The State of Prop Trading 2026

Chapter 1

How big is the prop trading market we can see?

We track 86 prop firms selling 4,561 distinct plans. Forex firms are the largest group, futures firms the second, and crypto perpetuals firms a small but plan-heavy third.

Futures

34 firms

624 plans, 87 instant

Forex and CFDs

43 firms

2,580 plans, 493 instant

Crypto perpetuals

9 firms

1,357 plans, 8 instant

A firm sells a median of 25.5 plans. The range is wide. Vest Markets lists 777 setups on its own, and the five largest catalogues hold 45% of every plan we track. That is why this report counts each firm once, then takes the median across firms.

Most firms are young. Of the 39 firms that state a founding year, 31 started in 2021 or later, and the median founding year is 2022.

Chapter 2

What does a prop firm evaluation cost?

The price at checkout is only the start. Across firms, the median cost to actually get funded is roughly three times the price of one attempt, because most attempts fail.

Futures tests are the cheapest way in. A $50K futures evaluation costs a median $115, against $284 in forex. Futures tests also allow less loss, as Chapter 3 shows, so the lower price buys a tighter account.

Discounts are permanent, activation fees are not universal

61 of 86 firms ran at least one public offer on our check date, and 1,538 of 4,419 priced plans sold below list. The median advertised discount was 35%. A list price is therefore a poor guide to what anyone pays.

21 firms charge an activation fee on at least one of 168 plans, with a median fee of $149. Monthly billing is a futures habit. 13 of 34 futures firms bill at least one plan by the month. See activation fees firm by firm and monthly against one-time plans.

Chapter 3

Which drawdown models dominate?

Each market has settled on its own model. Futures firms trail the loss limit at the daily close, forex firms fix it at the start, and crypto firms almost all use a static limit.

The model matters more than the number. An intraday trailing limit follows open profit in real time, so a winning trade that pulls back can end the account. It still covers 18% of futures plans and 12% of forex plans. Our drawdown study measures the cost.

Daily loss limits split the markets. 94% of forex plans carry one, against 41% of futures plans. Futures firms lean on the trailing limit instead.

Forex firms rarely test consistency during the evaluation (4% of plans) but apply it to payouts on 52% of plans. Read the funded rules, not only the test rules. The consistency calculator checks a best day against every firm's limit.

Chapter 4

What profit split do traders really get?

The typical firm pays 90% in futures and 80% in forex. A 100% split is rarer than the advertising suggests, and it usually comes with caps or conditions.

5 of 34 futures firms and 6 of 43 forex firms sell any plan at 100%. Our profit split study computes what those plans pay on $5,000 of profit once caps and payout limits apply.

Chapter 5

What conditions stand between a trader and a payout?

Futures firms pay faster and more often. Forex firms mostly pay every two weeks. Behind both sits a contract that leaves the firm broad room to refuse.

Speed has a price. 77% of futures firms cap what a single payout can be, against 33% of forex firms. A fast payout of a capped amount can leave more money in the account for longer than a slower one.

What the contracts allow

We read the terms of 45 firms clause by clause. 39 of 44 that address the question keep a broad right to close or refuse an account at their own discretion. 35 of 45 require identity checks before the first payout, and 13 of 27 that address it say they may interview a trader first.

None of this means a firm will refuse. It means the contract lets it. Our guide to denied payouts lists the rules that void profit most often, and the safety ranking scores each firm's terms.

Chapter 6

Which firms change their rules most often?

Prices and rules move every week. Our dated log began on October 31, 2026, and within 8 days it held 287 changes at 53 firms.

List prices fell more often than they rose. 45 list prices went down and 9 went up, a sign of the sales season rather than a trend. 60 offers started and 46 ended in the same window. Every change is dated on our updates page, and each month gets a summary in prop firm rule changes.

Chapter 7

Which prop firms closed or failed?

We found 44 closures, pauses and regulatory actions since January 2024 that a primary source or established trade press confirms. 30 in 2024, 5 in 2025, 9 in 2026.

Chapter 8

How much payout evidence exists?

Payouts are the one claim every firm makes and few let anyone check. Only 7 of 86 firms we track pay through a rail whose transfers are public on the blockchain.

On-chain payouts

$1.2B

654,028 transfers

Firms readable

7 of 86

via Rise on Arbitrum

Trustpilot without rating

32 firms

1 more with reviews closed

These figures are a floor, not a ranking. Firms such as FTMO, Topstep and Apex pay mostly by bank transfer, so an absence here says nothing about whether they pay. What the chain does show is scale. The firms we can read paid $89M in Oct 26 alone. The payout tracker updates this daily.

Chapter 9

Is the market concentrating?

Among firms whose payouts are public, yes. The largest payer's share of quarterly payouts rose from 30% in 2024 Q4 to 53% in 2026 Q3.

An index above 2,500 is what competition authorities call highly concentrated. On-chain payouts crossed that line in 2025 Q4. The sample is small and favours firms that pay through Rise, so this describes a corner of the market, not all of it.

Attention is concentrated too. Five brands hold 59% of all Trustpilot reviews of the firms we track, led by FundedNext with 82,734.

Chapter 10

What to watch next

We do not forecast prices. These are the signals in our data that the next edition will test.

How this report was made

Every figure comes from PropTested's own dataset, read on each firm's official pages and checked daily. This edition freezes the data as of November 5, 2026, so the numbers here will not change. The live site keeps updating.

• Scope. 86 firms with at least one priced plan, 4,561 plans in futures, forex and CFDs, and crypto perpetuals.
• Each firm counts once. For prices, splits and payout terms we take each firm's median first, then the median across firms. Plan shares are labelled as such.
• Cost to get funded comes from our simulation of a trader with no edge, 3,000 runs per plan, with retries at the cheaper of a reset or a new purchase. See the methodology.
• Terms were read clause by clause for 45 firms. A clause is counted only where the firm's own terms or help pages state it.
• Payout evidence covers transfers we can read on Arbitrum from 7 firms that pay through Rise. It is a minimum.
• Change log covers October 31, 2026 to November 7, 2026. Price moves under one dollar count as rounding.
• Closures are listed only with a primary source or established trade press, linked in Chapter 7.

PropTested earns commission from some firms through affiliate links. Commission never changes a figure in this report. Corrections go to the address on our about page.