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One of the questions that pops up frequently in prop world is ‘who is the biggest?’
Working this out is impossible. No props are publicly traded and most of them also have offshore entities where they don’t have to make their finances public. The result is we can only guess.
The only exception to this that I’ve seen is FTMO.
In 2023, FTMO made CZK 4.7bn or approximately $213m based on the exchange rate at the time.
One other interesting bit of information we also have about that year is payouts. FTMO claims on its website that it paid out $75.2m to traders in that year.
You will be shocked to learn that I am sceptical of some of the payout certificates you see floating around from prop firms. They are a smart marketing tool, but whether they reflect genuine payouts to profitable traders is another matter.
But FTMO’s accounts do show it had operating costs of approximately $104m in 2023. On that basis, $75.2m actually seems like a believable number.
We also know these stats from tech provider FPFX:
1) An average of 7% of traders that take a challenge end up with a payout
2) That payout is an average of 4% of the account value
The numbers are a bit long to run through but they would imply payouts are equal to approximately half of challenge sales.
On that basis, FTMO is actually doing ‘better’ than the average, given the $75m of declared payouts is well below half of total revenues of $213m.
However, being the keen-eyed readers that you are, you may have noticed that half of $213m is not far from $104m – FTMO’s total operating expenses for 2023.
To me this suggests three options:
- FTMO low balls their payouts – weird thing to do and unlikely
- FTMO has a better payout ratio than the FPFX stats imply (most likely)
- FTMO’s published payout figures is net of paying back challenge fees, which accounts for the discrepancy (possible)
- Operational expenses include both paying back challenge fees, payouts, and other costs (very likely)
Whatever the case, the point is that if you take FTMO’s figures, you can at least get some idea of how much money prop firms are making. The result is that if we take payout figures from top tier firms we can estimate how much they are doing in revenue. Let’s begin
How much does Alpha Capital make?
UK-based Alpha Capital claims it paid out $80m in 2024. I can also bench press like 300kg and was going to play for Real Madrid until I got injured in the U11s at West Ham.
FTMO’s $75.2m payouts vs $213m in revenue means…
Payout ratio = 75.2/213
Payout ratio = 0.353
If Alpha Capital paid out $80m and had the same ratio as FTMO, that would mean…
Revenue = 80/0.353
Revenue = $226.6m
Another method to use is the FPFX payout ratios. On that basis, if we assume payouts are around half of total revenues, then it would imply Alpha Capital made approximately $160m last year.
Honestly it’s hard to tell. I would not rule that out but it’s also a big number. Probably not.
One thing to keep in mind is that FTMO, as we looked at a couple of weeks ago, does not have to do much marketing-wise. They have a great brand. As a result, they will get more organic customers and, consequently, better margins than peers.
To use a comparison from the broker space, IG Group has averaged pre-tax profit margins of 44.5% over the last three years because rich people in the UK default to using them for punting on markets. For smaller players, the figure can be much, much lower. Let’s say 10% – 15%.
So let’s say for our final number, that rather than a payout ratio of 0.353, non-FTMO firms pay pay out 70% of total revenues. Note that if you factored in fraudulent payouts, this could easily happen.
If that was the case, total revenue would be $114.3m.
How much does FundingPips make?
I couldn’t find how much FundingPips paid out in 2024. However, Prop Firm Match has a handy tool that tells you how much a firm has (allegedly) paid out in the last 12 months.
As at 26/06/2025 that figure stands at $68.8m over the prior 12 months.
If we use FTMO’s ratio that would imply revenues over the last year were $194.9m.
If we use the FPFX average? Approximately $137.6m
Or if we use the ‘sucky margins that aren’t as good as FTMO’s’ then we get a total revenue for FundingPips of $91.7m.
How much does E8 Markets make?
E8 Markets also has its payout stats on Prop Firm Match and according to the website they have paid out $19.7m in the last 12 months, as at 26/06/2025.
If they have the same payout ratio as FTMO that means revenues in the period were $55.8m.
Based on the FPFX payout averages, revenues would be $39.4m.
And if we take the ‘not as good as FTMO ratio’ then revenues would be $28.1m
How much does FundedNext make?
FundedNext is an interesting one because they are not on Prop Firm Match’s payouts page and, although I could have missed it, I could not find a public number for total payouts last year.
However, using the wayback machine you can look at their website at the end of 2023 and the end of 2024.
At the end of 2023, they claimed they had paid out a total of $80m to traders. By the end of 2024, they were saying it was…$96m?
FundedNext only launched in early 2022, so it’s weird to think they paid out less in 2024 than in their first 18 months or so in business. Either it’s a sign of them being massively defrauded prior to 2024 or they were just making up a huge number for marketing. It could also be both!
If they did pay out $16m in 2024, then based on the FTMO ratio they had revenues of $45.3m.
Using the FPFX model, it was approximately $32m. And if we take the final ‘not that good payout ratio’ then they did $22.9m.
Are prop payout ratios fake?
Ultimately it is probably the case that a lot of payout ratios are…well it rhymes with ‘dull wit’, which is also the cognitive root of their promulgation.
And if we assume they are dull wit, then those numbers don’t really mean that much. Even for Prop Firm Match, the payment figures can be based on crypto payouts.
What that means in theory is a prop could just send crypto from one wallet to another. There is a whole other interesting question there of what are the payment fees incurred from doing that compared to the marketing benefit you accrue from having optically high payouts (and so being top spot on the My Prop Firm Match charts).
However, if they are real – and for FTMO they do seem to be – then revenue, by definition, must be greater than the amount being paid out.
So if Alpha Capital did pay out $80m last year, it must have done that in revenue + met all its marketing costs, all its employee expenses, all its licensing fees, all its regulatory requirements for its broker license, and any other operating costs. I would guess that must mean $83m – $85m in revenue at an absolute minimum.
The other point to keep in mind here is that if payout ratios are much worse than FTMO’s, the industry’s longevity and profit potential has to be called into question.
Today props have zero regulatory requirements and no compliance teams. It is possible to run a much leaner operation, with a far lower cost base than a broker, as a result.
If regulations come into play, will that still be viable and will this be such a good business, as it is now for FTMO? The answer has to be ‘no’.
