How a crypto trading challenge works

A crypto trading challenge, or evaluation, is a simulated account with one goal and two limits. Reach the profit target before equity touches either loss floor, and the phase is passed. This guide follows one from the purchase to the funded account, with the numbers from the published ruleset.

1-Step or 2-Step

Classic 1-Step is one phase. The target is 8% of the starting balance, the daily loss limit 4% and the max loss limit 8%. A consistency rule also applies: your best day may be at most 40% of the total profit.

2-Step is two phases with wider loss limits and a lower fee. Phase 1 asks for 8% and phase 2 for 5%, with a daily limit of 5% and a max loss of 10%. The evaluation has no consistency rule.

On a 10K account, Classic 1-Step means a target of $800, $400 of room each day and $800 of room in total. Phase 1 of 2-Step means $800, $500 and $1,000.

Neither model has a deadline. An account with no trade for 30 days ends.

1-Step vs 2-Step puts both models side by side at every account size.

Buying the challenge

Choose a model and an account size on the challenges page. Sign up, confirm your email, and pay a BTCPay Server invoice in bitcoin. The account opens within seconds of the payment confirming. The fee is refunded in full if you ask before your first trade.

Trading the evaluation

The terminal lists BTC, ETH and SOL perpetual futures, quoted in USDT. Leverage is capped at 5x on BTC and ETH and 3x on SOL. Market orders fill against the live Bybit order book, level by level, with a taker fee of 0.05% of notional. Positions can stay open overnight and at weekends.

Before a market order goes in, the preview shows its margin, its fee and the mark price at which today's floor would break. The dashboard shows the room left today and in total, the progress to the target and the trading days counted so far.

Passing a phase

A phase passes the moment all of these hold:

• profit has reached the target;
• you have traded on at least 3 separate UTC days;
• no position is open;
• on Classic 1-Step, the best day is within the consistency limit. If it is not, the target rises until it is, and the dashboard shows that effective target.

If you breach

A breach is equity below a floor, measured on the composite mark price. Open positions close at market and the account stops. The breach report shows the moment, the rule, your equity and the floor, and each venue's price. If one of those prices was unreliable, the breach goes to a person for review instead. After a breach in an evaluation phase, the dashboard offers a reset for a limited time.

After the last phase

You verify your identity, sign the trader agreement and turn on two-factor authentication. The funded account is then issued with the same loss limits, and rewards follow on a fixed cycle: how payouts in bitcoin work covers them. Every rule, with its formula and the amounts on a 10K account, is on the rules page.