Kraken launches Kraken Prop funded-trader program

Kraken launched Kraken Prop on May 27, 2026. The product is a funded-trader program inside Kraken Pro operated by Payward Oceanic Ltd. Traders can pass a paid evaluation to access funded accounts up to $200,000 and keep up to 90% of profits. Evaluation fees start at $20 and are non-refundable unless a trader funds an account and makes a withdrawal. Kraken Prop covers more than 60 crypto perpetual pairs and typically funds accounts within 12–24 hours after a trader meets a profit target without breaching a drawdown limit. Payouts are paid in USDC on demand, usually within 24 hours.

The program runs on the Breakout Terminal integrated into Kraken Pro and does not support MT4, MT5 or TradingView. Accounts are offered in six wallet tiers ranging from $5,000 to $200,000. Leverage is capped at 5x for BTC and ETH and 2x for other coins. Kraken describes the program as unregulated and separate from its licensed exchange and derivatives businesses.

Kraken built Kraken Prop on technology and rules it inherited from Breakout, which Kraken acquired in September 2025. Breakout was founded in 2023, issued more than 20,000 funded accounts, and did not custody client capital. Breakout’s leadership includes co-founders Alex Miningham and Dylan Loomer, a strategist known as Cred, and a trading head known as Adam. Breakout developed a one-step evaluation process and shifted from a B-book model to A-book execution, routing live trades to markets.

Standard profit splits on Kraken Prop are 80%, with a 90% split available through an upgrade that costs roughly an additional 20% of the base evaluation fee. The program imposes no time limits, no consistency rules, no profit caps and no strategy restrictions. Traders must use the Breakout Terminal and face an aggregate funding ceiling of $200,000.

Kraken expanded by acquisition in 2025–2026, spending roughly $2 billion on deals including NinjaTrader for about $1.5 billion and announcing the $550 million purchase of Bitnomial in April 2026. The company raised $800 million in November 2025 at a reported $20 billion valuation and confidentially filed an S-1 with the SEC that month, later pausing a planned IPO. Kraken reported $1.5 billion in revenue for 2024 and recorded quarterly revenue of $648 million in Q3 2025 with adjusted EBITDA of about $178.6 million and platform volume near $577 billion.

Kraken executives say Kraken Prop is intended to identify skilled retail traders and route them into Kraken’s broader trading products. CEO Arjun Sethi described the approach as a way to allocate capital on ‘demonstrated performance, not pedigree.’

Industry estimates put the global proprietary-trading-firm market at roughly $20 billion. Retail-focused competitors include HyroTrader and Fondeo.xyz. Kraken is the first major crypto exchange to offer an in-platform, retail evaluation-based prop program.

Traders should note the product’s characteristics: low procedural friction, fast USDC payouts and limited common prop-firm restrictions; and its limits: non-refundable evaluation fees unless a funded withdrawal occurs, generally low pass rates in the industry, a platform lock to the Breakout Terminal, modest leverage caps and a $200,000 funding ceiling. Kraken maintains the program is unregulated and distinct from its licensed operations.