Best crypto prop firms 2026

Kraken owns and operates all three of the Kraken products in this guide. Kraken Funded and Kraken Pro Prop are Kraken products, and Kraken acquired Breakout in September 2025.

Because of that, this guide focuses on the factors you should consider when evaluating any prop trading firm, not just what makes Kraken “the best.”

Consider these details when choosing the prop trading firm that fits your strategy.

A crypto prop firm funds you with its own capital after you pass a structured evaluation. You pay a one-time fee, trade a simulated account to hit a profit target without breaching drawdown limits, and if you pass, you get funded.

Depending on the platform, you keep the large majority of profits (typically 75–90%) while the firm carries the market exposure. Unlike a personal account, you can never lose more than the evaluation fee you paid to enter.

Still need a deeper understanding? Check out our complete guide to prop trading.

Prop firms compete on a handful of variables. Two platforms can advertise the same profit percentage and feel completely different to trade once you read how their drawdown is measured or when their daily limit resets.

Here is what each factor means, the range you'll see across crypto prop firms today, and why it changes your odds.

The percentage of trading profits you keep after passing. Most crypto prop firms sit between 70% and 90%, and a few advertise up to 100% on a first payout or after scaling.

Higher isn't automatically better: a 90% split paired with a harder target, a trailing drawdown, or slow payouts can be worth less than an 80% split with clean rules. Kraken Funded and Breakout start at 80%, upgradable to 90%.

The gain you must reach in the evaluation without breaking a rule. Single-phase crypto evaluations usually ask for about 8–12%; two-phase evaluations split a smaller target across two stages (for example ~5% then ~5%).

A lower target is easier to hit but is often paired with a tighter drawdown, so read the two together. Kraken Funded uses a 12% target; Breakout offers roughly 9–12% depending on the path.

The total loss that ends your account, and the single most misread number in prop trading.

What matters is how it’s measured.

A static drawdown is fixed from your starting balance. A trailing drawdown follows your peak equity upward, so once you’re in profit, the line you can’t cross rises with you, and a winning day can tighten your room to lose. Static is generally more forgiving. Ranges run about 3–10%. Kraken Funded uses a single static 3% limit.

A cap on how much you can lose in a single day, separate from total drawdown. Breach it and you’re out even if your overall drawdown is untouched.

Common values are about 2–5% of balance, reset at a fixed time (often a set UTC hour), so it’s worth knowing exactly when your day resets. Some firms (including Kraken Funded) skip a separate daily limit entirely and use one overall drawdown, which removes a common way to blow an otherwise healthy account.

How you get funded. A 1-step challenge has a single target; a 2-step challenge splits it across two phases; instant funding skips the test for a higher fee.

Fewer steps mean faster funding but often stricter drawdown; instant funding trades a bigger upfront cost for no evaluation. Kraken's paths are single-evaluation, and Breakout also offers a 2-step option.

The one-time cost to enter, usually scaled to account size, and whether you get it back. Some firms refund the fee with your first payout; others treat it as non-refundable once you start trading.

Because only a fraction of entrants reach a payout, treat the fee as your real, at-risk cost rather than a deposit held for you. Kraken's and Breakout's fees are non-refundable once trading begins.

The capital you're funded with, and whether it grows. Most firms offer tiers from about $5K to $200K, and a few reach $400K–$1M. Scaling plans raise your account as you stay profitable over time.

Bigger isn't better if the rules or the fee outrun your strategy. Kraken's products fund up to $200K, but also offer small amounts for those looking to trade with a smaller amount of capital.

How large a position you can take relative to your capital. Crypto prop firms are usually conservative (around 2x–5x) versus the higher leverage common in forex or futures prop.

More leverage magnifies both the profit target and the drawdown, so it cuts both ways.

Kraken Prop and Breakout offer up to 5x on BTC/ETH and 2x on altcoins. But, it is important to remember that while prop trading, you provide trade signals only. You do not hold real positions and any stated limits are simulated. While the payouts are real, they are based on your simulated trading performance.

How fast you're paid, in what, and how often. Crypto firms often pay stablecoins on-demand or within 12–24 hours; fiat payouts and fixed cycles (for example every 14 days) are slower.

Check for first-payout minimums and any initial waiting period. Kraken's paths pay on-demand in USDC on Pro Prop and Breakout, or USD on Funded.

Beyond the headline numbers sit the rules that end accounts after the target is already hit: consistency rules (no single day can be too large a share of total profit), minimum trading days, time limits, and restrictions on news trading or holding over weekends.

The simplest rulebook is often the most valuable one. Across Kraken's prop products, there are no consistency rules, no minimum trading days, and no time limits.

Whether you trade on a purpose-built terminal or a third-party platform (MT5, cTrader, TradingView), whether fills are simulated or routed to a real exchange, how many pairs you can trade, and whether trading carries commissions.

Real-exchange execution and zero commissions directly change your effective edge. Kraken Funded is mobile-first with zero trading commissions; Kraken Pro Prop runs on the Kraken Pro terminal; Breakout runs its own dedicated terminal.

Kraken offers three different products, built for three different traders, all on one common infrastructure. The table below puts them side by side on the terms above.

Kraken Funded lives in its own tab inside the Kraken app, so you prove your skill and run a funded account from the same place you already hold crypto, with no separate account required.

You pay a one-time entry fee, and if you hit a 12% profit target without losing more than 3%, you gain access to the funded account.

On the funded account you keep 80% of what you make, with zero trading commissions and no withdrawal fees.

Kraken Prop puts funded trading inside the Kraken Pro interface, so if you already run your strategy on Pro’s advanced charts and order types, you can pursue funded capital without leaving the tools you know.

It runs on the same infrastructure as Breakout, and is built for experienced traders who want Kraken Pro’s more powerful charting and order types.

Breakout is the standalone platform Kraken acquired in September 2025, marking the first time a top-tier regulated exchange entered proprietary trading through a full acquisition.

You trade on the Breakout Terminal across web, iOS, and Android, with 50+ simulated crypto pairs and up to 5x leverage on BTC/ETH, as well as simulated NASDAQ- and S&P 500-listed stocks and commodities.

Breakout has no consistency rules and no minimum trading days, unlike many white-label prop firms. Payouts are on-demand in USDC, with an 80% default distribution upgradable to 90% at checkout.

A few things genuinely set Kraken’s prop products apart. Kraken Funded is mobile-first and built into an app you may already use, where much of the wider market is desktop-first on a separate platform. It also charges zero trading commissions during both the challenge and the funded account, versus the commission- or fee-based models common across the industry.

In select regions, Kraken Funded also lets you get paid for your trading ideas, allowing you to trade a simulated account of stocks and ETFs alongside 50+ cryptoassets, though stock and ETF trading is not available to US clients, who trade crypto only. Availability varies by region, so confirm what’s offered where you are.

These products also sit inside Kraken, one of the longest-running names in crypto. Kraken has operated since 2011, pioneered Proof of Reserves in 2014, publishes regular reserve audits, and holds the majority of client assets in cold storage — an institutional foundation most standalone prop firms can’t point to.

And Kraken is more than a prop platform: from one account you can buy crypto, invest in stocks and ETFs, trade futures, and earn APY on eligible assets, where available. None of this is investment advice, and none of it promises a return; it simply describes what each product does.

The right firm is the one whose rules fit how you actually trade. Run the factors above against your own strategy:

• Cost to pass: weigh the profit percentage against the target, the evaluation fee, and whether it’s refundable.

• How you’ll fail: check the drawdown type (static vs trailing) and whether there’s a daily loss limit, which is actually where accounts are usually lost.

• Getting paid: verify payout speed, method, and frequency independently rather than trusting a marketing number.

• The fine print: read the consistency rules, minimum trading days, and time limits before you buy, not after.

• Fit to strategy: mobile-first if you trade from your phone; a full desktop terminal if you need advanced order types.

Pick the Kraken path that matches how you trade.

Trade from your phone with Kraken Funded, extend your existing Kraken Pro setup with Kraken Prop, or step into a dedicated terminal built for prop trading with Breakout.

All three run on the same infrastructure, so wherever you start, you’re funded by Kraken.