FTMO Restricted Countries: Where You Can and Can't Trade (2026)

FTMO restricted countries fall into two categories: jurisdictions covered by OFAC or EU sanctions (where FTMO is legally prohibited from operating) and a smaller set of high-fraud-risk regions the firm excludes on business-risk grounds. As of May 2026, the list is shorter than at any point in FTMO's 11-year history. The firm reopened US access in August 2025 and the Indian market in December 2025, two of the largest historically restricted markets in prop trading.

For the current canonical list, always check ftmo.com/restricted-countries directly, since FTMO updates the page when access changes. This article explains the framework, the major 2025 changes, and what to do if you are in an unsupported region.

Which countries are restricted at FTMO?

FTMO does not publish a static, crawler-accessible line-by-line list on a public page (the restricted-countries URL returned a 404 during our May 2026 research pass). What is known from FTMO's terms, its compliance history, and the firm's own published statements is that restrictions follow two frameworks.

Framework 1: OFAC and EU sanctions regimes. FTMO is a Czech company operating under EU jurisdiction. It cannot legally provide services to individuals in countries subject to active OFAC (US Office of Foreign Assets Control) or EU sanctions programs. The core sanctioned jurisdictions that prop trading firms universally cannot serve include:

• Iran
• North Korea
• Syria
• Russia and Belarus (post-2022 expanded sanctions)
• Cuba
• Sudan/South Sudan (partial, context-dependent)
• Myanmar (designated entities)

This is not an FTMO-specific policy. It is a legal floor shared by every regulated financial services provider. No prop firm in the world can legally pay out to a trader in an active OFAC sanctions target without violating US and EU law.

Framework 2: High-fraud-risk markets. Beyond the sanctions floor, FTMO maintains a shorter list of regions where elevated KYC fraud, chargeback rates, or payment infrastructure gaps make onboarding commercially unviable. This list is proprietary and has changed over time. The US was on this de-facto risk list (for regulatory reasons, not fraud) until August 2025. India was excluded until December 2025. Other markets in this category are not publicly confirmed and should be verified at ftmo.com/restricted-countries.

As of May 2026, FTMO serves traders in 140+ countries by its own count, up from the ~130-country figure cited in earlier years. The direction of travel is clearly toward broader access, not restriction.

Regional overview

The table below maps broad regions against their general FTMO access status as of May 2026. It uses region-level framing because FTMO's country-by-country list is not public. Where specific countries are named, they appear in verified public records or FTMO's own announcements.

This table is indicative, not exhaustive. Country-level status can change. Go to ftmo.com/restricted-countries for the current official list before assuming access.

Why does FTMO restrict certain countries?

FTMO's country-access decisions are driven by three factors: legal compliance, financial crime risk, and payment infrastructure.

Legal compliance. As a Czech-registered company serving customers globally, FTMO must comply with EU and international sanctions law. Providing services to individuals in sanctioned jurisdictions (including challenge fee refunds or funded-account payouts) would expose FTMO to significant legal liability. This is non-negotiable and applies regardless of what the individual trader wants. The FTMO OANDA acquisition completed in December 2025 and the subsequent adoption of institutional-grade KYB (Know Your Business) compliance in January 2026 only deepened this infrastructure. Learn more in Is FTMO Legit?.

Financial crime and KYC fraud. Prop firms are targets for a specific type of fraud: registering accounts with synthetic or stolen identities, passing challenges using automated systems, and then attempting to extract payouts before KYC is triggered. Certain markets show higher statistical rates of this behavior, and firms including FTMO adjust access accordingly. The January 2026 KYB upgrade, which introduced business-identity verification alongside personal KYC, reflects how seriously FTMO is taking this layer. Read more at FTMO KYC Verification.

Payment infrastructure. Even where FTMO has no regulatory objection to serving a market, payout delivery can be impossible if no supported payment rails exist. Bank transfers, Skrill, and crypto payouts each have their own jurisdictional limitations. If FTMO cannot reliably pay out to a country, it may restrict onboarding from that country to avoid taking challenge fees from traders who could never collect rewards. The FTMO payout process covers methods and timing in detail.

Are US traders allowed at FTMO in 2026?

Yes — and this is one of the most significant changes in prop trading in 2025.

FTMO suspended US services in early 2024. The catalyst was MetaQuotes, the developer of MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5, restricting prop firm access to its platform for regulatory reasons linked to the CFTC environment following the MyForexFunds enforcement action in late 2023. Since FTMO's entire platform stack ran on MetaTrader at that point, and MetaQuotes cut off prop firm MT4/MT5 licenses for US clients, FTMO had no compliant path to serve Americans.

In August 2025, FTMO solved this problem in a way no other prop firm has replicated: it launched US access via its newly acquired OANDA infrastructure. OANDA is a CFTC-regulated forex broker that holds the necessary US licensing to support retail traders. Under the OANDA-FTMO structure, US traders evaluate on MetaTrader 5 through an OANDA-backed entity rather than the original Czech FTMO s.r.o. structure.

As of May 2026, FTMO is the only prop firm offering MT5 to US-based traders. Replicating this requires either a CFTC-regulated broker of one's own or a comparable partnership. See FTMO for US Traders for the full setup guide, and FTMO on MetaTrader 5 for platform-specific details.

What US traders need to know:

• Access is via MT5 only (not MT4 or cTrader at this stage)
• The evaluation structure (1-Step or 2-Step) mirrors the global product
• FTMO's 1-Step Challenge is the faster path for US traders comfortable with a 3% daily loss limit
• Payouts process bi-weekly with approximately 8-hour average processing time
• No separate US pricing; challenge fees are the same global schedule

What about India?

India was formally added to FTMO's accessible markets in December 2025. FTMO confirmed the opening via its official channels as of December 4, 2025.

India is not a minor market for prop trading. Industry data consistently shows India generates roughly 40% of major prop firms' aggregate web traffic, driven by a young, financially literate population with strong interest in leveraged trading products. FTMO's exclusion of India prior to December 2025 was, by any measure, a significant gap.

The December 2025 opening covers both the 1-Step and 2-Step Challenge paths. Indian traders can use MT4, MT5, or cTrader. Payment rails to India (bank transfer, crypto, and third-party payment processors) are supported, though traders should verify the specific payout method available in their account dashboard. For a deeper read, see FTMO Opens India.

FTMO's institutional-grade KYB upgrade in January 2026 may also be partially connected to the India expansion, since larger newly opened markets with complex ID infrastructure require more robust verification workflows.

What about EU traders?

EU traders have had uninterrupted access to FTMO since the firm launched in 2015 out of Prague. This has never changed.

FTMO s.r.o. is a Czech company operating under EU jurisdiction. The Czech Republic is a member state of the European Union and applies EU-level regulatory frameworks. FTMO's own founders and original user base are European. The main FTMO review notes that FTMO was one of Paul's first prop firms as a European trader, with roughly four years and $15K+ in verified payouts across multiple accounts.

EU traders are eligible for:

• Both 1-Step and 2-Step Challenge paths across all five account sizes ($10K to $200K)
• All three platforms: MT4, MT5, and cTrader
• Full Scaling Plan eligibility (25% account size increase every 4 months, 90% profit split upgrade)
• Bi-weekly payouts via bank transfer, Skrill, and crypto

The EU's own regulatory environment does not require FTMO to hold a specific trading license to operate as a prop firm under the challenge model. FTMO sells evaluation services, not brokerage accounts. That distinction has kept European prop firms, including FTMO, largely outside the MiFID II licensing perimeter that governs brokers. For more on what legitimacy signals surround FTMO as a European operator, read Is FTMO Legit?.

What happens if you try to verify from a restricted country?

The KYC process is where geographic restrictions become enforced in practice. FTMO requires identity verification before processing any payout. The standard KYC flow asks for a government-issued photo ID and proof of address.

If you are in a restricted country:

1. Evaluation may proceed. FTMO's evaluation software does not always block access at the login or challenge-purchase stage. A trader in a restricted country may be able to buy a challenge and begin trading.
2. KYC will fail. When you attempt to submit identity documents from a restricted jurisdiction, FTMO's KYC system will reject the submission. Without completed KYC, no payouts can be processed.
3. The account may be voided. In cases where a restricted-country trader has already completed an evaluation and reaches the payout stage, FTMO's support team will void the funded account. The challenge fee is typically non-refundable in this scenario.
4. No recourse. FTMO's terms and conditions state clearly that traders must meet all eligibility requirements, including geographic access. A trader who onboards from a restricted country cannot later claim the evaluation was entered in good faith.

This is not an FTMO-specific edge case. Every prop firm applies the same logic: if you cannot legally receive a payout, the funded account has no real value. The FTMO payout rules article covers what a successful funded-account withdrawal process looks like for traders in eligible markets.

Are there any workarounds?

No legitimate workarounds exist. The illegitimate ones carry severe consequences.

VPN masking. Using a VPN to present an IP address in an eligible country while your KYC documents show a restricted country creates a direct contradiction. FTMO's compliance team reviews both your document origin and your connection history during the payout process. A mismatch is treated as fraud, not a technicality.

False KYC documents. Submitting fraudulent or altered identity documents to pass as a resident of an eligible country is identity fraud. Beyond the FTMO account being voided, this can have legal consequences in your jurisdiction and in FTMO's.

Third-party accounts. Trading on behalf of someone else in an eligible country, or having an eligible-country resident hold the account while you operate it, violates FTMO's terms prohibiting account sharing and third-party trading. FTMO's prohibited strategies and account rules explicitly cover this.

The practical advice is straightforward: if you are in a restricted country today, watch FTMO's official channels for market expansion announcements. The 2025 precedent (two major market openings in one year) suggests the list continues to shrink. If your country has been added since this article was written, check ftmo.com/restricted-countries for confirmation.

How does FTMO compare to peers on restricted countries?

FTMO's geographic coverage is among the broadest in the Forex/CFD prop segment, particularly after the 2025 expansions.

FTMO's structural advantage in the US market is unique: the OANDA acquisition gives FTMO a CFTC-regulated wrapper that no pure-play prop firm competitor can replicate without its own broker acquisition or partnership. For traders comparing FTMO against direct alternatives, the US accessibility gap is a material differentiator. See FTMO vs The5ers and FTMO vs FundedNext for full head-to-head breakdowns.

One firm-specific note: FundingPips is sometimes described in SEO-framing as an "FTMO successor," but this is purely competitive positioning. FundingPips is an independent UAE-based prop firm with no corporate connection to FTMO. FTMO acquired OANDA; FTMO did not become FundingPips. The FTMO vs FundingPips comparison covers the distinctions in detail.

All major prop firms share the same OFAC and EU sanctions floor; no legitimate firm can pay out to an active sanctions target. Beyond that floor, the differences come down to each firm's risk appetite and payment infrastructure. FTMO's acquisition of OANDA, combined with its institutional-grade KYB rollout in January 2026, puts it at the more compliance-rigorous end of the spectrum. That is a feature for traders who want a firm that will still be operating in five years.

The bottom line

As of May 2026, FTMO's restricted-country list is shorter than at any point in its history. US traders are back via OANDA-MT5 since August 2025, with FTMO as the only prop firm currently offering MT5 to US-based traders. Indian traders gained access in December 2025, completing one of the most significant geographic expansions in prop trading that year. EU traders have had uninterrupted access since 2015.

The restrictions that remain are rooted in OFAC and EU sanctions law (a non-negotiable legal floor that every legitimate financial services firm must observe) plus a small set of high-fraud-risk markets FTMO identifies internally. No VPN or KYC workaround changes this: attempting to onboard from a restricted country results in a voided account and no payout, not a clever shortcut.

For the live, authoritative list, go to ftmo.com/restricted-countries. Country-level access can and does change, and FTMO's recent track record suggests the trend is toward broader access, not further restriction.

If you are in an accessible market and ready to evaluate, the FTMO main review covers everything you need to decide between the 1-Step and 2-Step Challenge. Paul has traded FTMO for roughly four years and withdrawn $15K+ across multiple accounts; the full account of that experience is in the review.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which countries are restricted at FTMO?

FTMO does not publish a publicly crawlable line-by-line blocked list, but restrictions follow two frameworks: OFAC and EU-sanctioned jurisdictions (Iran, North Korea, Syria, Russia, Belarus, Cuba, and similar regimes under active sanctions) plus a smaller proprietary list of high-fraud-risk regions. As of May 2026, US and India have both been reopened. For the current canonical list, check ftmo.com/restricted-countries or contact FTMO support directly.

Are US traders allowed at FTMO in 2026?

Yes. FTMO relaunched US access in August 2025 via a partnership with OANDA, a CFTC-regulated forex broker that FTMO acquired in December 2025. US traders evaluate and trade on MetaTrader 5 through FTMO's OANDA-backed US structure. FTMO is currently the only prop firm offering MT5 to US-based traders, which is a structural competitive advantage. See FTMO for US Traders for the full setup guide.

Is FTMO available in India?

Yes, as of December 2025. FTMO formally opened the Indian market as of December 4, 2025. India represents roughly 40% of major prop firms' web traffic globally, making it a strategically significant expansion for the firm. Both the 1-Step and 2-Step Challenge paths are available to Indian traders. Full details at FTMO Opens India.

Can EU traders use FTMO?

Yes, without restriction. FTMO is headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic, and has served European traders since its founding in 2015. EU traders have access to both evaluation paths, all five account sizes ($10K to $200K), all three platforms (MT4, MT5, cTrader), and full Scaling Plan eligibility.

Why does FTMO restrict certain countries?

Three reasons: legal compliance with OFAC and EU sanctions (which are legally binding on a Czech company), fraud-risk management in markets where KYC fraud and chargeback rates are elevated, and payment-infrastructure gaps where FTMO cannot reliably deliver payouts. The January 2026 institutional-grade KYB upgrade signals that FTMO is investing in compliance infrastructure, not pulling back from it.

What happens if I try to verify from a restricted country?

Your KYC submission will fail. Without completed KYC, FTMO cannot process payouts. If a restricted-country trader passes the evaluation before KYC is triggered, the funded account will be voided when the payout request reveals the restricted jurisdiction. Challenge fees are non-refundable in this scenario.

Does a VPN let me bypass FTMO's country restrictions?

No. VPN use to mask your location while submitting KYC documents from a restricted country creates a direct contradiction that FTMO's compliance team identifies during payout review. Using false location data is treated as fraud under FTMO's terms — the account is voided and the challenge fee is forfeited.

Does FTMO accept traders from Africa?

Partially. Sub-Saharan African countries without active OFAC or EU sanctions designations are generally accessible. Traders from Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and similar major markets have historically been able to use FTMO, though access can vary and traders should verify at ftmo.com/restricted-countries. Any country under active US or EU sanctions is excluded regardless of region.

What about traders from the Middle East?

Most of the Middle East is accessible. Iran and Syria are restricted by OFAC and EU sanctions. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and other Gulf and Levant states without sanctions designations have generally been accessible. Verify current status at ftmo.com/restricted-countries.

How does FTMO compare to competitors on restricted countries?

FTMO's post-2025 country coverage is among the broadest in the Forex/CFD prop segment. The structural differentiator is the US market: the OANDA acquisition gives FTMO a CFTC-regulated wrapper that competitors cannot easily replicate. The5ers and FundedNext broadly cover similar global markets, but neither has FTMO's regulated US-broker infrastructure. All firms share the same OFAC and EU sanctions floor.

Will FTMO open more restricted markets in the future?

FTMO opened two major markets in 2025 alone. The institutional-grade KYB rollout in January 2026 and the deepening OANDA integration suggest the firm is building compliance infrastructure to support further geographic expansion. Watch FTMO's official blog at ftmo.com/en/blog/ for announcements.

Where do I find the official FTMO restricted countries list?

Go to ftmo.com/restricted-countries for the current canonical list. FTMO updates this page when access changes. You can also contact FTMO support or check the full terms and conditions at ftmo.com/en/terms-and-conditions/.