# What Is a Funded Trading Account? The Funded Desk, Updated 24 September 2026 ## Definition A funded trading account gives a trader a balance larger than their own to trade against, on someone else's terms. Four products are sold under that name, so what is a funded trading account depends on the page: a two-phase evaluation, a one-phase evaluation, instant access with a trailing loss limit, or an exchange margin tier. The four differ in everything that decides the outcome: what the money is, who holds the position, and who pays the profit. Three of them are sold by proprietary trading firms and begin with a fee. The fourth is an exchange facility and begins with margin. Telling them apart takes about a minute once you know which three sentences to look for. ## What is a funded trading account, model by model Four products answer to the name, and the differences begin at the checkout. 1. **Two-phase evaluation.** The trader buys an attempt at two targets in sequence. FTMO's two-step route asks 10% and then 5%, with four minimum trading days; BrightFunded asks 8% then 5% with five; Crypto Fund Trader asks 8% then 5%; FundedNext's Stellar 2-Step asks 8% then 5%, also with five. Clear both and a simulated account with a profit split follows. 2. **One-phase evaluation.** One target, then the funded stage. Breakout sells three products at one price each for $100,000 of nominal — Turbo at $330 with a 9% target against a 3% static drawdown, Pro at $545 for 12% against 5%, Classic at $800 for 10% against 6%. HyroTrader's one-step costs $579 and asks 10%, Goat Funded Trader lists $438, and SabioTrade runs a single assessment at $119 for a $20,000 balance or $289 for $50,000. 3. **Instant access with a trailing limit.** No target at all: the account is live on the day it is bought, and the discipline comes from a loss limit that follows profits upward. FundedNext's Stellar Instant carries a 6% trailing maximum loss and no daily limit, and Goat Funded Trader sells an instant funding route alongside its challenges. Our page on [instant funding](/instant-funding-crypto) reads both rule sets in full. 4. **An exchange margin tier.** No firm and no evaluation. EVEDEX Funded Trading raises the nominal a trader can hold against margin they post themselves — 50 USDT for a 1,500 USDT nominal, 335 for 10,000, 3,335 for 100,000. The trader keeps all profit, and the money at risk is their own from the first position. Only the first three are proprietary trading. The fourth is an exchange facility wearing the same word, and it is scored on this site next to the others only because a trader shopping for size will meet it in the same search. ## Whose money is behind the position On the three prop routes the answer is: none of the trader's, and frequently none of the firm's either. Breakout's funded trader disclosure states that funded traders own no trading account or position and hold no beneficial or proprietary interest in the operator's accounts, assets or trades, and the same document reserves the right to record a trade idea as an internal administrative book entry and calculate a hypothetical result without routing an order anywhere. BrightFunded writes that all its customers are provided with demo accounts with simulated funds. Crypto Fund Trader says on its home page that it is all demo, with no real capital involved. FTMO describes a simulated environment paying performance-based rewards, and Bitfunded calls its own environment fully simulated. Two programmes here are built the other way. HyroTrader executes funded accounts through a Bybit API connection across 700+ USDT perpetual pairs, so the order arrives in an exchange order book. EVEDEX Funded Trading runs on the exchange's own book across 52 perpetual markets, and the margin behind the position belongs to the trader, which is why nobody lends anything and only the real USDT balance can be withdrawn. The distinction is not a question of honesty. A simulated account is the ordinary shape of this industry and several firms print it on the front page. It settles something narrower and more useful: whether a fill price came from a market or from a firm's model of one, and whether a payout is a share of a trade or a reward computed after the fact. ## Where the payout money comes from On an evaluation route the payout is a performance reward and the firm's balance sheet pays it. That balance sheet is fed largely by evaluation fees, which is why Breakout's own disclosure names the conflict in plain words: the firm earns each time an attempt is failed and bought again. None of that makes the money less real. Goat Funded Trader promises payment within 24 hours of a request or it adds $1,000, HyroTrader states about twelve hours above a $100 minimum, and Breakout pays on demand above $50 after the split, in USDC on Ethereum. It does mean the cash is coming out of firm revenue rather than out of a closed position. The [payout terms side by side](/crypto-prop-firm-payouts-compared) show how far apart the schedules sit. The fee is the trader's whole downside on those routes, and it does not come back by default. Breakout states that evaluation fees are non-refundable for each attempt once trading begins, regardless of outcome. FTMO refunds the one-time fee in full with the first reward, HyroTrader returns the challenge fee with the first payout, and FundedNext returns it with the first reward — all three only after a pass. BrightFunded sells the refund as a paid add-on, in the same list as weekly payouts, a 90% payout ratio and the removal of minimum trading days. On the exchange model there is no payout in that sense, because there is no share for anyone to release. Profit sits in the subaccount's own USDT balance and the trader withdraws it. That is simpler, and it is also why the downside is a different shape: a failed prop attempt costs a fee, and a losing trade on posted margin costs the margin. ## How to tell which model a page is selling Three sentences settle it, and all three usually live on the pricing page rather than the home page. First, look for the word target. A percentage the trader must reach before anything is paid means an evaluation, and two percentages in sequence mean two phases. FundedNext prints all four of its routes side by side — 10% on Stellar 1-Step, 8% then 5% on Stellar 2-Step, 8% then 4% on Stellar Lite, and nothing at all on Stellar Instant — which is the plainest version of that table any of these firms publishes. Second, look at how the loss limit behaves. A static limit stays where the firm set it. A trailing one rises with profits and does not fall back when the account gives some back, which FundedNext spells out in its own rules. Where there is no target, expect a trailing limit in its place: that is the exchange instant access makes. SabioTrade adds a variant worth knowing, since its trailing drawdown is reset to the starting balance every time a withdrawal is requested. Third, look for the word simulated or demo, and for who owns the account. If the terms say demo, the payout is a reward and the account is a scoreboard. If they describe margin you post yourself, you are reading an exchange tier rather than a prop offer, and the questions change with it: not what the fee buys, but what the margin can lose. EVEDEX Funded Trading sits in that second category, which is why it is not a prop firm and does not belong in a like-for-like comparison with one. A fourth check costs a minute and is worth it: read what happens on a breach. At every firm in [our scored list](/best-crypto-prop-firms), crossing a daily or maximum loss limit ends the account, and a fresh attempt means a fresh fee. ## What the label does not tell you Published terms are not conduct. This desk read pricing pages, rule pages and disclosures; it bought no evaluation, passed none and requested no payout. A firm can write a fair rule set and still argue about a withdrawal, and that is invisible from outside. Prices move as well. Goat Funded Trader showed $263 against a $438 list price on the day we read it, so the list price is the honest number to compare against, because a promotion can end any morning. And the account size in the advertisement is a ceiling, not a stake. A $100,000 evaluation account is a $100,000 number in the platform with a maximum loss measured against it — 3% on Breakout's Turbo, 6% on HyroTrader, 8% on BrightFunded, 10% on FTMO and on Crypto Fund Trader. What a trader can lose there is the fee. What a trader can earn is a share of whatever the firm records the simulated performance to have been. ## What the firms say, in their own words > "FTs do not own any trading account or position, and hold no beneficial or proprietary interest in POL's accounts, assets or trades." — Breakout, funded trader disclosure, 21 September 2026. > "All trading practices occur within a simulation environment." — BrightFunded, home page, 21 September 2026. > "It's all demo, no real capital involved." — Crypto Fund Trader, home page, 21 September 2026. > "Trailing means the loss limit rises with your profits, does not decrease during losses, and stops once it reaches your initial balance." — FundedNext, general rules, 22 September 2026. ## FAQ ### How does a funded trading account work? Three of the four models work the same way: you pay a one-time fee, hit a profit target inside a loss limit, then trade a simulated balance and receive a share of the recorded profit. The fourth, an exchange margin tier, skips all of that and raises your nominal against margin you post. ### Is a funded account real money or simulated? Simulated on most programmes, and the firms say so themselves. BrightFunded provides demo accounts with simulated funds, Crypto Fund Trader states it is all demo with no real capital involved, and Bitfunded calls its environment fully simulated. HyroTrader is the exception, routing funded accounts to Bybit through an API connection. ### What is the difference between a one-step and a two-step challenge? A one-step challenge has a single profit target; a two-step adds a verification phase at a lower target. FTMO asks 10% then 5%, BrightFunded 8% then 5%, HyroTrader 10% then 5%. Two phases mean two targets to clear and, at FTMO and BrightFunded, minimum trading days on top, so the first payout is further away. ### Do you have to pay for a funded trading account? Yes, in one form or another. Evaluations carry a one-time fee — $330 at Breakout, $438 at Goat Funded Trader, $579 at HyroTrader, $660 at Crypto Fund Trader for $100,000 of nominal. EVEDEX Funded Trading charges no fee and asks for margin instead, 3,335 USDT to hold a 100,000 USDT nominal. ### Who owns the profit on a funded account? The firm does, until it pays a share. Splits run 80% at Breakout, HyroTrader, Crypto Fund Trader, SabioTrade and Bitfunded, up to 90% at FTMO and BrightFunded, up to 95% at FundedNext, and 100% at Goat Funded Trader. On the exchange tier the profit already sits in the trader's own balance. ### Can you lose your own money on a funded account? On an evaluation route, only the fee: the balance belongs to the firm, and breaching a daily or maximum loss limit forfeits the account and the fee with it. The exchange tier reverses that — the margin posted is the trader's own, and the maximum loss is exactly that margin. ### What is the catch with funded accounts? Each model hides its cost somewhere different. An evaluation charges a fee that is gone once trading begins unless you pass. Instant access swaps the target for a trailing loss limit that rises with profits. A margin tier removes both and puts the trader's own capital at risk instead. ### Are funded trading accounts worth it? That depends on what you already have. With capital and no wish to sit an evaluation, a margin tier costs nothing in fees. With no capital, the prop model is the only route, and the fee buys one attempt at a target inside a loss limit you did not set. ### How long does it take to get funded? There is no time limit at Breakout, FTMO, BrightFunded, Crypto Fund Trader or FundedNext, but minimum trading days set a floor: four at FTMO, five at BrightFunded, HyroTrader and FundedNext's two-phase routes. Instant routes and the exchange tier begin on the day the account is opened. ### What is a profit split? The share of recorded profit a trader keeps when a payout is released. It is a default that can be bought up: Breakout sells 80% as standard and 90% as a checkout upgrade, BrightFunded sells a 90% ratio as a paid add-on, and HyroTrader scales 80% to 90%. ### Does EVEDEX Funded Trading fit any of these four models? It is the fourth one, and it is not a prop firm. The trader posts margin — 3,335 USDT for a 100,000 USDT nominal — and trades that nominal on the exchange's own order book with no evaluation and no profit share. Nothing is lent, and only the real balance is withdrawable. ## Corrections and provenance Figures carry the date they were read and the page they came from. Corrections: desk@chroniclesofwarcraft.com. 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.