The first mortality dataset for the prop industry: the median firm dies around the two-year mark, roughly half of the dead never completed a second year, and four firms came back from the dead. Here is who survives, who doesn't, and why.
This report tags the 39 active firms whose Trustpilot ratings are currently suspended, the 72 that have already closed, and the on-chain firms where payouts are verifiable on a public dashboard. Use it to avoid the traps and find the operators worth your challenge fee.
Verified numbers on broker-backed adoption, platform consolidation (ProjectX → TopstepX + NinjaTrader Group), asset-class positioning, and closure categories. Cite in your investor deck, sales one-pager, or H2 2026 strategy doc.
302 firms cross-verified against Trustpilot, PropFirmMatch, TheTrustedProp, first-party website fetches and live HTTP/DNS health checks. Methodology at the end of the report. CSV + JSON download available, attribution as "Proptradingvibes State of Prop Trading Q3 2026" is all we ask.
This is the first edition with a real time axis: every Q2 number re-verified in July, so the deltas below are measured, not estimated. Baseline: Q2 2026 (2026-04-21).
Q3 platform counts come from first-party verification of all 238 active-firm websites. The TradingView figure uses a stricter execution-integration criterion than Q2, so its drop is a methodology change, not a market collapse.
Nobody publishes how long these companies actually live, so we built the dataset: 66 closures with a verifiable founding date and a verifiable death date, adversarially audited before publication. The result is a two-year wall. Because 44 of the 66 records are year-granular, we publish ranges instead of false precision: 36-59% of dead firms never completed year two, and 67-79% were gone within three years. The median lands at the two-year mark on every reading we tested.
Young cohorts flatter themselves: 2024+ firms simply haven't had time to die yet. The 2022 cohort is the honest preview: barely half survived.
Focus survives: futures and crypto specialists die at roughly two-thirds the rate of the forex/CFD mass, and carry half a star more on Trustpilot doing it.
Prop firm death is not always final. Cheap white-label infrastructure makes relaunching a brand nearly free, and four firms our closure record had as dead are verifiably operating again. Only one of the four exits (The Funded Trader) was ever publicly documented beyond our own census, which says as much about this industry's transparency as the comebacks do. Their closure events stay in the mortality numbers above; the firms are flagged separately as reopened.
The most prominent and best-documented 2024 collapse. Back on a new platform stack. Listed as active with caution: the 2024 payout backlog was never publicly resolved.
Our census recorded the closure when the site went dark in late 2024; independent coverage of it is thin, which is typical for this industry. Verifiably operating again, now on TradeLocker.
Went dark in mid-2025 per our records after eight years of operation. Quietly back in 2026, with no public statement about either the exit or the return.
Futures firm that stopped operating per our 2025 records, back under the same brand. No public account of the gap exists.
Four entries in our own records didn't survive the pre-publication audit, and we're saying so: Breakout and Purdia Capital were declared dead in Q2 after domain moves (retracted), TradingFunds was moved from closed to unverifiable because its server still answers, and a double-counted Seacrest/MyFundedFX record was merged. None of them are counted above, and this paragraph exists so you don't have to trust us on it. Lifespan = months between verifiable founding and verifiable closure (Wayback Machine, Trustpilot profile status, registry and insolvency filings). 66 of 72 recorded closures carry a datable lifespan, but only 22 of those are month-precise; the remaining 44 are year-granular, which snaps lifespans to multiples of 12. We therefore publish ranges instead of false precision: the share of dead firms that never completed year two is 36-59% depending on whether year-granular records at exactly 24 months are counted below or at the threshold, and 67-79% were gone within three years. The median sits at the two-year mark on every reading we tested (16-24 months under exclusion scenarios). Firms that closed and later reopened keep their closure event and are flagged separately. Young cohorts (2024+) have had less time to die, so their survival rates will fall as they age. This dataset was adversarially audited before publication; every correction is listed above. All figures as of 2026-07-15.
Forex remains the single biggest primary-category by firm count (139 firms). Most of these firms also offer indices, metals, and crypto, but they position around forex. Futures-only and crypto-only specialists are smaller in number but carry a sharper brand identity with their audience.
The category took its first VC money, its first CeFi equity investment, and lost a third of its April cohort. Both halves of that sentence matter.
Evaluation and payout happen on a public chain. The new trust bar since June: a public Dune dashboard verifying payouts, not a profit-split banner.
Funding traders on Polymarket-style order books. Three launches in one half; one is already winding down.
Alive by their own claims, invisible or ejected where independent verification lives.
Overall, most active firms (11%) still run the independent simulated-trading model. But look at the launch cohorts: broker-backed share jumped from 2% of pre-2023 firms to 9% of 2025–2026 launches. New money is not betting on independents.
The prop-trading industry exploded in 2023–2024, peaked in 2024 with 54 new launches, and has been in net contraction ever since. 72 closures are now documented, and that number is likely conservative.
Average lifespan of a closed prop firm: 30 months. The 2024 closure wave is still the most visible, 80+ firms went dark that year, but the die-off never stopped: this quarter alone added 11 verified closures, including The Futures Desk (bought by Topstep) and Q2's loudest on-chain firm, GT Funded, which vanished without a statement. The full lifespan analysis lives in the mortality section above.
Aggregated from PTV's continuous rule-change monitoring: 74 dated update-log entries across reviewed firms in 2026, each verified against the firm's own help center or terms at the time of logging.
Evaluation consistency rule on Premium and Advanced tightened from 50% to 40%; full repricing of both lines; reset fees restructured. NinjaTrader terminated the firm's platform license on July 12 after Alpha launched its own rival platform.
Second wave of contract-size cuts: Flex 25K down to 2 minis / 20 micros, 50K down to 3 minis / 30 micros. Rapid sizes were cut in June.
Minimum payout request doubled from $250 to $500 across all account types.
New $100/month fee for connecting via third-party API or trade copiers, documented in the help center.
Challenge-phase inactivity threshold extended from 7 to 30 days; the 70% cumulative margin-usage cap was removed from the gambling-behavior rule; Flex prices cut under a 47% promo.
Help center now states consistency requirements apply only during evaluation; funded and live accounts trade without a consistency gate.
Live performance bonuses rebranded as the Topstep Octagon: monthly performance bonuses for Live Funded traders.
APE-X account's 4% max loss limit switched from end-of-day to end-of-trade trailing; partial closes no longer satisfy minimum-day or consistency requirements.
Full relaunch as TradeDay 2.0 on May 29: the nine-SKU grid was replaced by two routes, Quick Pay (5-day minimum, day-one payouts) and Fast Pass, with route-specific 30%/45% consistency rules.
Product matrix expanded to 7 account models (4 CFD, 3 Futures); Futures re-opened to US residents.
cTrader closed new US prop-trader onboarding after a regulatory assessment. FundedNext dropped it March 31, Goat Funded Trader in April, The5ers in June. The quarter's biggest licensing change hit firms through their platform vendor, not a regulator.
Futures beta launched February 19 on Black Arrow, the firm's first non-CFD product line.
The pattern of H1: firms tightened where traders get paid (consistency ratios, payout minimums, contract sizes) and loosened where traders sign up (inactivity windows, entry pricing). The most consequential rule changes of the half didn't come from the firms at all. They came from the platform layer: one vendor decision (cTrader on US onboarding, NinjaTrader on Alpha Futures) rewrote more traders' reality overnight than any consistency-rule tweak.
That's roughly 26% of the firms we could verify directly. When one in 4 "top prop firms" has been caught manipulating reviews, aggregated Trustpilot averages across the category are meaningless without filtering.
A suspended Trustpilot rating is not proof the firm is untrustworthy overall, it means Trustpilot's automated systems flagged review-manipulation activity and the public rating was temporarily removed. It IS a signal to look past the star count before trusting any "best prop firm" ranking that cites Trustpilot as a source.
On February 28, 2026, ProjectX discontinued third-party licensing and became Topstep-exclusive as TopstepX. Seven major futures firms had to migrate their platform stack in a single quarter. NinjaTrader Group (Kraken-owned) launched NinjaTrader Prop and Tradovate Prop to absorb the fallout, and two new challengers (TradeSea, DeepCharts) entered the gap. The era of the neutral third-party futures platform is over.
Kraken acquired NinjaTrader in 2024. In October 2025, NT Technologies launched NinjaTrader Prop + Tradovate Prop as branded products. Apex, TakeProfitTrader, My Funded Futures, FundedNext Futures, Alpha Futures, Elite Trader Funding, and Purdia Capital signed on as day-one partners.
Plus500's October 2025 exclusive partnership with Topstep turned it into the foundational infrastructure for the largest independent US futures prop firm. Acquisition talks have been reported but remain unconfirmed.
Modern TradingView-native UX designed to absorb ex-ProjectX firms.
Order-flow depth tool positioning as the Bookmap alternative.
First platform built around the broker-backed prop era.
Topstep's own platform, runs on Plus500's infrastructure under an exclusive partnership. Unrelated to the ProjectX shutdown.
Across 88 firms where we could verify the profit split number, the average is 89%. Ten years ago, 70/30 was standard; today, sub-80% splits are rare enough to be an outlier.
Firm-reported payout totals are marketing until audited, so this report adds the one dataset I fully control: my own. In H1 2026 my funded accounts ran payout cycles at Lucid Trading (part of 30+ documented cycles, most clearing in under 4 hours), Top One Futures (18+ payouts since April 2025), FundedSeat (2 payouts, May and June, both paid), YRM Prop (4 cycles across 2 accounts via Rise) and FundingPips, alongside long-running records at MyFundedFutures, TakeProfitTrader, Apex, FTMO and FundedNext. Zero denied requests in H1. The honest fails stay on the record too: Hyrotrader, 3 challenges, 0 payouts. That list mixes firms that pay me commissions and firms that don't (the full split is in the methodology section); the counts don't care either way. Amounts stay private as a matter of policy; counts, dates and processing speed are the verifiable part anyway.
Active firms operate from 38 countries. The UAE is now the third-largest hub, Brazil has emerged as a genuine regional cluster, and the US/UK combined share, which was over 60% in Q1, has dropped meaningfully.
In April I published five theses for H2 2026 and promised to grade them against reality. Here is the scorecard, graded early because the evidence already moves. No thesis gets the benefit of the doubt.
Of 23 verified 2026 launches in the census, only 3 are broker-backed. The broker-backed share of all active firms went sideways: 12% in April, 11% now. The wave paused instead of accelerating. The quarter's exchange-side story was consolidation of existing assets (Kraken/Breakout, Broadridge/CQG), not new launches.
Directionally right: Propr passed $1.3M in cumulative protocol revenue with its TGE still ahead, HyperPNL ships with on-chain verifiable payouts, and the category grew from 6 to 10 live firms including a new prediction-market sub-genre. But GT Funded, one of the four firms I named as tier one, vanished without a statement. Naming winners this early was the mistake.
The mortality dataset backs it: category-focused futures firms run 20% lifetime mortality and a 4.2 average Trustpilot, crypto specialists 19% and 4.3, while the forex/CFD mass sits at 27% mortality and 3.7 stars. Small-sample caveats apply to multi-asset, but the split is visible and widening.
No CFTC hardening materialized in H1. But the pressure arrived anyway, one layer up: cTrader closed new US prop onboarding after its own regulatory assessment, forcing FundedNext, Goat Funded Trader and The5ers off the platform for US growth. I predicted the right force and the wrong messenger.
At triple the verification coverage, the suspension share held near one in four: 39 of 151 scored active firms cannot display a rating due to guideline breaches (Q2: 11 of 46). When a quarter of an industry's review pages are frozen for manipulation, the average star rating stops meaning anything. This report now treats Trustpilot as one weak signal among several.
After NinjaTrader terminated Alpha Futures and cTrader cut off US onboarding in the same half, vendor concentration is now a bigger existential risk for a prop firm than trader P&L. Expect at least one more major firm to lose or preemptively replace its platform vendor by year-end, and expect 'own platform' launches to double as insurance.
The 2024 cohort (53 active firms today) hits its 24-month median-lifespan window in H2 2026 and 2027. If the mortality curve holds, roughly a quarter of them will not see 2027. The Q4 edition will measure this cohort directly.
Four dead firms came back in this census, led by The Funded Trader. Cheap white-label infrastructure makes relaunching a brand nearly free, so expect more comebacks, and expect them to test whether trader memory or trader forgiveness is stronger. Unresolved payout backlogs from the first life are the tell to watch.
Three prediction-market prop firms launched in H1 and one is already winding down. The mechanics (funding traders on Polymarket-style order books) work as a bolt-on module for existing platforms, not as a standalone business. I expect consolidation into the platform layer within two quarters.
Predictions are directional calls based on Q3 2026 data, not targets and not advice. The Q4 2026 edition will grade these against reality, the same way this table grades the April set.
Every prop firm in this report's active universe, searchable and filterable. Firms with a dedicated Proptradingvibes review are highlighted, click the name to read. For firms without a review, this is the data we have as of July 26, 2026.
| Firm | Assets | HQ | Founded | Model | Trustpilot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100X Club ↗ Claim → | Forex | Israel | 2025 | Independent | 3.9 (8) |
| 1of1 Funding ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Arab Emirates | , | Independent | , |
| 4PropTrader ↗ Claim → | Futures | , | , | Independent | , |
| 5P Investimentos ↗ Claim → | Futures | Brazil | , | Independent | , |
| AI Prop ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | , | Independent | , |
| Alpha Capital Group ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2021 | Independent | 4.7 (20,913) |
| Alpha Futures ↗ Claim → | Futures | United States | 2024 | Independent | 4.6 (5,520) |
| Alpha Prime ↗ Claim → | Futures | United Kingdom | 2025 | Independent | , |
| Alpha Trader Firm ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | 2023 | Independent | , |
| Apex Trader Funding Reviewed | Futures | United States | 2021 | Independent | 4.3 (20,202) |
| AquaFunded ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Arab Emirates | 2024 | Independent | 2.6 (1,298) |
| AquaFutures ↗ Claim → | Futures | United States | 2024 | Independent | 3.8 (286) |
| ATFunded ↗ Claim → | Forex | Saint Lucia | 2024 | Broker-Backed | 4.4 (78) |
| Atlas Funded ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Arab Emirates | 2025 | Independent | 3.3 (1,089) |
| Atmos Funded ↗ Claim → | Forex | Cyprus | 2024 | Broker-Backed | 3.9 (340) |
| Atom Educacional ↗ Claim → | Futures | Brazil | 2013 | Independent | , |
| Audacity Capital ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2012 | Independent | 3.8 (239) |
| AuraFunded ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | 2024 | Independent | , |
| AXI Select ↗ Claim → | Forex | Australia | 2023 | Broker-Backed | , |
| Axia Investing ↗ Claim → | Futures | Brazil | 2017 | Independent | , |
| Best Prop 4 U ↗ Claim → | Forex | Cyprus | 2025 | Independent | 4.3 (9) |
| Bitfunded ↗ Claim → | Crypto | , | , | Independent | 4.7 |
| Blue Guardian Futures ↗ Claim → | Futures | United States | 2024 | Independent | 3.4 (2,114) |
| Blueberry Funded ↗ Claim → | Forex | Australia | 2023 | Broker-Backed | 3.3 (1,642) |
| Blueberry Futures ↗ Claim → | Futures | Australia | 2024 | Broker-Backed | 3.8 (11) |
| BluSky ↗ Claim → | Futures | United States | 2022 | Independent | 4.7 (853) |
| Breakout Reviewed | Crypto | UNKNOWN | 2023 | Exchange-backed (Kraken/Payward) | , |
| Bridge Funded ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Arab Emirates | 2025 | Independent | 2 (12) |
| BrightFunded Reviewed | Forex | United Arab Emirates | 2023 | Independent | 3.8 (533) |
| Bulenox Reviewed | Futures | United States | 2022 | Independent | 4.7 (1,703) |
| Bullwaves Prime ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | 2024 | Broker-Backed | , |
| Campus Fund ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Arab Emirates | 2025 | Independent | 4.5 (151) |
| Capital Mint Markets ↗ Claim → | Crypto | United Arab Emirates | , | Independent | , |
| Carbon Investing Claim → | Unknown | Brazil | , | Independent | , |
| Carrot Funding ↗ Claim → | Crypto | , | , | Independent | 4.6 (24) |
| City Traders Imperium ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Arab Emirates | 2018 | Independent | 4.3 (1,654) |
| Cointracts Claim → | Crypto | , | 2025 | Independent | , |
| Crypto Fund Trader ↗ Claim → | Crypto | United Kingdom | 2023 | Independent | 4.3 (1,139) |
| Crypto Street ↗ Claim → | Crypto | United States | 2026 | Independent | , |
| Darwinex Zero ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2019 | Broker-Backed | 4.2 (376) |
| Dayna Capital ↗ Claim → | Unknown | Brazil | , | Independent | , |
| DayTraders ↗ Claim → | Futures | United States | 2025 | Independent | 4.5 (460) |
| DDXprop ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2024 | Independent | 3.7 (1) |
| DNA Funded ↗ Claim → | Forex | Australia | 2023 | Broker-Backed | 3.3 (89) |
| DojoTraders ↗ Claim → | Multi-Asset | , | 2026 | Independent | , |
| Dominion Funding ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Arab Emirates | 2024 | Broker-Backed | , |
| DPFunded ↗ Claim → | Forex | Hong Kong | 2024 | Broker-Backed | 2.8 (5) |
| E8 Markets Reviewed | Forex | United States | 2021 | Independent | 4.2 (3,287) |
| Earn2Trade ↗ Claim → | Futures | United States | 2016 | Independent | 4.7 (4,899) |
| EdgeProp Trading ↗ Claim → | Futures | Romania | , | Independent | , |
| Eightcap Challenges ↗ Claim → | Forex | Australia | 2024 | Broker-Backed | , |
| Eleonex ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | , | Independent | , |
| Elite Trader Funding ↗ Claim → | Futures | United States | 2022 | Independent | 3.8 (1,114) |
| Elysium Forex ↗ Claim → | Forex | United States | , | Independent | 2.9 (45) |
| Equity Edge ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | 2023 | Independent | , |
| Euroinvest ↗ Claim → | Futures | Brazil | 2016 | Independent | , |
| Falcon Funded ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Arab Emirates | , | Independent | 4.3 (565) |
| Finotive Funding ↗ Claim → | Forex | Cyprus | 2021 | Independent | 3.5 (993) |
| Fintokei ↗ Claim → | Forex | Czech Republic | 2023 | Broker-Backed | 4.4 (1,207) |
| Firewood Funded ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | 2026 | Broker-Backed | 4.8 (492) |
| ForTraders ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2023 | Independent | 3.8 (1,650) |
| Foxify ↗ Claim → | Crypto | , | , | Independent | , |
| Ft9ja ↗ Claim → | Forex | Nigeria | 2023 | Independent | 3.5 (366) |
| FTMO Reviewed | Forex | Czech Republic | 2015 | Independent | 4.8 (45,516) |
| FTUK ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | 2021 | Independent | 4 (736) |
| Funded Academy ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2023 | Independent | 4.6 (27) |
| Funded Elite ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2023 | Independent | 4.3 (745) |
| Funded Firm ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2024 | Independent | 1.6 (285) |
| Funded Nation ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | , | Independent | , |
| Funded Prime ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2024 | Independent | 3.2 (17) |
| Funded Squad ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Arab Emirates | 2024 | Independent | 2.9 (361) |
| Funded Trader Markets ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Arab Emirates | 2024 | Independent | 3.7 (434) |
| Funded Traders Global ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | , | Broker-Backed | , |
| Funded Trading Plus ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2021 | Independent | 4.3 (2,652) |
| Funded7 ↗ Claim → | Forex | Seychelles | 2025 | Independent | 3.1 (50) |
| Fundedbull ↗ Claim → | Forex | Singapore | 2024 | Independent | 3.6 (14) |
| FundedFast ↗ Claim → | Forex | Malta | 2024 | Independent | 4.5 (14) |
| FundedHero ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | 2025 | Independent | 4.1 (396) |
| FundedHive ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Arab Emirates | 2025 | Broker-Backed | 3.4 (140) |
| FundedNext Reviewed | Forex | United Arab Emirates | 2022 | Independent | 4.5 (73,349) |
| FundedNow ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | , | Independent | , |
| FundedPoly ↗ Claim → | Other | , | , | Independent | , |
| FundedSeat Reviewed | Futures | , | , | Independent | 4.3 (197) |
| FundedVerse ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | 2026 | Independent | , |
| FundedX ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | , | Independent | , |
| Funder Pro ↗ Claim → | Forex | Malta | 2023 | Independent | 3 (1,607) |
| FunderPro Futures ↗ Claim → | Futures | Malta | 2024 | Independent | 4.3 (18) |
| Funding Frontier ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Arab Emirates | 2024 | Independent | 3.1 (522) |
| Funding Predicts ↗ Claim → | Other | , | 2026 | Independent; MyFundedFutures equity stake (04.06.2026) | , |
| Funding Talent ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2023 | Independent | 2.7 (1,356) |
| Funding Your Trades ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | , | Independent | 3.4 (120) |
| FundingPips Reviewed | Forex | United Arab Emirates | 2022 | Independent | 4.5 (62,519) |
| FundingTraders ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Arab Emirates | 2023 | Independent | 3.4 (3,259) |
| Fundora ↗ Claim → | Forex | Japan | 2025 | Independent | , |
| FundYourFX ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2023 | Independent | 3.1 (175) |
| FuturesElite ↗ Claim → | Futures | Italy | 2024 | Independent | 4.5 (313) |
| FX2 Funding ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2023 | Independent | 4.2 (455) |
| FXIFY ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2023 | Independent | 4.3 (6,093) |
| Genk Capital ↗ Claim → | Stocks | Singapore | 2011 | Independent | , |
| Goat Funded Futures Reviewed | Futures | Italy | 2024 | Independent | 2.6 (176) |
| Goat Funded Trader Reviewed | Forex | Hong Kong | 2022 | Independent | 2.4 (4,196) |
| Grupo MIDE ↗ Claim → | Futures | Brazil | 2022 | Independent | , |
| Halcyon Trader Funding ↗ Claim → | Futures | United States | 2024 | Independent | , |
| Hantec Trader ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2023 | Broker-Backed | 4.3 (735) |
| HF Crypto ↗ Claim → | Crypto | , | , | Broker-Backed | , |
| Hola Prime ↗ Claim → | Forex | Hong Kong | 2024 | Independent | 4.5 (2,737) |
| Hydra Funding ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | 2022 | Independent | , |
| Hypernova ↗ Claim → | Crypto | , | 2026 | Independent | , |
| HyperPNL ↗ Claim → | Crypto | , | 2025 | Independent (ex Hyperliquid-hackathon team) | , |
| HyperStack ↗ Claim → | Crypto | , | , | Independent | , |
| HyperTicks ↗ Claim → | Futures | , | 2026 | Independent | 4.3 |
| HyroTrader Reviewed | Crypto | Czech Republic | 2023 | Independent | 4.2 (226) |
| IC Funded ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Arab Emirates | 2024 | Broker-Backed | 2.4 (119) |
| iFunds ↗ Claim → | Forex | Saint Lucia | 2024 | Independent | 4.7 (225) |
| Instant Funded Account (IFA) ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | , | Independent | 2.3 (71) |
| Instant Funding ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2023 | Independent | 3 (4,596) |
| Klein Funding ↗ Claim → | Crypto | United Kingdom | 2024 | Independent | 4.9 (370) |
| KortanaFX ↗ Claim → | Forex | United States | 2023 | Independent | 2.4 (3,404) |
| Lark Funding ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2023 | Independent | 4.3 (550) |
| Leveraged ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | , | Independent | , |
| Lionheart Funding Program ↗ Claim → | Forex | South Africa | 2023 | Independent | 2.7 (521) |
| Lucid Trading Reviewed | Futures | United States | 2025 | Independent | 4.6 (4,793) |
| Lux Trading Firm ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2021 | Independent | 4 (630) |
| LVL Trading ↗ Claim → | Stocks | Brazil | 2012 | Independent | , |
| M.T.I Prop ↗ Claim → | Forex | Malaysia | 2025 | Independent | , |
| MarketMates ↗ Claim → | Forex | Australia (serves SG) | , | Independent | 4 (3) |
| Maven Trading Reviewed | Forex | Saint Lucia | 2023 | Independent | 4.2 (5,147) |
| Maverick Trading ↗ Claim → | Forex | United States | 1997 | Independent | , |
| Ment Funding ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2024 | Independent | 4.8 (230) |
| Moneta Funded ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Arab Emirates | 2026 | Broker-Backed | 4.6 (149) |
| Monevis ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | 2023 | Independent | , |
| Mubite ↗ Claim → | Crypto | Czech Republic | 2024 | Independent | 3.8 (79) |
| MVFunded ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | 2024 | Broker-Backed | , |
| My Funded Futures Reviewed | Futures | United States | 2023 | Independent | 4.9 (20,100) |
| MyFundedCapital ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | , | Independent | , |
| NairaProp ↗ Claim → | Forex | Nigeria | , | Independent | 4.4 (694) |
| Neomaaa ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Arab Emirates | 2024 | Independent | 3.6 (832) |
| Nordic Funder ↗ Claim → | Forex | Denmark | 2024 | Independent | 3.2 (56) |
| Nostro ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2023 | Independent | 3.6 (1,464) |
| Now Trade Funded ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | , | Independent | 3.1 (23) |
| OFP Funding ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2022 | Independent | 2.6 (4,324) |
| OneFunded ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2024 | Independent | 4.4 (236) |
| OneUp Trader ↗ Claim → | Futures | United States | 2016 | Independent | 4.7 |
| Phidias Propfirm ↗ Claim → | Futures | Gibraltar | 2023 | Independent | 3.5 (302) |
| Phoenix Trader Funding ↗ Claim → | Futures | France | 2026 | Independent | , |
| Pipcy ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | 2026 | Independent | , |
| PipFarm ↗ Claim → | Forex | Singapore | 2023 | Independent | 3.8 (359) |
| Pipster ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | 2026 | Independent | , |
| Pipstone Capital ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Arab Emirates | , | Independent | 2.1 (367) |
| Plutus Trade Base ↗ Claim → | Forex | Cyprus | 2024 | Independent | 4 (1,146) |
| PolyFundr ↗ Claim → | Other | , | , | Independent | , |
| Prime Academy FX ↗ Claim → | Forex | Indonesia | 2024 | Independent | , |
| ProFunded ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | 2024 | Independent | 4.1 (5) |
| Prop Number One ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Arab Emirates | 2024 | Independent | 3 (948) |
| Propanium ↗ Claim → | Forex | Czech Republic | , | Independent | 4 (9) |
| Propatrade ↗ Claim → | Stocks | India | , | Independent | 3.5 (40) |
| PropEd Capital ↗ Claim → | Futures | United States | 2025 | Independent | , |
| PropMarket ↗ Claim → | Other | United States | 2026 | Independent | , |
| Propr ↗ Claim → | Crypto | , | 2026 | Independent | 4.4 (51) |
| PropShopTrader ↗ Claim → | Stocks | United States | , | Independent | 3.8 (535) |
| PropW ↗ Claim → | Forex | Hong Kong | 2024 | Independent | 3.4 (68) |
| PropXP ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | 2025 | Independent | 4.3 (206) |
| Purdia Capital Reviewed | Futures | United States | 2022 | Independent | 4.5 (64) |
| QT Funded (Quant Tekel) ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2023 | Independent | 2.5 (8) |
| Quant Funded ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Arab Emirates | 2024 | Independent | 3.8 (42) |
| Quant Matter ↗ Claim → | Futures | Singapore | , | Independent | , |
| RebelsFunding ↗ Claim → | Forex | Slovakia | 2023 | Independent | 4.3 (2,525) |
| Redline Futures Funding ↗ Claim → | Futures | , | 2026 | Independent | , |
| Rev One Trading ↗ Claim → | Forex | United States | 2026 | Independent | 2.7 (56) |
| SabioTrade ↗ Claim → | Forex | Ireland | 2023 | Independent | 3.5 (737) |
| SFX Funded ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Arab Emirates | 2024 | Independent | 2.6 (145) |
| SiegPath (SiegFund) ↗ Claim → | Forex | Taiwan / Hong Kong | 2016 | Independent | 3.8 (16) |
| Sizeprop ↗ Claim → | Crypto | , | 2026 | Independent | 4.5 (45) |
| Solana Funded ↗ Claim → | Crypto | , | , | Independent | 2.9 (13) |
| Star Desk ↗ Claim → | Futures | Brazil | 2017 | Independent | , |
| Super Funded ↗ Claim → | Forex | Australia | 2023 | Broker-Backed | 4.6 (65) |
| Supertrade ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2025 | Independent | 3.6 (10) |
| Sure Leverage Funding ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Arab Emirates | 2023 | Independent | 3.9 (1,397) |
| Sway Funded ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | , | Independent | 4.1 (629) |
| Swiss Firmup ↗ Claim → | Futures | Switzerland | 2026 | Independent | , |
| TakeProfitTrader Reviewed | Futures | United States | 2022 | Independent | 4.3 (9,975) |
| Taurus Arena ↗ Claim → | Futures | Cyprus | 2025 | Independent | , |
| Thaurus Guru ↗ Claim → | Forex | Slovakia | 2024 | Independent | 3.9 (15) |
| The Edge Funder ↗ Claim → | Unknown | , | , | Independent | , |
| The Funded Talent ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Arab Emirates | 2024 | Independent | 3.7 (1) |
| The Funded Trader ↗ Claim → | Forex | United States | 2021 | Independent | 3.3 |
| The Trading Pit ↗ Claim → | Forex | Liechtenstein | 2020 | Independent | 3.7 (1,027) |
| The5ers Reviewed | Forex | Israel | 2016 | Independent | 4.7 (32,430) |
| ThinkCapital ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2024 | Broker-Backed | 3.9 (612) |
| TickTickTrader ↗ Claim → | Futures | Isle of Man | 2022 | Independent | 3.5 (6,649) |
| Titan Capital Markets ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2024 | Broker-Backed | , |
| TLDA Trading ↗ Claim → | Stocks | Bulgaria | 2020 | Independent | , |
| TopOneFutures Reviewed | Futures | United States | 2025 | Independent | 4.8 (4,394) |
| TopOneTrader ↗ Claim → | Forex | United States | 2023 | Independent | 4.5 (3,437) |
| Topstep Reviewed | Futures | United States | 2012 | Independent | 3.6 (14,404) |
| Trade The Pool ↗ Claim → | Stocks | Israel | 2022 | Independent | 4.4 (744) |
| TradeDay Reviewed | Futures | United States | 2020 | Independent | 4.6 (1,382) |
| Tradeify Reviewed | Futures | United States | 2024 | Independent | 4.6 (3,464) |
| Tradeify Crypto Reviewed | Crypto | United States | 2026 | Independent | 4.2 (78) |
| Trader2B ↗ Claim → | Stocks | , | 2010 | Independent | , |
| Traders Launch ↗ Claim → | Futures | United States | 2023 | Independent | 4.8 (76) |
| Traders Yard ↗ Claim → | Forex | Austria | 2023 | Independent | 4.6 (61) |
| TradexProp ↗ Claim → | Forex | Malaysia | 2023 | Independent | 4.4 (42) |
| TradingFunds ↗ Claim → | Forex | Netherlands | 2024 | Independent | 4.2 (451) |
| TrioFunded ↗ Claim → | Multi-Asset | Cyprus | 2026 | Broker-Backed | , |
| TTT Markets ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2022 | Independent | 3.7 (29) |
| TX3 Funding ↗ Claim → | Futures | United States | 2024 | Independent | 3.3 (4,314) |
| Ultimate Traders ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Kingdom | 2023 | Independent | 4.3 (74) |
| Upcomers ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Arab Emirates | 2024 | Independent | 3.4 (482) |
| UProfit ↗ Claim → | Futures | , | 2019 | Independent | , |
| Upscale ↗ Claim → | Crypto | , | 2025 | Independent | , |
| V PropTrader ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | , | Independent | 4.7 (27,881) |
| VanquishTrader ↗ Claim → | Stocks | United States | 2024 | Independent | , |
| Vanta Trading ↗ Claim → | Multi-Asset | , | 2026 | Independent | , |
| Vault Funder ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | , | Independent | , |
| Velotrade ↗ Claim → | Multi-Asset | Hong Kong | 2026 | Independent | , |
| Verso ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | , | Independent | , |
| Vertex Funding ↗ Claim → | Forex | United States | 2023 | Broker-Backed | 2.7 (88) |
| Wall Street Funded ↗ Claim → | Forex | Saint Lucia | 2024 | Broker-Backed | 4.4 (3,962) |
| WarBux ↗ Claim → | Forex | United States | 2024 | Independent | 3.8 (16) |
| WeMasterTrade ↗ Claim → | Multi-Asset | Canada | 2022 | Independent | , |
| WenCrypto ↗ Claim → | Crypto | United Kingdom | 2026 | Independent | , |
| Wfunded ↗ Claim → | Forex | , | , | Independent | , |
| XFunded ↗ Claim → | Forex | United Arab Emirates | 2024 | Independent | , |
| XHEDGERS ↗ Claim → | Forex | Czech Republic | , | Independent | 3.5 (3) |
| XY Capital ↗ Claim → | Multi-Asset | Hong Kong / London | , | Independent | , |
| Ylos Trading ↗ Claim → | Futures | United States (HQ) / Brazilian founder | , | Independent | 4.7 (412) |
| YRM Prop Reviewed | Futures | United States | 2025 | Independent | 4.1 (213) |
| Zenit Funding ↗ Claim → | Futures | , | 2024 | Independent | , |
| Zero7 Tesouraria ↗ Claim → | Futures | Brazil | 2023 | Independent | , |
The short answers to the questions traders, journalists, and prop-firm teams ask us most. Every answer is grounded in the verified Q3 2026 census, click a question to expand.
As of July 2026, Proptradingvibes tracks 302 prop trading firms worldwide, 230 currently active and 72 that have closed. This is the most comprehensive verified count of the proprietary trading industry, up from 253 firms in the Q2 2026 edition and 178 in Q1.
The Q3 2026 census documents 72 total closures across the category's history, 9 dated to this quarter plus 2 newly documented from earlier periods. Notable Q3 closures include The Futures Desk (acquired by Topstep on April 1), FORFX (closed per its own site notice), WeFund, NexGen ProTrader, and GT Funded, the on-chain firm with the industry's highest advertised profit split, which vanished without a statement. Two Q2 death certificates were retracted after verification (Breakout and Purdia Capital had moved domains, not closed), and four firms on the historical closed list verifiably reopened.
The median dead prop firm lived about two years, based on 66 closures with verifiable founding and closure dates. Because most closure records are year-granular, the report publishes ranges: 36-59% of dead firms never completed year two, and 67-79% were gone within three years. Survival differs sharply by focus: futures and crypto specialists die at roughly two-thirds the rate of forex/CFD generalists. Full methodology and the audit trail are in the mortality section of this report.
Overall, 11% of active firms are broker-backed, essentially flat versus Q2's 12%. The broker wave we expected to accelerate in H2 paused instead: only 3 of the 23 verified 2026 launches are broker-backed. The cohort effect from earlier years still stands (pre-2023 firms: 2% broker-backed; 2025 launches: 17%), but the quarter's broker story was consolidation of existing assets, not new launches.
Forex is the largest primary category with 138 active firms. Futures specialists (49), crypto-first firms (22), stocks operators (8) and explicit multi-asset firms (6) follow. Size is not health, though: the forex/CFD mass carries 27% lifetime mortality and a 3.7 Trustpilot average, while futures and crypto specialists sit near 20% mortality and 4.2 stars.
On-chain prop firms run both the evaluation and the payout on public blockchains, traders hold non-custodial wallets and profits settle via smart contract. The live tier-one set as of July 2026: Propr (the category leader, $1.36M protocol revenue on DeFiLlama), Hypernova (first VC-funded entrant), HyperPNL, Carrot Funding, DojiFunded and HyperStack. A new prediction-market sub-genre emerged this quarter (Funding Predicts, PropMarket). Of the six firms we named in April, GT Funded is dead and Xybit pivoted to white-label infrastructure, roughly a third of the cohort broke within one quarter.
ProjectX terminated its third-party platform licensing on February 28, 2026, citing "shifts in operational demands and upcoming compliance reporting, oversight, and audit requirements." It now operates exclusively as TopstepX for Topstep, backed by Plus500 as technology partner since October 2025. Seven futures firms (Lucid Trading, Tradeify, Alpha Futures, TickTickTrader, FuturesElite, Top One Futures, Blue Guardian Futures) had to migrate platforms in Q1 2026.
39 of the 151 active firms with a scored profile (26%) currently have their Trustpilot rating suspended for guideline breaches, the share held steady near one in four while our verification coverage tripled versus Q2. Aggregated star averages across "top prop firms" rankings should not be trusted without filtering for suspended profiles. Cross-check Trustpilot against Reddit sentiment, live community feedback, and verified payout history before drawing any conclusions.
Among firms with a verifiable legal entity, the United States (37) and United Kingdom (32) lead, with the United Arab Emirates (28) holding third place. Brazil (10), Australia, the Czech Republic and Cyprus (6 each), Hong Kong (5) and Saint Lucia (4) round out the hubs; 38 countries host at least one active firm. The honest caveat: 57 active firms disclose no verifiable legal HQ at all, which is itself one of the industry's clearest trust signals.
The average profit split across 88 verified firms is 89%. Ten years ago, 70/30 was the industry standard; today sub-80% splits are the outlier. The cautionary tale of the quarter: GT Funded advertised the industry's highest split at 92% and is now unreachable, the loudest number in the category turned out to be its shortest-lived.
Instant funding means a trader purchases funded-account access directly, skipping the evaluation challenge entirely. It trades lower upfront commitment (no sim phase) for tighter rules, smaller maximum account sizes, and higher one-time fees. 45 of the 230 active firms offer an instant route as of July 2026, including Lucid Trading (LucidDirect), FundedSeat (Instant Bolt and Direct), Top One Futures (Instant Sim), Goat Funded Futures, Maven Trading (requirements-based since 2026) and OFP Funding.
Kraken (the crypto exchange) acquired NinjaTrader in 2024. NinjaTrader Group (NT Technologies) now owns both NinjaTrader Prop and Tradovate Prop as branded prop-firm platform products since October 2025. TopstepX is Topstep's rebranded fork of the former ProjectX, backed by Plus500 as exclusive technology partner. What that concentration means became concrete in July 2026: NinjaTrader terminated Alpha Futures' license days after Alpha launched a rival platform, and one vendor decision cut a major firm off its execution stack overnight.
Independent prop firms run simulated-trading evaluations with no affiliated broker, trading activity stays on a sim server and profits are paid from the firm's challenge-fee revenue. Broker-backed firms are launched by a regulated broker (Axi, IC Markets, Eightcap, Doo Prime, Moneta Markets, Plus500) and funnel passing traders onto the broker's A-book order flow. Independents still dominate by total count, and this quarter's data cooled the broker narrative: only 3 of 22 verified 2026 launches are broker-backed.
Every firm is cross-referenced against its own website, Trustpilot profile, PropFirmMatch, TheTrustedProp, LinkedIn company pages, and local legal-entity disclosures. Q3 went further: all 238 candidate-active firms had their own websites fetched first-party for platform stacks and legal imprints, and dead or wrong-domain listings were reclassified. When our own past record was wrong, we say so: two Q2 closure calls were retracted this edition. Firm owners can correct data via our claim-your-listing workflow.
The State of Prop Trading is updated quarterly. Q1 2026 launched in February, Q2 on April 21, and this Q3 2026 edition on July 16; Q4 is targeted for October. Each edition is permanently archived at /state-of-prop-trading/q{N}-{YYYY} with noindex + canonical to the main URL, so external backlinks always resolve to the current data.
Yes. The full census (230 active firms plus the complete 72-firm closure record) is available as CSV and JSON, active firms and closures separately, via the download buttons in the full-database and citation sections. Attribution ("Source: Proptradingvibes State of Prop Trading Q3 2026, https://proptradingvibes.com/state-of-prop-trading") is required for citation in journalism, research, investor decks, or academic work. For bulk or API-style access, contact Paul directly.
Independent analysis of the global proprietary-trading industry. No single firm is ranked, endorsed, or de-endorsed. The analysis operates at the industry level; individual firm data appears in context of aggregate patterns only.
Trustpilot data should be read with the Trust Problem section in mind, 39 of 151 scored active firms currently have ratings suspended for guideline breaches. HQ locations reflect legal-entity disclosures where verifiable, not marketing addresses (57 active firms disclose none). Firms without a public pricing page or with unverifiable founding dates were excluded, even when they appeared in third-party directories.
Quarterly updates. Each edition is permanently archived with noindex, and the canonical URL always serves the current report. Previous editions are linked at the bottom of this page.
I run a review site, so here is the full list instead of a vague disclaimer. Firms in this census that pay me a commission via tracked links: Breakout, BrightFunded, Bulenox, E8 Markets, FTMO, FundedSeat, FundedNext, FundingPips, Goat Funded Trader, HyroTrader, Lucid Trading, Maven Trading, The5ers, Top One Futures, TradeDay, Tradeify Crypto and YRM Prop. Firms I review or feature with no commission relationship include Apex Trader Funding, MyFundedFutures, Topstep, TakeProfitTrader and Purdia Capital. The census treats every firm identically: inclusion, status, closure calls and every number in this report are unaffected by commissions, and the corrections log applies to partners and non-partners alike.
Q3 2026: Breakout and Purdia Capital were wrongly recorded as closed in Q2 after domain moves; both closure records retracted. A pre-publication adversarial audit additionally moved TradingFunds from closed to unverifiable (its server still answers), merged a double-counted Seacrest/MyFundedFX record, and re-dated Giimer, WeFund, Funded Unicorn and OspreyFX against Wayback and insolvency filings. The Q2 TradingView platform count (34) used a looser criterion than Q3's execution-only standard (21); treat the drop as a methodology change. Errors in this edition can be reported via the claim workflow or hi@proptradingvibes.com and will be logged here.
Every number is free to reuse with attribution (CC BY 4.0). The main URL always carries the latest edition; this edition keeps a stable archive permalink once superseded.
Proptradingvibes, "State of Prop Trading Q3 2026: The Two-Year Wall", published 2026-07-16, https://proptradingvibes.com/state-of-prop-trading Drop your email for the full data behind this report, every future edition, weekly prop-firm insights and exclusive discounts. No payment, no spam.
Why this matters
One quarter settled two questions. First: this is a real category now, with VC money (Hypernova), CeFi equity (MyFundedFutures into Funding Predicts) and a leader whose revenue is accelerating rather than fading (Propr). Second: it churns exactly like the rest of the industry, roughly a third of the April cohort broke within a quarter. The interesting shift is the trust mechanism. In April the pitch was the profit split; by July the category's directory added a 'Payouts Verified' column with live Dune dashboards, and firms that can't clear that bar are getting delisted. On-chain prop is inventing, in miniature and in public, exactly the verification layer the CeFi prop industry still refuses to build.