Velotrade - Prop Firm Review

What Velotrade is — and what it is not

First, clear up a common confusion. The prop firm at velotrade.com is run by Velotrade Re Limited, a Hong Kong company incorporated in November 2025. It shares founders with an older, well-known Hong Kong invoice-finance business, Velotrade Management Limited, but the two are separate entities. That legacy firm’s widely-quoted “$2.5 billion paid out since 2016” belongs to the trade-finance business — not to the prop firm, which launched only in late 2025. The founders’ real, verifiable finance pedigree (ex-JP Morgan, Bank of America) is a genuine mark in the firm’s favour; the $2.5bn figure is not a prop-firm payout number and should not be read as one.

Second, this is a multi-asset firm, not a crypto specialist. It trades forex, crypto, single-stock CFDs, indices and commodities — 200-plus symbols — on the DXtrade platform. If you have seen it described as “crypto-native,” that undersells what it actually offers.

Company and regulation

Velotrade Re Limited is not regulated, and it says so plainly: “It does not engage in any regulated financial activities; its sole business activity is the provision of simulated trading… The Company does not act as a financial broker, advisor, or fiduciary, nor does it accept client funds.” Governing law is Hong Kong, with disputes going to arbitration there. That is standard for the sector, but worth stating plainly.

And the accounts are simulated throughout — including the funded stage. The Terms are explicit: “All trading occurs in a simulated environment using demo accounts with real market data. No live trading or real capital is involved.” The “up to $200,000 of our capital” you see advertised is simulated capital, and a funded offer is granted at the firm’s discretion.

The products, targets and drawdown

Three evaluations, differing mainly in how many phases you clear and how tight the drawdown is.

The drawdown is the headline feature, and it is a genuinely trader-friendly one. Velotrade has retired the trailing high-water-mark model entirely and every line now uses a static floor: “Maximum Drawdown… static, calculated on your initial balance… It never moves up or down.” No shrinking buffer chasing your equity up.

The trade-off is that the floor is checked against your equity, including floating losses: “You do not need to close a trade to breach.” And a breach is final — the account is permanently disabled, no reset, no refund. The daily loss limit resets each day at 00:30 UTC on the previous close, and it too counts open positions.

There is no time limit on any phase.

The rule to plan around: the 20× payout cap

This is the one rule that most contradicts the marketing, and the one worth reading twice before you buy.

Velotrade advertises “keep up to 90%” and fast payouts. What the binding Terms add is a hard ceiling on your first two withdrawals: “The first and second Payouts are subject to a cap of twenty (20) times the Fee paid for the applicable Challenge… Any balance exceeding the Payout Cap is forfeited. From the third Payout onward, no Payout Cap applies.”

Work through what that means. Buy a $5,000 challenge for around $50 and your first two payouts are capped at roughly $1,000 each — and any profit above that line is not held over, it is lost. A trader who has a strong first month on a small-fee account can hit the target, generate several thousand in simulated profit, and forfeit most of it on the way out. The cap disappears from the third payout, but you have to survive to it.

None of this is hidden — it is in the Terms in plain language. But “withdraw anytime, keep up to 90%” and “you forfeit everything above 20× your fee on your first two payouts” are very different sentences, and only one of them is on the homepage. If you expect to be profitable early, buy a larger account so the 20× multiple is bigger, or plan to take smaller, more frequent payouts.

Payouts

• Minimum: USD 100.
• First payout: after 14 calendar days from your first funded trade, plus 5 qualifying days — and a day only qualifies if it closes with realised profit of at least 0.8% of your initial balance.
• Cycle: weekly after the first.
• Processing: within 24 hours of approval.
• Method: USDC or USDT stablecoins only.
• Full withdrawals only — you must take the entire available balance; no partial payouts.
• The 20× fee cap applies to the first two payouts (above).

Trading rules

• Minimum trading days: 5 per phase — each must close with at least 0.8% realised profit to count, which is a stricter bar than the usual “any day you traded.”
• Consistency rule: none. There is no cap on how much of your profit can come from a single day.
• News trading: allowed, with no restricted windows.
• Weekend and overnight holding: allowed on all lines (financing fees apply).
• Algos and API: full programmatic access on every account, free, with no separate approval — genuinely unusual and welcome.
• Hedging is fine within one account but banned across accounts or firms. Copy trading is prohibited.
• Prohibited: latency and arbitrage plays, HFT, tick scalping, grid trading and exploiting feed or platform errors.
• One account identity per person; combined funded capital capped at $200,000. Inactivity for 30 days deactivates the account.

Fees

The challenge fee is one-time and non-refundable once you start. The 90% split is a paid add-on (+20% of the fee). There is no reset fee — on a breach you buy a fresh challenge — and, importantly, no recurring monthly fee on funded accounts. Holding costs do exist: roughly 0.05% a day on open crypto, stock, index and commodity positions, and standard forex swaps with a triple charge on Wednesdays.

Verdict

Velotrade has built one of the cleaner rule sets in the sector. The fully static drawdown, the absence of any consistency rule, free API and algo access on every account, weekend holding, and no monthly fee all point the same way — toward a firm that is not trying to trip you on technicalities. The founders’ verifiable finance background is a rare reassurance in a space full of anonymous operators.

Weigh three things against that. The accounts are simulated, the 90% split is a paid upgrade rather than the default, and the 20× payout cap on your first two withdrawals can forfeit a large chunk of early profit if you do not plan around it. The firm is also very new — a late-2025 launch with only a handful of public reviews — so it has less of a track record than its founders’ pedigree might suggest. Strong rules, genuine transparency, but read the payout cap before you buy and size your account accordingly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Velotrade regulated?

No. The prop firm is operated by Velotrade Re Limited, a Hong Kong company that states it does not engage in any regulated financial activity and does not accept client funds. It is unregulated, as most prop firms are, and governed by Hong Kong law. Note that it shares founders with a separate, older Hong Kong trade-finance business of a similar name, but the two are distinct entities.

Is the Velotrade $2.5 billion payout figure real?

That figure belongs to the founders’ legacy invoice-finance business, Velotrade Management Limited, not to the prop firm. The prop firm, Velotrade Re Limited, launched only in late 2025. The $2.5 billion is a genuine trade-finance number but it is not a prop-firm payout figure and should not be read as one.

What is the Velotrade profit split?

The base split is 80%. A 90% split is available, but only as a paid add-on costing an extra 20% of the challenge fee at checkout — it is not earned through performance. So the advertised “up to 90%” is the upgrade tier, not the default.

How does the Velotrade drawdown work?

Every line uses a fully static maximum drawdown, calculated on your initial balance, that never moves — Velotrade retired the trailing model. The floors are 10% on Classic 2-Step, 7% on Classic 1-Step and 3% on Pro 1-Step. Breaches are checked against your equity including floating losses, so an open trade can breach you, and a breach permanently disables the account with no reset.

What is the Velotrade payout cap?

Your first two payouts are capped at 20 times the fee you paid for the challenge, and any balance above that cap is forfeited rather than carried over. From the third payout onward there is no cap. This means a trader who is very profitable early on a small-fee account can lose most of that profit, so it is worth sizing your account with the cap in mind.

How do Velotrade payouts work?

The minimum is $100, paid in USDC or USDT only. Your first payout comes after 14 days from your first funded trade plus 5 qualifying days, where a qualifying day must close with at least 0.8% realised profit. After that, payouts are weekly, processed within 24 hours of approval, and must be full withdrawals of the entire available balance.

Are Velotrade accounts simulated or live?

Simulated throughout, including the funded stage. The Terms state that all trading occurs in a simulated environment using demo accounts with real market data, and that no real capital is involved. Payouts are real money paid against your simulated performance.

Does Velotrade allow news trading and weekend holding?

Yes to both, on all three lines, with no restricted news windows. It also allows hedging within a single account and gives free programmatic API and algo access on every account. Copy trading and cross-account hedging are prohibited.

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