The following categories of businesses, business practices, and sale items are barred from using our services (“Prohibited Businesses”). Please note that Uphold HQ retains the right to reject any business applicant based on evolving risk tolerances and the requests of our banking partners.
By opening an Uphold HQ Account or Uphold Securities Brokerage Account (your “Account”), you confirm that you will not use the Uphold Platform to transact in connection with the following businesses, activities, practices, or items:
- Operating as an unlicensed money transmitter, money service, payment service provider, e-money, or any other financial services business which requires licensure, including but not limited to exchanges of virtual currencies, sales of money orders or traveler's checks, and escrow services
- Counterfeit products or any product or service that infringes upon the copyright, trademark, trade secrets of any third party, or stolen goods
- Narcotics, controlled substances, prescription and pharmaceutical services, drug paraphernalia, or any substances designed to mimic illegal drugs ( includes legal high or cannabinoids)
- Gambling, except where permitted by and with our prior written permission
- Casinos, lotteries and gambling (online or in-person)
- Sports forecasting or odds making
- Initial Coin Offering vehicles, except where permitted by and with our prior written permission
- Prostitution (including internet adult content subscription services), adult entertainment, dating escort services
- Adult entertainment
- Violent acts towards self or others, or activities or items that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others regarding the same
- Crowdfunding platforms
- Extortion, blackmail, or efforts to induce unearned payments
- Weapons and ammunition, including military manufacturers, dealers and intermediaries
- Deceptive marketing practices
- ATM/cash point operations
- Any business that violates any law, statute, ordinance or regulation
- Acting in concert with others or through multiple accounts that you control in order to circumvent per account trading limits
- Unregistered charities
- Cash for gold companies
- Prepaid card service providers
- Payday loan lenders
- Internet Payment Service providers
- Embassy and consulate services
- Debt collection agencies
- Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) <>
- Multi-level Marketing Companies <>
- Explosives and polytechnic products, glues, essential oils and chemicals <>
- Direct marketing (mail order or telephone orders, catalog sales, outbound telemarketing, inbound teleservices, audiotext & videotext, outbound telemarketing, travel, including discount travel clubs, or insurance) <>
- Funding any of the items included on this Prohibited Businesses list
You may not use your Account or the Uphold Platform to engage in the following categories of activity (“Prohibited Use”). You confirm that you will not use your Account to do any of the following:
- Violate or assist any party in violating any law, statute, ordinance, regulation or any rule of any self-regulatory or similar organization of which you are or are required to be a member (for example, those laws, rules, or regulations governing financial services, controlled substances, or consumer protections)
- Partake in a transaction which involves the proceeds of any unlawful activity
- Partake in any transaction involving online gambling except where permitted and with our prior written permission
- Defraud or attempt to defraud us or our users
- Infringe our or any third party's intellectual property
- Provide false, inaccurate or misleading information
- Take any action that imposes an unreasonable or disproportionately large load on our infrastructure, or detrimentally interfere with, intercept, or expropriate any system, data, or information
- Interfere with another individual's or entity's access to or use of any part of the Uphold Platform
- Defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or otherwise violate or infringe the legal rights of others
- Publish, distribute or disseminate any unlawful material or information
- Transmit or upload any viruses, Trojan horses, worms, or any other malicious programs
- Access the Uphold Platform through programmatic means
- Act as a payment intermediary or aggregator or otherwise resell the Uphold Platform, unless authorized by us in writing
- Transfer any rights granted to you by us to another party
- Use another user’s password for any purpose
- Compromise Accounts, computer systems or networks connected to the Uphold Platform through any means
- Use any Account other than the single Account created with your real identity