Prop firms to avoid (2026)
These prop firms are excluded from our directory — because they collapsed, changed rules after traders paid, sat on payouts, borrowed a trusted brand’s name, or fall short of our payout-reliability bar. We document why instead of quietly dropping them, because a list that only shows survivors hides the most useful information. 22 firms are flagged as of June 2026.
How to read this: “Flagged” means not recommended for new evaluations — it is not a blanket fraud accusation. Firms are grouped by what went wrong, and each card states the specific reason. Firm situations change; verify against the firm directly before drawing conclusions.
Payout fraud or withheld funds (4)
Took evaluation fees or showed approved profits, then froze, denied, or never paid withdrawals.
Crypto⚠ Flagged — avoid
My Crypto Funding
Excluded from the directory: multiple traders have publicly reported payouts marked approved but never paid since late 2025, with claimed balances from roughly $1,400 to $8,900+. Trustpilot's moderation has also removed fake positive reviews from the firm's profile. Approved-payout complaints combined with documented fake-review removal is the governance pattern that preceded other crypto prop collapses. No pricing advantage offsets an account that may not pay out.
Status: not recommended · flagged late 2025
Forex⚠ Flagged — avoid
The Funded Trader (TFT)
Excluded from the directory: The Funded Trader (Easton Consulting Technologies, CEO Angelo Ciaramello) paused all operations in March 2024 after a wave of payout-denial complaints, freezing roughly $2M in withdrawals during early 2024 while publicly dismissing the criticism. It has since relaunched, but as of 2026 was still clearing an outstanding backlog — reporting only partial completion of payouts and accounts owed, with hundreds of traders still waiting. A firm that froze legitimate profits once and hasn't fully closed the resulting debt isn't recommendable until the backlog is settled and a clean post-relaunch payout record exists. Note: this is distinct from My Forex Funds, the separate firm whose CFTC case was dismissed with sanctions.
Status: not recommended · flagged March 2024
Forex⚠ Flagged — avoid
MyForexFunds (MFF)
Not the same firm as MyFundedFutures. MyForexFunds was shut down in 2023 amid CFTC/CSA action and froze trader payouts for roughly two years. The regulatory case was later dismissed and the firm has signaled a comeback, but the multi-year freeze of trader funds was real. Listed here for historical clarity and because the name is frequently confused with the (separate, operating) MyFundedFutures.
Status: not recommended · flagged 2023
Forex⚠ Flagged — avoid
Fidelcrest
Flagged in 2025 for retroactively changing rules and withholding payouts without giving traders a route to dispute or appeal. Excluded from recommendations.
Status: not recommended · flagged 2025
Impersonation & brand-borrowing (2)
Cloned a trusted brand, or borrowed an unrelated company’s history and payout numbers to look established.
Crypto⚠ Flagged — avoid
Velotrade
Excluded from the directory: the velotrade.com crypto prop division launched in early 2026 with no verified prop payout history, while its marketing leans on a 'founded 2016' date and a multi-billion-dollar payout figure that belong to an unrelated Hong Kong invoice-factoring business of a similar name. Borrowing a legacy entity's statistics to imply prop-firm stability is a governance red flag, and a brand-new crypto firm can't be vetted to the standard of established listings. Candidate for re-evaluation once it has an independent, audited live-payout record.
Status: not recommended · flagged early 2026
Forex⚠ Flagged — avoid
FundedFirm
Exposed in February 2026 for publishing roughly $85 million in fabricated trader-payout figures on a website built as a near pixel-for-pixel clone of FundedNext. No verifiable legal registration. This is an impersonation operation — not affiliated with the legitimate FundedNext.
Status: not recommended · flagged Feb 2026
Collapsed, leaving traders short (3)
Shut down while still holding trader funds, honoring only partial refunds, or after changing rules on paying traders.
Futures⚠ Flagged — avoid
FundingTicks
No longer operating: FundingTicks retroactively changed rules in December 2025, breached traders holding legitimate profits, and shut down on January 18, 2026 with only partial refunds. Traders who purchased evaluations under the original ruleset were not made whole. Listed here as a warning because evaluations and ‘accounts’ may still circulate via resellers — do not buy. Same CEO (Khaled Ayesh) as Funding Pips, also on this list.
Status: not recommended · flagged Jan 2026
Forex⚠ Flagged — avoid
True Forex Funds
No longer operating: True Forex Funds shut down in 2024 in the wave of closures that followed MetaQuotes' crackdown on unlicensed MetaTrader access for U.S. retail clients. Documented trader losses run to roughly $1.2M across about 300 traders. Listed as a historical warning: the firm is defunct — do not purchase evaluations or 'accounts' through resellers.
Status: not recommended · flagged 2024
Forex⚠ Flagged — avoid
Skilled Funded Trader
Closed during the 2024–2025 wave of prop firm shutdowns, leaving unresolved trader funds. Do not purchase.
Status: not recommended · flagged 2024–2025
Ceased operating (4)
No longer running or accepting traders. No major fraud alleged — but no recourse either, and resold evaluations may still circulate.
Forex⚠ Flagged — closed
Seacrest Funding (formerly MyFundedFX)
No longer a prop firm: Seacrest Funding — the rebrand of the well-known MyFundedFX — closed its entire prop trading division on February 6, 2026 and pivoted to a pure CFD brokerage. Funded traders were directed to request final payouts and challenge buyers to request refunds. Listed as a warning because the MyFundedFX brand and resold 'accounts' may still circulate — do not purchase. Note: this is the forex firm MyFundedFX, not MyFundedFutures (MFFU), the trusted, active futures firm in this directory, which is unrelated.
Status: no longer operating · flagged Feb 2026
Forex⚠ Flagged — closed
ATFunded (ATFX)
Excluded from the directory: ATFunded, the prop unit of CFD broker ATFX, suspended operations in June 2026 for a 'full review of the business,' less than two years after launching in October 2024. Its CEO departed earlier in 2026 within months of joining, and the parent has been converting prop traders into brokerage customers. A suspended program with leadership churn is uninvestable until it resumes with clear terms and an intact payout pipeline. Candidate for re-evaluation if operations restart on stable footing.
Status: no longer operating · flagged June 2026
Forex⚠ Flagged — closed
SurgeTrader
No longer operating: SurgeTrader, the Florida-based prop firm launched in 2021, ceased all operations in 2024 after its platform provider Match-Trade revoked its license — first halting new evaluations, then winding the business down entirely. Listed as a historical warning: it does not offer funded accounts, and any resold 'access' should be treated as invalid.
Status: no longer operating · flagged 2024
Forex⚠ Flagged — closed
Funded Engineer
Ceased operations. Listed as a warning because evaluations may still circulate via resellers — do not buy.
Status: no longer operating · flagged 2024
Can’t be verified (3)
Still operating, but the data needed to trust them can’t be confirmed — manipulated reviews, sub-par ratings, or ownership tied to a failed firm. Not proof of misconduct.
Forex⚠ Caution — not recommended for new evals
Funding Pips
Excluded from the directory: shares ownership (CEO Khaled Ayesh) with FundingTicks, which retroactively changed rules in Dec 2025 and shut down in Jan 2026 with only partial refunds. Funding Pips itself still operates with strong Trustpilot metrics, but the sister-firm collapse with unpaid balances is a governance red flag. Verify the corporate structure independently before funding.
Status: not recommended · flagged Jan 2026
Forex⚠ Caution — not recommended for new evals
Goat Funded Trader
Excluded from the directory: Trustpilot suspended the firm's rating in 2025–2026 for suspected review manipulation. That isn't proof of payout misconduct — the firm continues to operate — but when independent review data can't be verified, the firm can't be vetted to the same standard as listed firms. Candidate for re-inclusion if the rating is reinstated.
Status: not recommended · flagged 2025–2026
Futures⚠ Caution — not recommended for new evals
AquaFutures
Excluded from the directory: launched late 2024 and currently sits around 3.1/5 on Trustpilot — below the floor for a recommendation — with multiple reviews citing payout delays and rule-enforcement complaints. May warrant inclusion in a future quarter if the rating stabilizes and the trader base grows.
Status: not recommended · flagged 2025
Use caution (5)
Still operating, but short of our recommendation bar — mixed reviews, payout caps in early cycles, or slower withdrawals. A “watch your step,” not a fraud allegation.
Futures⚠ Caution — not recommended for new evals
Alpha Futures
Demoted from the active partner list in July 2026: NinjaTrader terminated Alpha Futures' contract after Alpha launched its own competing platform, and Alpha discontinued its Premium plan the same week — the second plan retirement in roughly ten weeks after Standard was retired on May 1. Pending Premium payouts were converted to fee refunds rather than paid out. Repeated plan retirements and a forced platform migration are the pattern we flag on, so we removed our affiliate link and no longer recommend starting an evaluation here until the new platform and payout record are proven.
Status: not recommended · flagged Demoted July 2026
Futures⚠ Caution — not recommended for new evals
Blue Guardian Futures
Demoted from the active partner list in June 2026: a recurring 'shared device' policy used to confiscate profits and ban accounts even where traders documented a multi-month gap on pre-owned hardware. Still operating, but the payout-denial pattern is a caution and it is no longer affiliate-linked here.
Status: not recommended · flagged Demoted June 2026
Futures⚠ Caution — not recommended for new evals
Phidias
Static drawdown on $25K. Gibraltar-registered. Polarized reviews.
Status: not recommended
Forex⚠ Caution — not recommended for new evals
FunderPro
Demoted from the active partner list in June 2026: a recurring pattern of payout denials at the second payout, with profitable accounts flagged for 'shared IP / shared environment' on near-identical template emails. Trustpilot has slid toward 3.0. Still operating and many traders are paid, but no longer affiliate-linked here.
Status: not recommended · flagged Demoted June 2026
Forex⚠ Caution — not recommended for new evals
Hola Prime
Caution-flagged pending re-verification; affiliate removed. (Replace with specific rationale from prior review.)
Status: not recommended
Closed responsibly (1)
Wound down cleanly — refunds issued, closure handled as a managed event. Listed only because it’s no longer available.
Forex⚠ Flagged — closed
Smart Prop Trader
No longer operating. Unlike most closures, Smart Prop Trader is widely cited as the industry's example of a responsible wind-down: it issued refunds and treated closure as a managed event. Listed here as closed, not as a scam — but it is no longer available to trade.
Status: no longer operating · flagged 2024–2025
Where to look instead
For firms that clear the bar — 12+ months operating, a verifiable trader base, no non-payment cluster, and rule stability — start with the firm directory, see real costs on the deals page, or take the 60-second quiz to get matched.
Common questions
How do you decide a firm gets flagged?
A firm is flagged when it fails our inclusion test: a credible cluster of non-payment complaints, retroactive rule changes after traders paid, a shutdown or wind-down, or brand-borrowing. Inclusion is editorial and never paid.
Does flagged mean the firm is definitely a scam?
Not always. Some firms here shut down responsibly, some had payout disputes, some borrowed a trusted brand name, and some simply fall short of our payout-reliability bar without any fraud alleged. We document the specific reason for each rather than lumping them together.
A firm I use isn’t listed here — what does that mean?
It may simply be too new or too small to have a verifiable track record yet. Absence isn’t an endorsement or a warning — check the firm directory for what we actively recommend.
Editorial list, not legal advice. Reasons reflect publicly reported events and our own tracking as of June 2026; firm circumstances can change. Verify current status with the firm before acting.