Prop Trading 2026: The Aftermath

January 2026 is a moment of truth for the funded trader industry. The last two years have been a brutal reality check for the market. Echoes of the giants’ fall and the technological blockade by MetaQuotes have changed the rules of the game forever. Today, traders are no longer looking for the “highest leverage,” but for the certainty that a firm will actually pay out profits. Here is the state of the industry report.

IN SHORT:

• The End of the “Wild West”: The wave of bankruptcies initiated by the regulatory intervention in the MyForexFunds case (2023) and the Funded Engineer scandal (2024) has cleansed the market of entities operating on a Ponzi scheme model.
• The Twilight of MetaTrader in Prop Trading: As a result of license restrictions introduced by MetaQuotes in 2024, most firms were forced to migrate to alternative platforms (cTrader, DXtrade, MatchTrader). The dominance of MT4/MT5 in this industry is a thing of the past.
• Migration to Futures: The strongest trend of 2026 is the capital flight from CFD firms (Contracts for Difference) towards firms offering Futures trading on exchanges like the CME, which guarantees greater transparency.
• Verification is a Necessity: Statistics show that firms that did not require KYC (identity verification) and offered “instant accounts” vanished from the market the fastest—often taking client deposits with them.

The Genesis of the Crisis: When Regulators Said “Enough”

To understand where we are today, we must look back. The turning point was the US CFTC’s action against MyForexFunds in September 2023. The freezing of this giant’s assets was a warning signal: a business model based on a firm profiting from client losses (B-Book) and hindering their success was now in the crosshairs of authorities. In the following months, we observed a domino effect. Firms unable to prove they were realy hedging trader positions began to collapse one after another, often under the guise of “technical issues” or “audits.”

The Technological “Blackout”: The MetaQuotes Case

2024 brought a second blow, this time technological. MetaQuotes (creator of the popular MT4 and MT5 platforms) tightened its licensing policy. The company began mass-blocking access to its servers for prop trading firms serving US clients without proper brokerage regulations. For many firms, such as Funding Pips (which had to temporarily halt trading in February 2024) and other smaller entities, this was paralyzing. These events shaped the market in 2025—today, independent platforms like cTrader or DXtrade, which better handle compliance requirements, are the standard.

The Funded Engineer Scandal and Loss of Trust

We cannot overlook the lesson learned from the Funded Engineer collapse. In early 2024, technology provider FPFX Tech terminated its partnership with the firm, revealing that it had engaged in “wash trading” and artificially inflating payouts for marketing purposes. This event definitively ended the era of blind trust in payout screenshots on Twitter/X. In 2026, traders expect hard proof of solvency and transparent rules (e.g., public display of payout statistics).

Direction for 2026: A Safe Haven in Futures

We observe a clear market division into two categories:

• High-Risk Category (CFD): Firms registered in tax havens, offering high leverage (1:100) on crypto and Forex, often without identity verification. The risk of insolvency in this group remains extremely high.
• Professional Category (Futures): Firms providing access to the Futures market (e.g., via platforms like Tradovate, NinjaTrader). Here, the trader operates on a centralized exchange, sees the Depth of Market (DOM), and the rules are clear. Although the barrier to entry is higher (stricter rules, cost of market data), it is currently the safest form of prop trading.

Our Verdict

If your New Year’s resolution is to become a “funded trader,” 2026 offers a better, albeit tougher, environment than previous years. The market has been purged of its weakest links. However, we recommend extreme caution regarding firms that still operate on old principles (“buy an account, get a million”). The history of 2024-2025 has clearly shown that in this industry, “too good to be true” usually ends in lost capital.