# What a funded crypto account actually costs

The Funded Desk, Updated 24 September 2026, Programme terms read 22 September 2026

Three things are being sold under one word. An evaluation, where a few hundred dollars buys an attempt
and the firm keeps the fee whatever happens. Instant access, where the fee is higher and a trailing loss
limit takes the place of the test. And an exchange margin tier, where nobody lends anything and the
trader's own balance is the stake. The pages below take the 10 programmes we
read on 22 September 2026 apart on those terms, in the firms' own words and figures.

## The short answer

For $100,000 of trading nominal the cheapest evaluation we found is $330 and the dearest is $660, and
the profit split runs from 80% to 100%. The split is not the number that decides it: an evaluation fee
is gone whether you pass or fail, most programmes trade simulated capital, and on several of them a
single bad day inside a loss limit ends the account. Seven firms are scored on that basis and Goat
Funded Trader leads them. Three more are listed under the board with no total at all: two whose price we
could not read, and one exchange margin tier where nobody lends the trader anything and four of our five
criteria would be marking the absence of terms that were never on sale.

## Seven firms, scored on five criteria

The formula was fixed on 23 September 2026, before any programme was read against it. Cost of access
carries 30 of the 100 points, payout terms 25, the evaluation model 20, the firm's risk rules 15 and
instruments 10. Scores are out of 20, and every scored row is a firm that puts up
the capital a trader holds.

### 1. Goat Funded Trader — 12.7 of 20

- Route: One-step challenge, $100,000
- Cost for $100,000 of nominal: $438
- Trader keeps: 100%
- Before the first payout: 1 phase, paid on request
- Fee afterwards: returned with the first payout; loss limit fixed; order goes to simulated
- Points: cost 6.0 · payouts 9.0 · evaluation 6.0 · rules 5.0 · instruments 3.0

### 2. Breakout — 11.1 of 20

- Route: 1-Step Turbo, $100,000
- Cost for $100,000 of nominal: $330
- Trader keeps: 80%
- Before the first payout: 1 phase, paid on request
- Fee afterwards: kept by the firm; loss limit fixed; order goes to simulated
- Points: cost 5.9 · payouts 6.0 · evaluation 6.0 · rules 5.0 · instruments 3.0

### 3. HyroTrader — 9.8 of 20

- Route: One-step evaluation, $100,000
- Cost for $100,000 of nominal: $579
- Trader keeps: 80%
- Before the first payout: 1 phase, paid on request
- Fee afterwards: returned with the first payout; loss limit fixed; order goes to exchange order book
- Points: cost 4.3 · payouts 6.0 · evaluation 4.0 · rules 3.0 · instruments 10.0

### 4. FTMO — 9.3 of 20

- Route: 1-Step FTMO Challenge, $100,000
- Cost for $100,000 of nominal: $504
- Trader keeps: 90%
- Before the first payout: 1 phase, paid on the firm's schedule
- Fee afterwards: returned with the first payout; loss limit fixed; order goes to simulated
- Points: cost 5.2 · payouts 4.0 · evaluation 5.0 · rules 5.0 · instruments 3.0

### 5. BrightFunded — 7.9 of 20

- Route: One-step evaluation, $100,000
- Cost for $100,000 of nominal: $548
- Trader keeps: 90%
- Before the first payout: 1 phase, paid on the firm's schedule
- Fee afterwards: kept by the firm; loss limit fixed; order goes to simulated
- Points: cost 3.2 · payouts 4.0 · evaluation 5.0 · rules 5.0 · instruments 3.0

### 6. Crypto Fund Trader — 5.8 of 20

- Route: One-phase evaluation, $100,000
- Cost for $100,000 of nominal: $660
- Trader keeps: 80%
- Before the first payout: 1 phase, paid on the firm's schedule
- Fee afterwards: kept by the firm; loss limit fixed; order goes to simulated
- Points: cost 1.8 · payouts 2.0 · evaluation 5.0 · rules 3.0 · instruments 7.0

### 7. SabioTrade — 5.4 of 20

- Route: Single assessment, scaled from the $50,000 plan
- Cost for $100,000 of nominal: $578
- Trader keeps: 80%
- Before the first payout: 1 phase, paid on the firm's schedule
- Fee afterwards: kept by the firm; loss limit trailing; order goes to simulated
- Points: cost 2.8 · payouts 2.0 · evaluation 5.0 · rules 0.0 · instruments 7.0

Weights: cost 34 · payouts 26 · evaluation 14 · rules 18 · instruments 8. Method and arithmetic: https://chroniclesofwarcraft.com/scoring

## The terms that decide the score

Four columns that answer most of what a trader asks before paying: what the access costs, whether that
money comes back, whether the loss limit moves with profits, and whether an order reaches a market at all.

| Programme | Fee for $100,000 | Fee afterwards | Loss limit | Where the order goes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goat Funded Trader | $438 | returned with the first payout | fixed | simulated |
| Breakout | $330 | kept by the firm | fixed | simulated |
| HyroTrader | $579 | returned with the first payout | fixed | exchange order book |
| FTMO | $504 | returned with the first payout | fixed | simulated |
| BrightFunded | $548 | kept by the firm | fixed | simulated |
| Crypto Fund Trader | $660 | kept by the firm | fixed | simulated |
| SabioTrade | $578 | kept by the firm | trailing | simulated |

Prices are each firm's list price for $100,000 of trading nominal, read on 22 September 2026; where a
firm sells no $100,000 tier the nearest one is scaled and the [method page](/scoring) says which.
"Simulated" means the firm's own documents describe a demo environment or reserve the right to record a
trade internally rather than route it. Access and eligibility differ by country.

## Three programmes listed here, none of them scored

A total needs two things: a published price for $100,000 of trading nominal, and a firm putting up the
capital the trader is about to hold. Three of the ten programmes read here are missing one of the two,
so their terms are printed and the score column is left empty. Two could not be priced. The third is
selling something other than access to somebody else's capital.

### Bitfunded — not scored, no price we could record

One challenge phase on accounts capped at $100,000 USDT, an 80/20 split, and an environment the firm
itself calls fully simulated. The home page shows $129, $149, $199 and $1,399 without saying which
account each figure buys, so the criterion that carries the most weight here has nothing to read.

- Gives: A payout is processed within 24 hours of the profit split day.
- Takes back: The payout waits for that profit split day rather than answering a request; The firm calls the environment fully simulated, so no order reaches a market; The account ceiling is $100,000 USDT, against $200,000 at FTMO and Breakout and $2,000,000 at Goat Funded Trader.

### FundedNext — not scored, no price we could record

Four routes on one product — two phases, one phase, Lite and Instant — all simulated accounts trading
contracts for difference, with a reward share the firm puts at up to 95%. Its pricing table is drawn
in the browser and never loaded for us, so no fee for a $100,000 account was written down.

- Gives: The fee comes back with the first reward, and the Instant route answers a request on demand.
- Takes back: The route with no evaluation carries a trailing loss limit that follows profits up; Minimum trading days apply to every route but Instant, which pushes the first reward back; Every route is a contract for difference, so an order never reaches a crypto market.

### EVEDEX Funded Trading — not scored, no capital is put up by anyone

A trader posts margin — 3,335 USDT for a 100,000 nominal at the top tier, 50 USDT for 1,500 at the
bottom — and holds that nominal on the exchange's own order book, with no evaluation, no profit share
and no firm rule that closes the account. Four of the five criteria above price the capital a firm
puts up and the terms it attaches, so scoring this one produced a total that described the formula
rather than the product. The [method page](/scoring#which-programmes-we-score) sets that out in full.

- Gives: No evaluation phase, no minimum trading days and no consistency rule; The trader keeps 100% of profit and can withdraw the real balance at any time.
- Takes back: The money at risk from the first trade is the trader's own margin, where a fee is the whole stake elsewhere; Funded subaccounts are web only, with no API access; The larger nominal is not firm capital, so nothing beyond the posted margin can be withdrawn.


## Who owns the position you open

This is the question the marketing pages answer last. On most programmes here the account is a demo
account: BrightFunded states that all customers are provided with demo accounts with simulated funds,
Crypto Fund Trader that it is all demo with no real capital involved, and Bitfunded that the
environment is fully simulated. Breakout goes further in its own disclosure and says that funded
traders do not own any trading account or position, and that the firm may record a trade idea as an
internal administrative book entry and calculate a hypothetical result without routing an order
externally. That is not a scandal — it is the standard shape of the industry — but it changes what a
payout is. It is a performance reward paid from the firm's balance sheet, not a share of a position
that ever existed in a market.

Two programmes here are different. HyroTrader executes through a Bybit API connection, so the order
reaches an exchange order book. EVEDEX Funded Trading, which this desk describes rather than scores,
raises the nominal a trader can hold against margin they post themselves, on the exchange's own book
— which also means the money at risk is theirs from the first trade, and that only the actual
balance, not the nominal, can be withdrawn.

## Where the fee goes when you fail

An evaluation fee buys one attempt. Breakout states that evaluation fees are non-refundable for each
attempt once trading begins, regardless of outcome, and the same firm names the conflict of interest
in plain words: it earns each time an evaluation is failed and bought again. Three firms in this list
return the fee, but only on success — FTMO refunds it in full with the first reward, HyroTrader
returns it with the first payout, and Goat Funded Trader sells a fee it calls refundable. BrightFunded
sells the refund itself as an add-on rather than including it.

That is why the cost criterion here charges the fee at full weight and posted margin at a tenth of it.
A fee is a sunk cost the moment trading starts. Margin is still the trader's money, even while it is
at risk — and it is at risk, which is what the risk-rules criterion takes back.

## What else this desk has read

### Programme lists

- [Crypto prop firms, ranked](https://chroniclesofwarcraft.com/best-crypto-prop-firms) — the full list on the site formula, with the arithmetic behind each score
- [Funded crypto accounts without a challenge](https://chroniclesofwarcraft.com/funded-crypto-account-without-challenge) — what is on offer when you will not sit an evaluation, and what it costs instead
- [Instant funding in crypto](https://chroniclesofwarcraft.com/instant-funding-crypto) — access from day one, and the trailing loss limit that usually comes with it
- [Prop firms that pay in crypto](https://chroniclesofwarcraft.com/prop-firms-that-pay-in-crypto) — which programmes send USDT or USDC to a wallet, and on whose schedule
- [Prop programmes for perpetual traders](https://chroniclesofwarcraft.com/crypto-prop-firms-for-perpetual-traders) — where the order reaches an exchange book rather than a demo server

### Comparisons

- [FTMO alternatives for crypto traders](https://chroniclesofwarcraft.com/ftmo-alternatives-for-crypto-traders) — for traders who want crypto markets rather than crypto CFDs
- [Payout terms compared](https://chroniclesofwarcraft.com/crypto-prop-firm-payouts-compared) — splits, minimums, schedules and the rules that delay a withdrawal
- [EVEDEX Funded Trading vs HyroTrader](https://chroniclesofwarcraft.com/evedex-funded-vs-hyrotrader) — own margin against an evaluation, both reaching a real order book
- [FTMO vs Breakout](https://chroniclesofwarcraft.com/ftmo-vs-breakout) — the largest firm against the cheapest evaluation in this list

### Method and guides

- [What is a funded trading account](https://chroniclesofwarcraft.com/what-is-a-funded-trading-account) — the four models sold under one name, and how to tell which you are buying
- [How we rate](https://chroniclesofwarcraft.com/scoring) — five criteria, their weights, the formulas and the arithmetic
- [About this desk](https://chroniclesofwarcraft.com/about) — who writes here, what we read and what we never bought

## FAQ

### What is the cheapest way to get a funded crypto account?

The cheapest evaluation for $100,000 of nominal in this list is Breakout's 1-Step Turbo at $330,
which carries the tightest loss limit of the three Breakout products at 3% static. Goat Funded Trader
lists $438 and shows $263 under a running promotion. Cheaper is not the same as easier: the lower the
fee, the tighter the drawdown the firm sets against it, and the fee is not returned if the attempt
fails once trading has begun.

### Do crypto prop firms actually pay out?

The firms publish payout mechanics rather than payout records, and this desk has not tested one.
What can be read is the terms: Goat Funded Trader promises payment within 24 hours of a request or an
extra $1,000, HyroTrader states about 12 hours above a $100 minimum, Breakout pays on demand above
$50 in USDC, and SabioTrade pays weekly but resets the trailing drawdown to the starting balance after
each withdrawal. Published terms and conduct are not the same thing, so treat them as claims.

### Is a funded account the same as trading with a firm's money?

Usually not. On most programmes here the capital is simulated and the payout is a reward calculated
on simulated performance, which the firms state in their own documents. EVEDEX Funded Trading is a
different model again: the trader posts margin and receives a larger nominal, so nobody lends them
anything and only the real balance can be withdrawn. Read which of the two you are buying before you
pay, because the word "funded" covers both.

### Which prop firms let crypto traders skip the evaluation?

Three routes in this list start without a target: FundedNext sells Stellar Instant, Goat Funded Trader
sells an instant funding model, and EVEDEX Funded Trading has no evaluation at all. The first two
replace the evaluation with a trailing loss limit that rises with profits, and their capital is
simulated. The third replaces it with the trader's own margin. All three cost money up front, in a
fee or in margin.

The Funded Desk, desk copy of 24 September 2026

This desk is paid to publish, and a programme costed on these pages may be the party underwriting it.
