Crypto Prop Firms: How to Trade Crypto on a Funded Account

Crypto moves fast. That’s why Bitcoin can rise or drop significantly in a single day. These moves can make you money, but they can wipe out your capital. 

Crypto prop firms give you another route to trade these tokens. You’re not putting all your capital on the line. Rather, you’re using the firm’s account. If you want to take this path, you must pass a test first. And if you do, you’d get a crypto funded account. When you make a profit on this account type, most of it is yours.

This guide will show you everything you need to know about crypto prop trading and how it differs from trading on an exchange. It’ll also showcase the T&Cs you must follow, using OneFunded’s rules as examples.

What Is a Crypto Prop Firm?

A crypto prop firm allows you to trade cryptocurrencies via its account instead of yours. In case you didn’t know, the long form of “prop” is “proprietary.” That’s just the fancy term for “the firm’s own.”

Here are the steps you’d need to take if you want to trade crypto with a prop firm:

1. You choose a challenge and pay a fee. Fees start as low as $29 at OneFunded.
2. You start to trade in your challenge account and try to hit a profit target without breaking any of the loss limits or other spelled out conditions.
3. If you hit profit goals without breaking any T&Cs, you’d receive a crypto funded account for your efforts.
4. You continue to make trades. When you make money, you can make a payout request and keep up to 90% of the profit earned.

At OneFunded, the funded trading account isn’t made up of real money but virtual cash. It follows market prices in real time.

You can fail the challenge if you breach rules. And if that happens, you lose your fee, not your entire capital. On OneFunded’s Flash, Core, and Value plans, you’ll get a fee refund alongside your third payout. But this will only happen if you pass.

Crypto Prop Trading vs Trading on a Crypto Exchange: Differences You Need to Know

The major difference between both activities is the money at risk. If you go the exchange route, you have to buy coins using your own money. If the price of the coin you bought drops, you’ll lose money. You get a profit if the reverse happens.

With crypto prop trading, you get to trade the price of a coin with virtual cash in the firm’s account. Coins aren’t yours in this setting, and you’d win if the price moves to wherever you guessed.

Metric	Crypto Prop Firm (OneFunded)	Crypto Exchange
Money Risked	Virtual cash in the firm’s account	Your own capital
Most You Can Lose	The challenge fee (starts from $29).	Every dollar that you put in.
Size of Account	$5,000 to $200,000	Whatever you can afford.
Leverage on Crypto	1:2 across all trading platforms.	Set by each exchange.
Rules	Daily drawdown limit, maximum overall drawdown, consistency rule, max exposure rule, inactivity rule, news trading rule, overnight/weekend trading rule, EA and trading assistant rules, copy trading rules, and more.	No profit targets or drawdown limits. However, each exchange has terms and conditions that apply. This includes KYC checks, position limits, and liquidation rules. Note that some exchanges may temporarily or permanently ban your account for engaging in certain activity (e.g., hedging).
Trading Fees	No commission on crypto trades made on MetaTrader 5 (MT5), cTrader, and TradeLocker.	Set by each exchange.
Owning Coins	You don’t own coins; rather, you trade the price of available coins.	You own coins on a spot exchange.
Getting Paid	You can request payouts every 14 days (7 days if you purchased the Weekly Payouts Add-on), up to a 90% profit split.	You can request payouts whenever you want. However, note that most crypto exchanges impose a withdrawal fee when you want to make a payout request. This is usually a negligible, flat network charge.
Growing Your Account	You can scale your funded account by up to $1,000,000 via its structured scaling plan	Scaling only happens when you add money to your account

Which is the right fit for you? It depends on your preferences. If you don’t have hundreds or thousands of dollars to pour into a crypto exchange, choose a prop firm. Doing this allows you to trade with a big account without breaking the bank.

But there’s a trade-off with using prop firms. You need to stick to the rules. If you break any, you’ll lose your account.

How to Trade Crypto With a Prop Firm: Coins and Platforms

OneFunded lets users trade cryptocurrency pairs, including BTC/USD and ETH/USD. Each is paired with the US dollar, meaning you’re always trading coin prices in dollars. 

But crypto isn’t the only thing you can trade. You can trade other instruments like forex, stocks, indices, and commodities on one account. Many traders mix crypto with one of these financial instruments to diversify their risk.

You can place trades using one of these three trading platforms:

• MetaTrader 5 (MT5)
• cTrader
• TradeLocker

OneFunded lists demo logins for all platforms in its help center. That way, you can see how each platform works before making any purchase.

Leverage and Spreads: Two Terms You Must Know

Leverage allows you to trade an amount bigger than what’s in your account. The crypto leverage at OneFunded is 1:2 on all trading platforms. For every $1 in your account, you can trade up to $2 worth of cryptocurrency.

So, if you get started with a $10,000 account, the most crypto you can hold in one go will be $20,000. Just for context, the leverage tied to forex on OneFunded is 1:100. 

As you can see, crypto’s leverage is 50x tighter. It’s no mistake. The prop firm does this on purpose. Why? Crypto prices are volatile, meaning they can swing a lot. With lower leverage, one wrong move won’t end your account.

So, what’s a spread? It’s the tiny gap between the buy price and the sell price. You pay for this every time you open a trade. OneFunded’s crypto spreads mirror conditions in real markets, so they can get wider when things get busy. 

But there’s good news. You won’t pay crypto trade commissions on OneFunded on TradeLocker, cTrader, or MetaTrader 5.

There’s one more thing you need to know about. If you keep a trade open through the night, you might have to pay a small charge called a swap. But this charge is minimal and won’t empty your account in one swoop.

The Rules: Profit Targets and Loss Limits

Every challenge at OneFunded has two major rules. One tells you how much you have to make. The other tells you how much you can lose. Here’s their one-liner explanation:

• Profit Target: The profit you must make to pass a step
• Daily Loss Limit: The most money you can lose in a single day.
• Overall Loss Limit: The most your account balance can fall to from its starting balance. It’s also called the “max drawdown.”

The table below highlights the loss limits and consistency rule on each plan. For profit targets, prices, profit splits, and minimum trading days, read our detailed prop firm rules guide. 

T&C	Flash	Core	Value	Instant
Daily Loss Limit	4%	5%	4%	3%
Overall Loss Limit	6%	10%	8%	6%
Consistency Rule	50%	N/A	N/A	15%

What This Looks Like in Dollars

Let’s say you buy a $10,000 Core Challenge:

• To pass phase 1, you need to make $800 (8%)
• To pass phase 2, you need to make $500 (5%)
• You can’t lose more than $500 (5%) in a single day.
• Your account balance can never fall below $9,000 (10%)

The consistency rule that’s linked to the Flash and Instant plans means that one lucky day shouldn’t make up most of your profit. 

OneFunded challenges have no time limits. This rule is great for crypto traders, as they can wait for a great setup rather than making rushed decisions that can breach their accounts eventually.

Crypto Moves Quickly: How Big Should You Trade?

Volatility and crypto live on the same street. That’s why some tokens move 5% or more in 24 hours. On a crypto funded account, a wild day can see you go past your daily loss limit. That’s why your trade size is super important.

A Bitcoin Trade Done Wrong

You’ve got a $10,000 Core account. Looking at the rules, you can lose $500 a day without breaching the rules. 

Let’s say BTC costs $100,000 when you’re trading. You purchase $20,000 worth of it (0.2 BTC), and you don’t set a stop loss. Just so you know, a stop loss is an order that helps you close your trade if price falls to a level that you select.

Later that day, Bitcoin fell by 3%. It’s now at $97,000 instead of $100,000. Your $20,000 BTC is now $19,400, indicating a $600 loss. That’s $100 more than your daily loss limit; you’ve just broken a rule, so you’ll lose your account.

But this trade breaks another rule before the daily loss limits come into play. A $20,000 trade on a $10,000 account uses up all the leverage (1:2) you’ve got. 

According to OneFunded’s max exposure rule, one trade idea can’t be more than 3% of your equity. On this account, that number is $300. With 0.2 BTC, you’ll lose $200 for every $1,000 Bitcoin falls by. So, when Bitcoin falls to $98,500, you’re already down $300. This breaks the max exposure limit way before the $500 daily loss limit.

That Same Trade Done Right

This time around, you plan your loss before making a buy. You risk 1% of your $10,000 Core account, which is $100. Your stop loss is set at $98,000, $2,000 below the coin’s $100,000 price.

This begs the question, how much BTC should you buy? If you bought 1 BTC and the price fell to $98,000, you’d be losing $2,000. This is 20x more than the $100 you wanted to risk. You don’t want this sort of loss. So, you opt for 1/20 of a Bitcoin instead. This is 0.05 BTC that’s valued around $5,000.

If the price falls to $98,000, your stop loss closes that trade automatically. Here, you lose $100, and not $600. You still have $400 left to lose before you hit your plan’s $500 daily loss cap.

The idea is straightforward. Select how much you feel that you can lose without issues. When you figure out that number, size your trade to match.

Trading Crypto at Night and on Weekends

Forex and gold markets shut down on weekends. But it’s different for crypto, as related markets operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

You can hold trades at OneFunded throughout the night and over the weekend. However, you might need to pay swap fees. And remember, your loss limits will still count during your holding periods.

Jake: Bitcoin on the Weekend, Gold During the Week

Jake is a trader from the UK that trades gold most of the time. In his detailed interview, he says he added BTC to his prop trading mix because it continues to move during the weekend, a time when other markets are closed.

Jake had a profit target of 1% to 1.5% per day. After he hits this goal, he leaves the account. This strategy saw him net a $5,217 payout in a week (around $4,100 after the profit split was applied). Jake’s tale shows crypto can fit right next to whatever instrument you’re trading.

How You Get Paid on a Crypto Funded Account

Once you have a crypto funded account, a portion of every profit you make is yours to keep. Here’s how payouts work at OneFunded:

• Your Share: Up to 90% on Core, Value, and Flash plans with the Profit Split 90/10 Add-on. On an Instant account, you can get profit splits hitting 80% with certain add-ons.
• First Payout: You can make a payout request 14 days after your first trade. However, you must’ve made at least $100 in profits to be eligible for a payout.
• After Your First Payout: You can still make payout requests after 14 days. You can cut this timeline down to 7 days with the Weekly Payout Add-on. 
• How Fast Are Payouts:  OneFunded typically processes these transactions within an hour.
• Payout Methods: Crypto (USDT or USDC), Rise, and bank transfers. All payouts are processed in USD.

Growing Your Account

If you can stay profitable for three consecutive payout cycles, with a minimum of 6% profit in every cycle, you can ask for a bigger account. At OneFunded, your account can grow up to a maximum balance of $1,000,000.

Common Mistakes That Traders Make

Here are three of the most common mistakes that most traders make on prop firm accounts:

Trading Too Big

Abhishek is a trader from India. He started trading BTC and ETH when the pandemic rolled around. But since crypto swings quicker than forex and he didn’t bother to manage his risk, he lost a lot of money. 

In his interview, he said he moved to gold and makes sure that his losses every day don’t go past $100. As it stands, Abhishek has gotten three payouts on OneFunded.

Skipping the Stop Loss

Peter, a trader that started out with crypto, was $50 away from passing a challenge at another prop firm before joining OneFunded. As mentioned in his interview, he didn’t set a stop loss on one trade, and that move saw him lose the account.

Getting Greedy

There was a time when Jake was up by $600 but wanted to hit a $1,500 target. So, he kept trading. It didn’t end well, as his day turned red. Don’t get greedy; chasing huge profit margins can lead to losses.

How to Choose Between Prop Firms

Want to know how to choose a prop firm for crypto trading? Here are some must-check metrics:

• Rules: Make sure you settle for a prop firm with rules that you understand without hassles
• Crypto Leverage: Lower leverage (e.g., 1:2) is safer if you intend to trade fast-moving coins like BTC.
• Spreads: Check BTC and ETH spreads on a demo account. This lets you know what to expect on the trading platform you intend using.
• Weekend Holding: This is a must-have, especially if you want to trade and hold crypto trades over the weekend.
• Loss Limits: Prop firms with higher loss limits are better because these caps can offset the big swings associated with cryptocurrency.
• Deadline: No time limit means there’s no deadline to complete a challenge. So, you can make trades without making rushed decisions and risking account breaches.
• Payout Structure: Check the firm’s payout schedule, profit split percentages, payment options, and factual proof that traders get paid.

OneFunded’s Core plan gives you more room than other plans when it comes to loss limits. There’s a 5% daily loss limit and 10% overall loss limit on it. Abhishek chose the Core plan for this leeway. He says that these bigger limits give him the space needed to learn and adjust accordingly.

How to Manage Risk During and After the Challenge

Great crypto prop trading boils down to being able to stay in the game. You can’t make a profit on an account you’ve lost already.

Thomas: Classic Example of Getting Steady First Before Going Bigger

Thomas’ first encounter with crypto trading came during the pandemic. Recently, he got an $8,100 payout from OneFunded. 

Thomas, in his interview, said that huge errors pop up when you get funded. This is when traders get excited and make big trades. Thomas’ strategy is simple. He trades small and builds a cushion of profits. It’s at this point that he slowly moves on to bigger trades. According to him, if you’re inconsistent, you’re gambling.

Easy Rules to Follow to Manage Your Risk

• Risk 0.5% to 1% of your account size on each trade that you make.
• Always set a stop loss after you place a trade.
• Log out before you hit your firm’s loss limit for the day.
• Keep weekend trades small.
• Pay attention to the news. OneFunded monitors all trades made 5 minutes before and after big news breaks.
• Don’t be less careful after you pass a challenge.