{
  "title": "Payout Proof: what public evidence shows a prop firm pays its traders",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "release_status": "provisional (v0, read by our script, not yet re-read by a person; no page live)",
  "as_of": "2026-11-11",
  "headline": "Of 50 prop firms we checked on 11 November 2026, 29 print a total paid to traders on their own site, 5 print what share of their funded traders got paid, 33 have payouts an independent tracker counts on public blockchains, and 0 have a payout figure published by an auditor, payment firm or official body.",
  "headline_basis": "measured: each count is the number of firms with at least one verified claim of that kind. A claim is verified when its quote is found in the page text we saved and hashed that day.",
  "firms_checked": 50,
  "firms_read": 48,
  "firms_with_payout_total": [
    "Alpha Futures",
    "AquaFunded",
    "Audacity Capital",
    "BluSky Trading",
    "Blue Guardian",
    "Blueberry Funded",
    "BrightFunded",
    "Crypto Fund Trader",
    "E8 Markets",
    "FTMO",
    "FXIFY",
    "Funded Trader Markets",
    "FundedNext",
    "FunderPro",
    "FuturesElite",
    "Goat Funded Trader",
    "Hola Prime",
    "Hypernova",
    "Instant Funding",
    "MyFundedFutures",
    "Phidias Propfirm",
    "Propr",
    "The Trading Pit",
    "The5ers",
    "Top One Trader",
    "Topstep",
    "TradeDay",
    "Tradeify",
    "Vanta Trading"
  ],
  "firms_with_payout_rate": [
    "Earn2Trade",
    "Hola Prime",
    "MyFundedFutures",
    "Topstep",
    "Tradeify"
  ],
  "firms_with_tracked_payouts": [
    "Alpha Capital Group",
    "Alpha Futures",
    "AquaFunded",
    "BluSky Trading",
    "Blue Guardian",
    "Breakout",
    "BrightFunded",
    "E8 Markets",
    "Elite Trader Funding",
    "FXIFY",
    "Funded Futures Family",
    "Funded Trader Markets",
    "FundedHive",
    "FundedNext",
    "FundingPips",
    "FuturesElite",
    "Goat Funded Trader",
    "Hola Prime",
    "Hypernova",
    "HyroTrader",
    "Instant Funding",
    "Legends Trading",
    "MyFundedFutures",
    "MyFundedPerps",
    "Orion Funded",
    "Phidias Propfirm",
    "Propr",
    "Savius",
    "The5ers",
    "Top One Trader",
    "TradeDay",
    "Tradeify",
    "Vanta Trading"
  ],
  "firms_with_third_party_named": [
    "Alpha Capital Group",
    "Alpha Futures",
    "AquaFunded",
    "BluSky Trading",
    "Blue Guardian",
    "Breakout",
    "BrightFunded",
    "E8 Markets",
    "Elite Trader Funding",
    "FXIFY",
    "Funded Futures Family",
    "Funded Trader Markets",
    "FundedHive",
    "FundedNext",
    "FundingPips",
    "FuturesElite",
    "Goat Funded Trader",
    "Hola Prime",
    "Hypernova",
    "HyroTrader",
    "Instant Funding",
    "Legends Trading",
    "MyFundedFutures",
    "MyFundedPerps",
    "Orion Funded",
    "Phidias Propfirm",
    "Propr",
    "Savius",
    "The5ers",
    "Top One Trader",
    "TradeDay",
    "Tradeify",
    "Vanta Trading"
  ],
  "firms_independently_verified": [],
  "firms_with_adverse_records": [
    "Alpha Futures",
    "Apex Trader Funding",
    "FundingPips",
    "Goat Funded Trader"
  ],
  "firms_records_searched": [
    "Alpha Futures",
    "Apex Trader Funding",
    "AquaFunded",
    "Audacity Capital",
    "Blue Guardian",
    "Blueberry Funded",
    "E8 Markets",
    "FTMO",
    "FundedNext",
    "FunderPro",
    "FundingPips",
    "Goat Funded Trader",
    "Hola Prime",
    "Lucid Trading",
    "MyFundedFutures",
    "Phidias Propfirm",
    "Take Profit Trader",
    "The5ers",
    "Topstep",
    "Tradeify"
  ],
  "firms_printing_more_than_one_total": [
    "Alpha Futures",
    "AquaFunded",
    "Blue Guardian",
    "Topstep"
  ],
  "firms_by_proof_level": {
    "4": [],
    "3": [
      "Alpha Capital Group",
      "Alpha Futures",
      "AquaFunded",
      "BluSky Trading",
      "Blue Guardian",
      "Breakout",
      "BrightFunded",
      "E8 Markets",
      "Elite Trader Funding",
      "FXIFY",
      "Funded Futures Family",
      "Funded Trader Markets",
      "FundedHive",
      "FundedNext",
      "FundingPips",
      "FuturesElite",
      "Goat Funded Trader",
      "Hola Prime",
      "Hypernova",
      "HyroTrader",
      "Instant Funding",
      "Legends Trading",
      "MyFundedFutures",
      "MyFundedPerps",
      "Orion Funded",
      "Phidias Propfirm",
      "Propr",
      "Savius",
      "The5ers",
      "Top One Trader",
      "TradeDay",
      "Tradeify",
      "Vanta Trading"
    ],
    "2": [
      "Earn2Trade",
      "Topstep"
    ],
    "1": [
      "Audacity Capital",
      "Blueberry Funded",
      "Crypto Fund Trader",
      "FTMO",
      "FunderPro",
      "The Trading Pit"
    ],
    "0": [
      "Bulenox",
      "City Traders Imperium",
      "Funded Trading Plus",
      "Funding Traders",
      "Lucid Trading",
      "Maven Trading",
      "Take Profit Trader"
    ]
  },
  "proof_levels": {
    "4": "independently verified",
    "3": "third party named",
    "2": "firm publishes share of funded traders paid",
    "1": "firm publishes a payout total only",
    "0": "nothing found on the pages read"
  },
  "firms_needing_a_hand_save": [
    "Apex Trader Funding",
    "Bitfunded",
    "FundingPips"
  ],
  "pages_needing_a_hand_save": [
    {
      "firm_slug": "apex",
      "publisher": "Apex Trader Funding",
      "url": "https://apextraderfunding.com/payouts.php",
      "why": "HTTP 403; not retried"
    },
    {
      "firm_slug": "bitfunded",
      "publisher": "Bitfunded",
      "url": "https://bitfunded.com/",
      "why": "bot wall / HTTP block; stopped, not retried"
    },
    {
      "firm_slug": "fundingpips",
      "publisher": "FundingPips",
      "url": "https://fundingpips.com/",
      "why": "bot wall / HTTP block; stopped, not retried"
    },
    {
      "firm_slug": "fundingpips",
      "publisher": "FundingPips",
      "url": "https://fundingpips.com/rewards",
      "why": "bot wall / HTTP block; stopped, not retried"
    }
  ],
  "claims": 99,
  "claims_by_class": {
    "official_record": 0,
    "third_party_verified": 0,
    "third_party_tracked": 33,
    "firm_statement": 48,
    "press_report": 13,
    "own_observation": 5
  },
  "claims_by_bearing": {
    "adverse": 7,
    "context": 10,
    "follow_up": 6,
    "pays": 76
  },
  "sources": 106,
  "sources_read": 102,
  "sources_with_public_archive_copy": 12,
  "evidence_dir": "data/raw/evidence-archive/payout-proof/2026-11-11",
  "read_from": "United States network address (cloud), 2026-11-11",
  "inputs": [
    "scripts/payout_proof_universe.csv",
    "scripts/payout_proof_sources.csv",
    "scripts/payout_proof_claims.csv",
    "data/published/prop-firm-published-rates.csv",
    "data/published/data-changelog.csv",
    "data/published/wayback-archive.csv"
  ],
  "partner_blind": "The build reads only the files in `inputs` and the day's saved pages. None holds which firms pay us, so that can't change a row. scripts/test_payout_proof.py records every file the build opens and fails on any other.",
  "corrections": "A firm or reader can send a correction with a public source to hello@tradinglookup.com. We re-read the page, fix the row and log the change; the earlier claim stays in the history.",
  "method": "research/2026-11-10-payout-proof-method.md",
  "licence": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_scope": "CC BY 4.0 covers TradingLookup's own counts and classifications. Each quoted figure or sentence remains its publisher's; we quote it with its page and read date.",
  "notes": [
    "Data only: no affiliate links, no codes, no ranking. Firms are listed A to Z.",
    "A firm's own total or rate is the firm's statement. We record that it is printed; we do not check that the money was paid.",
    "'Nothing found' means the pages we read did not print a payout figure on the check date. It is not a finding that the firm does not pay.",
    "An adverse record is a dated report or official record about payouts. It is not our finding about the firm, and a follow-up (for example payouts resumed) is recorded beside it when we hold one.",
    "Adverse records never change proof_level, and proof_level never hides them.",
    "Most firms say their funded accounts are simulated. A 'payout' is a payment the firm makes to a trader.",
    "Totals differ in period and definition (payouts, rewards, performance fees), so firms cannot be ranked by them. A firm can print more than one total (different pages, rounding or periods); we list each as printed.",
    "A tracker's count covers only payouts made on public blockchains from wallets the tracker links to the firm. It can be lower or higher than the firm's own total and is not an audit."
  ],
  "moving_inputs_sha256": {
    "data/published/prop-firm-published-rates.csv": "3c7398f3ad988615e52951d06a3a4cafd6386b87996d1339731b2e931a639abf",
    "data/published/data-changelog.csv": "ede2f1eda75e30a6d70acf1d7ef886500ccba33072f1e72ec76d754b9169eed8",
    "data/published/wayback-archive.csv": "8515eaabea2154df5413f02bc8b89d8532a18280f9f9b1ef69de0c5121eb438b"
  }
}