In simulated funding programs, you pay an evaluation fee, trade under the provider's rules, and may become eligible to request rewards after meeting its objectives. The fee pays for participation. The displayed balance is not a deposit and not money you own.
Before paying, work out your total cash commitment, your loss allowance in dollars, and the conditions attached to any payout.
You choose a program and account size, then pay a one-time participation fee. You trade toward a profit target while staying within daily and overall loss limits. If you pass, you move to the funded stage, where you can become eligible to request a share of simulated profits under the provider’s payout rules. Whatever crypto trading tools you rely on, from charting dashboards to automated signals, the program’s rules still decide whether a trade counts toward passing or breaches a limit.
Evaluation. The participation fee is not a trading deposit. Check any refund or retry conditions separately.
Funded stage. Confirm whether leverage, permitted instruments, or loss calculations change after you pass. Don't assume evaluation rules carry over unchanged.
Payout eligibility. Simulated profit on a dashboard does not guarantee a payment. Providers check requests against their eligibility and conduct rules before approving them.
Separate what you pay to join from the charges deducted while you trade and the costs of receiving a reward.
Cash paid to participate. Include the evaluation fee, any retries, and optional upgrades. Set a limit on repeat attempts before you start. For example, three separately purchased 100 USD attempts with no refund add up to 300 USD in participation costs. Confirm the final price, including any promotional discount, at checkout and save a copy.
Costs deducted from simulated equity. Commissions, spreads, and overnight charges reduce the simulated account value used to measure loss limits. A commission of 0.03% of notional per side, for instance, costs 3 USD to open and 3 USD to close a 10,000 USD position, or 6 USD in total before any overnight charge. Notional means the total value of the position.
Costs of receiving a reward. Withdrawal fees, blockchain network fees, and currency conversion can reduce what you receive. Check whether they come out of the approved amount or are charged separately.
|
Cost item |
How it's paid |
Where to verify |
|
Evaluation fee |
Cash |
Checkout quote |
|
Retries after failure |
Cash |
Reset and refund policy |
|
Optional upgrades |
Cash |
Checkout add-ons |
|
Commission and spread |
Deducted from simulated equity |
Instrument specification page |
|
Overnight charges |
Deducted from simulated equity |
Instrument page |
|
Withdrawal and network costs |
From payout or charged separately |
Payout policy and agreement |
Balance is the account value after closed trades. Equity also includes open gains and losses. A daily loss limit restricts how much you can lose in a defined day, while a maximum drawdown limits the total decline from a reference value.
Static or trailing. A static drawdown sets your loss floor once, at the start, and it never moves. A trailing drawdown rises as the account reaches new highs, which can tighten your room as you profit. Ask which model applies and whether it changes after you pass.
Find the floor. On a 100,000 USD account with a 10% static maximum drawdown, the floor is 90,000 USD, and your initial loss room is 10,000 USD. That room must also absorb any costs counted against the limit.
Check open losses and costs. If a rule measures equity, an open losing position counts before you close it. On a 5,000 USD daily allowance, a 4,800 USD trading loss plus 250 USD in charges totals 5,050 USD, which breaches the limit even though the trading loss alone does not.
Know the reset time. A daily limit needs a clock and a reference value. Confirm when the day resets and how open positions affect the new day's allowance.
Leave a buffer. Set a personal loss limit below the provider's threshold to allow for charges and slippage, which is when an order fills at a different price than expected.
Compare each program's rules with how you actually trade: permitted instruments, leverage, news and weekend holding, overnight charges, automation, minimum trading days, and time limits.
The published rules for Velotrade's crypto funded accounts show what to look for. It describes itself as a simulated evaluation and simulated-funding program: all trading happens in a simulated environment, and the company states that it does not act as a broker, advisor, or fiduciary, does not accept client funds, and does not engage in regulated financial activities.
Its CLASSIC 2-Step program sets a 10% then 5% profit target, a 5% daily loss limit, and a 10% static maximum drawdown, with at least five trading days that each close with at least 0.8% profit and no time limit. Trading runs 24/7 across 104 crypto instruments, with 0.03% commission per side and a flat 0.05% of notional charged on positions open at 00:30 UTC. News trading, weekend holding, and API access are permitted, and there is no consistency rule.
Use details like these to test any program against your style:
A profit-split percentage alone can't tell you what you'll receive or when. Check the full sequence: eligibility to request, approval, processing, and final receipt.
Eligibility. Look for waiting periods, qualifying trading days, minimum request amounts, and conduct requirements, and note whether they change after the first payout.
Caps. Some programs cap early payouts, for example, as a multiple of the fee paid, regardless of the profit on your dashboard.
Approval and processing. Approval review and payment processing are separate steps. Check how long each takes and what the review involves.
Net amount. If 500 USD of eligible profit is approved under an 80% trader share, your portion is 400 USD, before withdrawal costs, any tax, and the participation fees you've already paid.
|
Payout field |
What to record |
|
Waiting period before first request |
From the agreement |
|
Minimum qualifying days |
From the agreement |
|
Cap on early payouts |
From the agreement |
|
Profit split |
From the program page and agreement |
|
Approval and processing times |
From the payout policy |
|
Payment method and currency |
From the payout policy |
|
Dispute route |
From the agreement |
Verify the entity. Confirm that the legal entity named in the agreement is the one taking payment, and keep any parent or related business's history separate from the program's own record.
Save the terms. Keep dated copies of the rules, agreement, payout policy, and checkout quote, since terms can change.
Weigh the evidence carefully. Payout certificates and testimonials don't show how often requests are approved or what a typical participant receives.
Set a budget. Compare an evaluation with a demo account, which lets you practice without paying a fee, and decide your maximum spend on retries before buying the first challenge.
A crypto funded account is a paid, rules-based evaluation in a simulated environment, not a deposit, a brokerage account, or a promise of income. Before buying a challenge, add up your full cash commitment, turn every loss rule into a dollar figure, test the trading rules against your strategy, and read the payout conditions in full.
Treat any fees as a cost of participation, set a firm limit on retries, and keep dated copies of the terms you agreed to.
Is a crypto funded account real money? No. In simulated funding programs, the displayed balance is simulated capital. You pay a participation fee and may become eligible for rewards if you meet the program's objectives and payout rules.
Are crypto prop firms brokers or banks? Simulated evaluation programs are not brokers or banks. Check each provider's own disclosures about what it does and doesn't do.
What is a static drawdown? A static drawdown sets your maximum loss floor once, at the start, so it doesn't rise as your account grows.
Can I lose more than the evaluation fee? In a simulated program, your cash cost is the fees you pay, including any retries and upgrades, but you can lose the full amount of those fees.
Are payouts guaranteed? No. Payouts depend on meeting the program's objectives, eligibility rules, and approval process, and no outcome is guaranteed.