How perpetual futures prop firms work

The short version

A perpetual futures prop firm sells you a test. You pay a one time fee, trade a simulated account under a set of risk rules, and if you hit the profit target without breaking those rules, you get a funded simulated account. From then on, a share of the profit you make on that account is paid to you as real money.

That is the whole model. Everything else, the targets, the loss limits, the leverage caps and the fees, is detail. But the detail decides whether you get paid, so this guide walks through it piece by piece, using our own rules at Funded With Perps as the worked example.

First, what a perpetual future is

A perpetual future (a perp) is a futures contract with no expiry date. You can go long or short, use leverage, and hold for as long as you like without rolling into a new contract. On an exchange, a funding payment between longs and shorts keeps the perp price close to the spot price: when the perp trades above spot, longs pay shorts, and when it trades below, shorts pay longs.

Perps are among the most traded instruments in crypto, and they now cover more than crypto. Our own list has 37 markets: Bitcoin, Ether and the main altcoins, plus stock, metal, energy and index perps. They trade around the clock, every day of the week. That is the biggest practical difference from a forex or futures prop firm, where the market closes for the weekend.

Stage one: the challenge

The challenge (also called an evaluation) is where you prove risk control. Every perps firm publishes some version of the same handful of rules:

• A profit target. The gain you need to pass. Ours is 10% of the starting balance.
• A daily loss limit. The most you can lose in one trading day. Ours is 3% of your equity at the start of the day, and the day resets at midnight New York time.
• A maximum loss. The most the account can lose in total. Ours is 6%, and it is static.
• Extras. Minimum trading days, time limits, consistency rules and leverage caps per market. Firms differ most here.

The shape of these rules matters more than the numbers. Two firms can both say "6% max loss" and mean very different things. One fixes the floor on day one. The other lets it trail behind your highest equity, so profit moves the line you can fail at. A static floor stays where it started: you can write your failure balance on a sticky note and it is still right a month later.

Some firms add phases. A two step evaluation has two targets in a row; a one step has one. We run one step only: one target, then you are funded.

Why the accounts are simulated

At a perps prop firm, your challenge and funded accounts are simulated. Prices come from live markets, but your orders are not sent to an exchange, and no customer money is traded or held.

This is not a trick, and a good firm says it plainly. It is what lets a firm offer a funded account for a fee that is a small fraction of the account size. It is also why the challenge fee is not a deposit: there is no account of yours at an exchange for it to sit in. The fee buys access to the evaluation. What is real is the market data, the fee you pay, and the payouts.

On Funded With Perps, prices come from live Hyperliquid perpetual markets, and you trade them on Vera Charts, our perps terminal. You can look at the live markets before you buy anything.

Stage two: the funded account

Pass the challenge and you move to a funded simulated account. Usually some rules relax and some stay. On ours, the profit target and the consistency rule go away, and the loss limits stay exactly as they were: 3% a day and 6% in total, static. The funded account is the same size as the challenge you passed.

Expect some paperwork first. Most firms ask you to sign a trader agreement and verify your identity once. We do both online, and it takes a few minutes.

Stage three: payouts

On a funded account you keep a share of the profit, called the profit split. Ours is 80%, or 90% with the upgrade. Once eligible, you request a payout from your dashboard, from $125, paid in USDC or by bank.

This is where firms differ the most, and where reading the rules pays off. Check:

• How often you can request: daily, weekly or every few weeks.
• The minimum, and any cap on a single request.
• Whether a consistency rule applies to payouts as well as the challenge.
• How you are paid, and how long it takes.
• What happens to your loss floor after a payout.

What it costs to trade

Every trade costs something. Perps firms usually charge a commission per fill, then either pass exchange funding through to your account or charge a fixed holding fee instead. We charge a 0.03% commission per fill and a flat swap fee of 0.03% a day, charged hourly, while a position is open. No exchange funding.

The difference matters if you hold positions for days. We explain it in full in perps funding and swap fees explained.

How to choose a firm

Read the rules before the price. In order:

1. Is the max loss static or trailing?
2. How is the daily loss measured, and when does the day reset?
3. Is there a consistency rule, and does it apply once you are funded?
4. What leverage do you get on the markets you actually trade?
5. What does holding cost: funding or a flat fee?
6. How often can you request a payout, and how are you paid?

We wrote the full checklist in how to compare crypto perps prop firms, and we compare ourselves with other perps firms, figure by figure and with sources, on our comparison pages.

Funded With Perps, in one paragraph

Pick a size and pay once. Trade one challenge: a 10% target, 3% daily loss, 6% static max loss, no time limit and no minimum days. Pass, sign, verify. Trade a funded simulated account and request payouts from $125 once eligible, keeping 80% (90% with the upgrade). Every rule and live price is on the rules page, and the step by step is on how it works.

Keep reading

• Perps funding and swap fees explained (and why we charge swap, not funding)
• How to pass a crypto perps evaluation: the rules that trip traders up
• Best crypto perps prop firms in 2026: how to compare them
• Funded With Perps FAQ