the proprietary trading bot claim was false and that all bitcoin accepted from pool participants was misappropriated. That release also says the case against Mirror Trading International was still continuing, and that a restitution order may not return the money.
What should I check before depositing on a new trading site?
The CFTC advisory says to research the company or trader, reverse-image-search the people, check the domain age at lookup.icann.org, talk the pitch over with someone you trust, and account for fees, spreads, and subscription costs. Do not treat a guaranteed return as evidence.
Should I connect a wallet or share a recovery phrase to activate a generated portfolio?
No. A portfolio display does not need your recovery phrase. If a site asks you to approve a token spender, review the spender and the amount before you sign. An unlimited allowance can keep working after you leave the site.
I already sent crypto to a site that now shows a profit. Should I pay that site to release it?
Do not send more to the same site to unlock a balance it drew. The CFTC cautions that even a court restitution order may not return money, because the wrongdoer may not have the funds. Save transaction hashes, dates, amounts, and addresses, and report what happened through the CFTC complaint form. The January 25, 2024 advisory also says you can report fraud to the FBI.
Evidence reviewed October 13, 2026
Primary sources
The AI-bot warning, the domain-age check, and the note about fake demo balances come from CFTC Release 8854-24, read on October 13, 2026. The restitution amount, the false-bot finding, and the misappropriation finding come from Release 8696-23, describing the April 24, 2023 default judgment. Release 8549-22 is the June 30, 2022 complaint that case started from. Case status can change, so read the releases before repeating a detail.
- CFTC Release 8854-24 — customer advisory, AI Won't Turn Trading Bots into Money Machines, January 25, 2024
- CFTC Release 8696-23 — default judgment against Cornelius Johannes Steynberg, April 27, 2023
- CFTC Release 8549-22 — civil complaint against Steynberg and Mirror Trading International, June 30, 2022
- ICANN Lookup — domain registration age check named in the CFTC advisory
- CFTC complaint form — report suspicious commodity or crypto-asset trading activity