The most popular trading platform, MetaTrader 4 and 5, have been removed from the Apple App Store. All these apps are still available on Google Play.

Last week, users were shocked by the disappearance of the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 applications from the App Store. This has taken the forex and CFD trading industry by storm because MetaTrader is the most used trading platform.

While iPhone users may not be able to download MetaTrader on their device, for traders who have installed it long ago, the app still works fine. The problem is, they can't receive new updates anymore.

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Apple's sudden removal of MetaTrader led to various speculations on online forums. Some think that following the sanctions imposed on Russia, Apple is removing Russia-related apps from the App Store. Although MetaQuotes is currently based in Cyprus, the company is from Russia. Moreover, the founder and CEO of MetaQuotes, Renat Fatkhullin, and his brother, Lenar Fatkhullin, who is also the Marketing Director of MetaQuotes, are Russian. However, MetaQuotes has denied all these claims.

The second reason is thought to be related to some complaints about MetaTrader in the App Store. Apple usually removes apps that get a number of complaints. Complaints about MetaTrader arose because recently a viral article appeared written by a senior technology writer from Forbes named Cyrus Farivar. The article is titled "How One Man Lost $1 Million On A Crypto 'Super Scam' Called The Pig Butchering".

As part of the scam, scammers ask retail traders to download the MetaTrader app. MetaQuotes on the other hand completely denies anything to do with this scam. On the other hand, Forbes itself quotes Apple spokesman Adam Dema as revealing that the company is investigating complaints against MetaTrader. Dema emphasized that Apple will take further action to protect App Store users if necessary.

This incident apparently affected not only MetaQuotes but also numerous brokers that use the platform. MT4 and MT5 together captured 83.8% of the total market share at the end of Q2 2022, according to Finance Magnates Intelligence.

"We at Spotware and the cTrader team would like to express our regret to learn that MetaQuotes' trading platforms, MT4 and MT5 have been pulled from the App Store," said Aris Christoforou, Head of Marketing at Spotware, which is the provider of the popular trading platform, cTrader. "We respect the work that MetaQuotes has done, and cTrader would like to express our support to them and see this matter be sorted out quickly, in order to keep the fair competition and keep on pushing and challenging each other in innovating, creating, and supplying useful trading applications that benefit brokers and traders worldwide."