Founded in 2016 by Justin Paulsen, JP Markets positioned itself as one of South Africa's largest forex brokers, offering access to the global financial markets for retail traders. The company provided trading on various instruments, including currency pairs, indices, commodities, and shares, primarily through the MetaTrader 4 (MT4) platform. Its business model focused on providing high leverage and local South African deposit/withdrawal options to attract a domestic client base. However, the company's operations were halted following severe regulatory intervention from the South African Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) in 2020.