Disclaimer: The beneath article is sponsored, and the views in it don’t characterize these of ZyCrypto. Readers ought to conduct unbiased analysis earlier than taking any actions associated to the venture talked about on this piece. This text shouldn’t be thought to be funding recommendation.
Clearing a funded problem, exiting a place in revenue, after which shedding the account anyway seems like dangerous luck. However usually it isn’t a loss in any respect that ends it — it’s a time period the dealer by no means learn earlier than paying. And it’s removed from uncommon: of greater than 300,000 funded accounts examined, solely round 7% of merchants ever withdrew a payout — and the trigger was seldom their buying and selling.
That hole is the main focus of Velotrade’s 2026 Prop Agency Transparency Report, which went via the revealed rulebooks of six companies, Topstep, FTMO, FundingPips, Blue Guardian, HyroTrader and Velotrade, to establish the phrases that basically resolve whether or not a funded dealer walks away with their income. Its message is obvious: merchants obsess over revenue splits, whereas the clauses tucked into analysis guides and help-center pages are what quietly finish most accounts.
Guidelines shut extra accounts than shedding trades do
Two unbiased trade datasets sit behind that declare:
- In a 2024 examine by FPFX Tech protecting greater than 300,000 accounts (reported by way of Finance Magnates), solely 7% of merchants ever reached a payout, and nearly 14% cleared a problem to start out with.
- A separate hoc-trade evaluate of 500,000 merchants discovered roughly 70% of failures traced to breached loss limits, to not missed revenue targets.
- Consistency guidelines can cancel out 33% to 50% of the revenue made on one sturdy day. 4 of the six companies examined use one.
The sign is similar all through: the commerce is never the issue. The rulebook is.
 
“Might a dealer learn our guidelines as soon as, in a single sitting, and know each means their account may finish? If the reply isn’t any, the rulebook isn’t completed. Most of this trade has handled that as a advertising downside. We expect it’s the whole product,” stated Gianluca Pizzituti, Chief Govt Officer of Velotrade.
Booming demand, collapsing companies
Curiosity in funded accounts has jumped even because the roster of companies shrank. Month-to-month searches for “prop agency” rose from round 880 in early 2020 to about 49,500 by 2025, a 56-fold improve, pulling successive waves of first-time consumers right into a market the place the phrases that matter most are saved off the gross sales web page.
The remainder of the image is grim. After MetaQuotes stripped MT4 and MT5 licenses from prop companies serving US purchasers in February 2024, a number of main names folded. The Funded Dealer halted operations and later owned as much as greater than $2 million in denied payouts. True Foreign exchange Funds closed over insolvency, leaving round 300 merchants owed $1.2 million. SurgeTrader shut its doorways inside days, its CEO acknowledging that about 10% of payout obligations went unpaid.
One commerce, two companies, two very completely different endings
Each prop account carries a maximum-loss line, however companies set it in essentially alternative ways, and that distinction can resolve the exact same commerce two alternative ways. A set drawdown is pegged to the beginning steadiness and doesn’t transfer: on a $100,000 account with a ten% restrict, you fail at $90,000, no exceptions. A trailing drawdown rises together with your fairness and by no means drops again.
The report runs a single account via each. A standard day-seven pullback troughs about $10,000 above a hard and fast $90,000 ground, so the account isn’t in jeopardy and finally ends up roughly $6,500 forward. Below a trailing ground that has climbed close to the height, that similar dip crosses the road and closes the account outright. FTMO pegs its most loss to 10% of the beginning steadiness; Topstep’s trailing restrict rises with the end-of-day steadiness and locks at first. Neither agency hides its mannequin, however fastened versus trailing isn’t any footnote. It decides the commerce.
Penalised for a robust day
A consistency rule limits how a lot of your complete revenue might come from any single session. Commerce too effectively, too quick, and also you fail anyway. With a 40% single-day cap and a $1,000 goal, a $450 session is 45% of revenue, previous the road, so the analysis fails though the goal was reached.
Topstep, FundingPips, Blue Guardian and HyroTrader every run a model, at analysis or on a payout tier. FTMO applies a 50% Greatest Day Rule on its 1-Step product, recorded in its assist middle reasonably than the headline guidelines. And the tightest single-day caps normally connect to probably the most interesting payout choices. Velotrade says it applies no consistency rule at any stage. For readers sizing up the crypto-focused finish of the market, Velotrade’s rundown of the highest crypto prop companies units these phrases out collectively.
The rule that may shut a successful commerce
Loss limits finish probably the most accounts. However the report picks out a quieter rule as the toughest to see coming, as a result of it could shut an account on a commerce that by no means settles at a loss.
A max-risk-per-trade rule limits how a lot any single place or commerce concept might lose at any level, measured on unrealized, floating, revenue and loss, not on closed trades. It sits beneath the marketed day by day loss restrict. If an open commerce’s paper loss even touches the cap intraday, nevertheless briefly, the rule can hearth and the account is over, even when that commerce would later have closed in revenue.
Three issues make it simple to miss at checkout:
- It tracks unrealized loss. Your commerce by no means wants to shut pink.
- It could activate solely after funding. You’ll be able to go the entire analysis with out ever hitting the rule that then governs your funded account.
- It could mix re-entries. Shut a shedding commerce and reopen in the identical course, and the losses are pooled towards the cap.
Companies give it completely different names. Blue Guardian’s “Guardian Protect” force-closes trades close to 1-2% unrealized (relying on account sort); a primary breach cuts your cut up to 50%, a second closes the account. FundingPips runs a “Danger Per Commerce Thought” rule on the funded stage that mixes re-entries. HyroTrader requires a stop-loss inside 5 minutes of each commerce, monitored reside. Velotrade says it publishes no secondary per-trade or per-idea cap beneath its day by day restrict.
None of those is unreasonable as threat administration. The report’s level is placement: a rule that may finish a funded account arguably belongs subsequent to the worth, not a number of pages deep in a assist middle.
Six rulebooks, aspect by aspect
The full rulebook comparability ranges all six companies towards the phrases that almost all usually resolve a payout. As a result of Velotrade each revealed the report and seems within the ultimate column, that column displays a market participant’s personal place reasonably than a impartial grade, and merchants are suggested to examine present phrases straight with every agency.
| Agency | Drawdown Mannequin | Floating P&L Counted | Consistency Rule | Place Danger Rule | Information Buying and selling | Weekend Holding | Guidelines Change | The place the Element Lives |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FTMO | Fastened, from preliminary steadiness (10%) | Sure, loss line contains unrealized P&L | Greatest day threshold on some account varieties | No secondary per-trade cap on customary accounts | Unrestricted in analysis; brief window round focused releases as soon as funded | Allowed in analysis; funded Normal should shut earlier than the weekend; Swing exempt | Sure, information and weekend guidelines tighten on the funded Normal stage | Buying and selling goals pages, FAQ |
| Topstep | Trailing, finish of day, locks at beginning steadiness | Sure, realized and unrealized P&L | Greatest day threshold in analysis; separate threshold on payout | No formal per-trade cap; full measurement into main information is a listed threat | No fastened blackout window; most measurement into main information flagged | Not permitted at any stage; day-trading program with a hard and fast day by day loss | Consistency requirement and payout path differ as soon as funded | Assist middle articles |
| FundingPips | Varies by product; most fashions fastened, one product trails 5% from peak fairness | Sure, on the day by day loss restrict throughout fashions | Consistency rating gates the upper on-demand payout tier | “Danger Per Commerce Thought” cap, funded stage solely, aggregates re-entries | Unrestricted in analysis; funded accounts restricted close to high-impact information | Allowed in analysis; funded accounts below a brief restriction | Sure; per-trade cap and information and weekend guidelines activate as soon as funded | Guidelines pages and payout phrases |
| Blue Guardian | Every day loss restrict plus trailing mechanics, varies by product | Sure, makes use of steadiness or fairness, whichever is increased | Applies throughout analysis; varies by product | “Guardian Protect” close to 2% unrealized; first set off cuts cut up, second closes | Broadly permitted in analysis; brief restricted window | Typically permitted, topic to plan guidelines | Sure; the floating loss defend and information restriction are documented | Weblog and guidelines documentation |
| HyroTrader | Varies by plan; non-compulsory improve converts trailing day by day | Sure, day by day drawdown monitored in actual time | Applies throughout analysis solely; drops away as soon as funded | Necessary stop-loss inside 5 minutes of each commerce, monitored reside | Holding via information permitted; news-only methods restricted | Permitted at each stage, reflecting 24/7 crypto markets | Sure; the consistency requirement applies solely throughout analysis | Phrases and FAQ |
| Velotrade | Fastened, disclosed from preliminary steadiness | No secondary floating loss cap revealed | None at any stage, per revealed guidelines | None revealed beneath the day by day restrict | Permitted at each stage, per revealed guidelines | Permitted at each stage, per revealed guidelines | No; guidelines acknowledged as constant from buy | Single revealed guidelines web page |
Supply: every agency’s personal revealed guidelines pages, help-center articles and FAQs, captured July 2026. “Varies by product” means the reply differs throughout a agency’s account varieties. Phrases change ceaselessly, so verify present situations earlier than buying.
The place the older companies nonetheless come out forward
The report is candid concerning the flip aspect. As a prop agency, Velotrade is new, having launched its challenges in 2026, whereas FTMO (2015) and Topstep (2012) have run dealer evaluations for much longer. Paying funded merchants at scale is one thing solely time proves, and on that rating the incumbents carry years of historical past whereas Velotrade is early. A number of companies additionally scale funded accounts effectively previous Velotrade’s $200,000 ceiling and assist extra platforms. A clear rulebook could be constructed from day one; a payout observe document can not, and the report advises weighing each.
Ten minutes to examine earlier than shopping for a problem
The report’s sensible takeaway: ten minutes with the phrases might rely for greater than any comparability of revenue splits. Drawing on its evaluate of six prop agency rulebooks, it tells merchants to examine:
- Drawdown mechanics: fastened from the preliminary steadiness or trailing your fairness? If trailing, is it end-of-day or tick-by-tick, and when does it lock?
- Consistency guidelines: analysis, funded, or each? Connected to a payout tier? What precisely is the single-day cap?
- Per-trade caps: is there a secondary cap below the day by day restrict, is it measured on unrealized losses, and does it pool re-entries?
- Funded-stage adjustments: do guidelines activate, tighten or vanish as soon as funded, and does the account start at a lowered steadiness?
- Payout situations: minimal buying and selling days, how usually you’ll be able to withdraw, any wait earlier than the primary payout, and whether or not a payout could be turned down on the agency’s discretion.
- The place it’s written: are all account-ending guidelines on one web page, and might assist level to every of them in writing?
Regulators are circling the identical query
Scrutiny is mounting. The US Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee is anticipated to open a public session on 1 August 2026 (feedback shut 30 November 2026) on whether or not problem charges rely as “commodity-pool participation pursuits”, a designation that might deliver evaluation-based US futures prop companies below CFTC and NFA registration. In Europe, the FCA and ESMA have repeated that prop advertising to retail should carry distinguished threat warnings and drop deceptive efficiency claims, and regulators throughout Europe, Australia and North America are analyzing whether or not charging a payment with out delivering funding appears to be like like a pay-to-play mannequin.
None of that is settled legislation, and a few our bodies, together with CySEC and, for now, ESMA, have signalled prop buying and selling isn’t a right away precedence. However the course of journey factors to standardised, upfront disclosure, the identical shift most different shopper monetary merchandise have already made.
The underside line for merchants
The report’s conclusion is that the prop mannequin itself is sound, since backing expert merchants with agency capital is an affordable concept. What trails behind is disclosure on the level of sale. Evaluating rulebooks, it argues, deserves not less than as a lot weight as evaluating revenue splits, as a result of the rulebook, ultimately, decides whether or not the cut up is ever paid.
About Velotrade
Velotrade is a proprietary buying and selling agency providing funded buying and selling challenges throughout crypto, foreign exchange, shares, indices and commodities, constructed round a single, absolutely revealed rulebook and a hard and fast drawdown mannequin. The agency places transparency on the middle of its providing, aiming to make sure that each rule able to ending an account is disclosed in a single place earlier than a dealer buys. Velotrade Re Restricted is included and registered in Hong Kong, the place its founding workforce has operated a licensed invoice-finance enterprise since 2016, with founders drawn from JP Morgan, Financial institution of America and Dresdner Kleinwort. All buying and selling companies are supplied in a simulated atmosphere utilizing demo accounts with simulated funds. For extra data, go to velotrade.com.
