IQ Capital - Prop Firm Review

Company and regulation

This needs care, because IQ Capital’s own website names two different operators in different places. The imprint and site footer say the firm is operated by Beyond IQ Capital Ltd, registered in Saint Lucia. The risk disclosure, the crypto and futures pages and the FAQ all say it is “a brand operated by Beyond Boring Education Services FZCO, a Free Zone Company registered in the United Arab Emirates,” and the Terms put the governing law in Dubai. No registration number is published for either entity.

That is not a small inconsistency. If you needed to know who you actually contracted with, the site gives two answers and no company number for either. Worth knowing before you spend anything.

It is not regulated, and it says so plainly: “Prop firms trade their own money and are therefore not broker-dealer regulated… execution is routed through regulated liquidity providers.” Those liquidity providers are not named, so that reassurance cannot be checked. The homepage also advertises being “backed by $10M+ in institutional capital by Phemex” — a claim with no agreement, date or third-party confirmation behind it, so treat it as marketing rather than established fact.

The accounts are simulated, and to the firm’s credit it is direct about that: “We provide mirrored demo infrastructure that reflects 100% of real-market prices and copy Funded trades to our live master book.” Only the invite-only IQ Elite tier is described as real capital.

The products and pricing

Four products across two asset lines. Every evaluation is single-phase, run over 30 calendar days.

Account sizes run $10k to $200k on crypto/CFD and $50k or $100k on futures. You can hold up to ten accounts at once for a nominal $2,000,000 — but note that is ten separate accounts, not one allocation, and they cannot be merged. There is no conventional scaling ladder here.

On the discount. The headline “-85% off” is not a sale in any meaningful sense — the discount percentage is a permanent site setting, and archived snapshots of the firm’s own homepage show a discount running continuously since at least February 2026 under rotating codes. The level does move (it was 40–50% in June), but there is always one on. Treat the list price as an anchor rather than a real prior price.

On the monthly fee. This is the one to read twice. The marketing says “a simple one-time payment… no hidden charges, no subscriptions” and “no recurring costs, no hidden fees.” The FAQ says the opposite: “Is there a recurring fee after funding? Yes — a $5 monthly management fee per Crypto Funded/Instant account… and a monthly management fee per Futures Funded/Instant account.” The futures figure is published as both $19 and $39 in different places; the pricing cards and general rules both say $39, which is the better-supported number. Either way, a recurring fee exists and the marketing denies it.

The rule worth the whole review: a per-trade risk cap instead of a daily loss limit

Almost every prop firm caps your daily loss and your total drawdown, then lets you size positions however you like in between. IQ Capital does close to the opposite, and it is the most interesting design decision in this review.

There is no daily loss limit at all: “No daily loss limit. No minimum profit. Your core job stays simple: respect your max drawdown.” In its place sits a hard ceiling on risk per position:

“Challenge: Risk per trade ≤ 1% of starting balance. First 2 breaches = Soft, on the 3rd breach = Hard (account ends). Funding (incl. Instant Funding): Risk per trade ≤ 0.5%.”

Three things make it genuinely unusual.

It aggregates per market, not per ticket. “All positions in the same market count as one single trade… One position, three scales, or ten scalps — your total BTC risk may never exceed $500” (on a $50,000 account). So you cannot scale into a position to get around it.

A breach closes the trade, not the account. “The violating position is automatically closed — this counts as your first Soft Breach. Your account remains active.” You get three strikes. As the homepage puts it: “A mistake won’t kill your account.” Set against an industry where one oversized trade ends your run, that is a real and defensible kindness.

Costs count against the 1% — commissions, spreads and slippage are all included in the calculation, which is the part most traders will miss when sizing.

The firm’s stated reason is unusually candid, and it explains the whole business model: “Since we begin replicating successful traders at an early stage, trading strategies must be realistically executable in live market conditions.” In other words the rules exist to keep your behaviour copyable onto their real master book. The 15-second microscalping rule and the notional caps serve the same purpose. That is a more honest explanation of a rule set than most firms offer.

Drawdown

A trailing, end-of-day floor: “At each New York close, a trailing line is set… below your previous day’s highest equity. If your end-of-day equity falls below that line, the account closes. The line only moves upward — never down.”

The figure is 6% on most accounts, dropping to 5% on the $200k crypto/CFD account and the $100k futures Instant account. Commissions and swaps count against it.

Two caveats worth flagging. First, every pricing card labels the drawdown mode “EOD Balance” while the rules and FAQ both define it on equity — and that difference decides whether an open unrealised loss can breach you. The binding rules text says equity. Second, the site gives three different answers for where the trailing floor eventually locks (at the starting capital, at balance plus target, or at the target level including the buffer). Those are not the same threshold, and the firm should pick one.

Note also: “Upon a payout, the drawdown is adjusted to the starting balance” — so withdrawing resets your floor upward and removes the buffer you had built.

Payouts

• Minimum: none. “There is no minimum payout size at IQ Capital.”
• First payout: after ten active trading days.
• Then: each further payout needs ten new active trading days, at least 50% new profit since your last one, and compliance with the consistency rule.
• Processing: guaranteed within 48 hours, averaging about three — and backed by a real penalty: “Get paid within 48 hours or we pay you a 100% profit split on it.” That kind of accountability is rare and deserves credit.
• Caps: tiered by account and payout number — $1,500 to $4,000 — and “each payout may include up to 50% of total profits.”
• Methods: USDC and other stablecoins, bank transfer, and local methods.

A wording problem worth knowing. The homepage and how-it-works page advertise “daily payouts” and receiving profits “every business day.” The firm’s own rules describe a roughly ten-active-day cycle with a 50%-new-profit gate. Those cannot both be true, and the rules are what bind you. Plan around the ten-day cycle.

Trading rules

• Minimum trading days: effectively one — a single calendar day with at least $1 of positive P&L. You can pass in a day.
• Consistency: 30%, and funded accounts only — not during the challenge. Better still, breaching it does not fail you: “your profit target automatically increases by the amount that was exceeded.” It raises the bar rather than ending your run.
• Microscalping rule: at least 50% of trades, and 50% of profits, must come from trades held longer than 15 seconds.
• Overnight and weekend: unrestricted on crypto/CFD. Futures is intraday only — positions are auto-closed at the end of the day.
• Leverage: FX 50×, indices and commodities 25×, BTC/ETH/SOL 5×, altcoins 3×. Futures caps at 5 mini / 50 micro on a $50k.

One inconsistency to be aware of: the marketing promises “simple rules, no fine print,” and no news restriction appears in the rules or FAQ — but the Terms of Use list news trading among prohibited practices, alongside bots and copy trading, and reserve the firm the right “to determine what constitutes such practices.” The Terms also contain a 30-day inactivity clause that the FAQ denies exists. If news trading is part of your strategy, get that confirmed in writing before you buy.

Verdict

There is a genuinely well-designed rule set here, and it deserves to be said clearly. A 90/10 split from the first dollar with no upsell, no daily loss limit, no minimum payout, a consistency rule that raises the bar instead of failing you, a 48-hour payout guarantee with a real penalty attached, and a soft-breach system that closes the trade rather than the account. Those are real, checkable advantages, and the firm’s explanation of why the rules exist — because it replicates your flow onto a live book — is more candid than anything most competitors publish.

The problem is the paperwork around it. The site names two different operating companies and publishes a registration number for neither. The marketing promises no subscriptions while a monthly fee is documented in the same breath; promises daily payouts that the rules do not support; promises no fine print while the Terms ban news trading and bots; and the pricing page still advertises an 80/20 split that contradicts the 90/10 everywhere else. Several legal pages, including the one the pricing page points you to, return 404.

Both things are true at once. If the rules are what matter most to you, this is one of the more thoughtful offerings on the market. If knowing exactly who you have contracted with matters, you cannot currently find out from their own website — and that is worth weighing before you buy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is IQ Capital regulated?

No. IQ Capital states plainly that prop firms are not broker-dealer regulated, and no regulator, licence or number is claimed anywhere. Note also that its own pages name two different operating entities — Beyond IQ Capital Ltd in Saint Lucia on the imprint and footer, and Beyond Boring Education Services FZCO in the UAE on the risk disclosure and FAQ — with no registration number published for either.

What is the IQ Capital profit split?

It is 90/10 flat from the first dollar, with no tiers, no threshold and no paid upgrade. That is one of the better base splits in the sector and it is genuinely not upsold. Be aware that the pricing page still carries older copy claiming the first $10,000 is 100% yours and then an 80/20 split — that contradicts the rules, FAQ and every account card, which all say 90/10.

Does IQ Capital have a daily loss limit?

No. IQ Capital has no daily loss limit at all — the firm states your only job is to respect the maximum drawdown. In its place is a cap on risk per trade of 1% of your starting balance during the challenge and 0.5% once funded.

What is the IQ Capital 1% risk rule?

Your risk in any single market may not exceed 1% of your starting balance during the challenge, or 0.5% once funded. It aggregates across every position in that market, so scaling in does not get around it, and trading costs count toward the figure. Exceeding it auto-closes the offending position as a soft breach, and your account stays alive; the third breach closes the account.

How does the IQ Capital drawdown work?

It is a trailing floor set at each New York close, 5% or 6% below your previous day’s highest equity, and it only ever moves upward. Commissions and swaps count toward it. Requesting a payout resets the floor to your starting balance, which removes the buffer you had accumulated.

How often can you get paid at IQ Capital?

The first payout comes after ten active trading days, and there is no minimum payout size. Each subsequent payout requires ten new active trading days plus at least 50% new profit since the last one. Payouts are guaranteed within 48 hours, and the firm pays a 100% split on any payout that misses that window. The “daily payouts” claim in the marketing is not supported by these rules.

Does IQ Capital charge a monthly fee?

Yes. There is a recurring monthly management fee of $5 per crypto/CFD funded account and a monthly fee on futures accounts published as $39 on the pricing cards and general rules (and $19 in two FAQ answers). This sits alongside marketing that describes the product as a one-time payment with no subscriptions.

Are IQ Capital accounts simulated or real?

Simulated. The firm describes mirrored demo infrastructure that reflects real market prices and copies funded trades to its live master book. Only the invite-only IQ Elite tier is described as trading real institutional capital.

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