Methodology: what is measured, and what is not claimed

Most comparison sites in this niche publish a score out of five and a "verified" badge. We publish neither, because neither can be checked by the reader. This page sets out exactly what we do instead, so you can decide how much weight to give the tables.

What we measure

Every figure in the tables is taken from the firm's own published terms: the price of an evaluation at a given account size, the profit target, the drawdown rule as the firm words it, the profit split as stated, the payout methods, the stated payout timing, the leverage, and whether identity verification is required at signup, before activation or before payout. Each figure is quoted rather than interpreted, and each firm's page links to the source it came from.

No figure on this page is estimated. Every number is quoted from the firm's own site, and anything we cannot source from that firm is left out rather than filled with a plausible guess or carried over from a previous quarter.

How the order is decided

There is no composite score, because a weighted average hides the only decisions that matter. Instead, each page states what a firm is the best choice for, and the comparison pages let you sort by the constraint that would make you fail: total drawdown, split, payout rail, payout speed, or challenge fee. A firm that is first in one column is usually third in another, and that is the honest picture.

What we do not claim

• We do not claim to have traded these accounts. We have not run live evaluations on every firm listed, and a page that implied otherwise would be inventing evidence.
• We do not publish star ratings, review counts or "trust scores". A rating we cannot justify is a number you cannot check.
• We do not claim a firm pays reliably. Payout reliability is the most important question in this niche and the one we have the least first-hand evidence for. Where we discuss payout speed, we say plainly that it is the firm's advertised timing.
• We do not accept payment for placement. Affiliate links are disclosed on every page that carries one. If a commercial relationship ever affects position, the placement is labelled.

Crypto-only and multi-asset, both listed

Every firm here lets you trade crypto and every figure comes from its own pages. Some trade only crypto, others also run FX, indices and metals. Both belong in the comparison: a multi-asset house with 1:5 crypto leverage and a 90% split is a real alternative to a crypto-only venue, and for most traders the deciding factors - drawdown, split, payout rail, KYC timing - are the same questions either way.

The tag says which kind of firm you are looking at, because it changes the answer to two things: the leverage you get on coins, and whether you can also trade anything else on the same account. Use it as a filter, not as a ranking: the table is ordered by fee, and a firm is not penalised for trading more markets than another.

How a firm gets on the list

A firm joins when its published terms can be read, quoted and dated - prices per size, drawdown, split, KYC timing, payout rail - and it stays only while that remains true. Directories that list forty firms are useful for discovery and useless for a decision, because they cannot tell you which entries were checked this month and which were copied two years ago. That is also why some firms here sit on the watchlist and not in the tables: no dated payout record means no place in a ranking you might act on.

Corrections and updates

Firms change prices, splits and payout rules without announcement, and this niche has a long history of quiet term changes. If a figure here is out of date, email research@cryptopropfirms.com with the page and the firm's own wording, and it will be re-checked against the source. Every page carries the date the dataset was compiled; when a page is re-verified, that date moves.

What we are adding next

The coverage gap is firms that offer instant funding and firms that publish a genuinely KYC-free payout path. Neither is on the site yet because neither has been verified against published terms, and the queue is public in the repository that builds this site. When a firm is added it will arrive with the same structure: quoted terms, a source link, and a date.