When do crypto prop firms refund the evaluation fee?

Seven perp prop firms hand back the evaluation fee, but only with a payout from the funded account, never on passing the test. That matters because a failed test costs the full fee either way, and the cheapest evaluations run $9 to $85 across the field.

Kraken Prop, which runs simulated accounts inside the Kraken Pro app, added lines to its Plaid deposit pages overnight into Nov. 12. Its page on adding dollars by ACH−4.48% bank transfer through Plaid now tells users to check the deposit details before confirming an instant deposit, including the Available to withdraw figure. The new lines cover deposits, and none touches the Prop account's targets, loss limits or refund terms.

Kraken Prop was already one of eight firms whose fee does not come back. Seven others return it only if the account is cancelled before it is used. For a trader sizing a second evaluation, that leaves one question about the refunders: what a refund is worth before the first payout.

Changed overnight

Kraken Prop, MyFundedPerps

Rules and announcement pages, against the day before

Firms compared

23

Every perp prop firm in our tables that states its fee refunds

Longest unchanged

31 days

HyroTrader, the steadiest page we read

What a refund is worth before payday

Nothing in cash, until a payout lands. The fee comes back with money from the funded account, so a trader waiting on a first payout is also waiting on the refund, and it works as a discount on success.

The conditions sit on top of that. BEM Funding and BrightFunded return it only to traders who bought an add-on, and HyroTrader only on some plans.

Distance matters too. Leveraged ties the refund to the third payout, its pages differ on the point, and it pays every 14 days at the fastest, so its fee waits behind three payouts.

Outside those seven, Upscale leaves a refund at the firm's discretion and For Traders does not state a policy. The table below shows the split, and every perp prop firm compared, rule by rule, sits on one page.

The $50,000 account in dollars

HyroTrader sells its Hyro Core evaluation for a $50,000 account at $189. Since its refund applies only on some plans, check its page for whether Hyro Core is one of them before counting on the money back.

That fee buys a 10% profit target, or $5,000, against a static maximum loss of $2,500 (5%). Set against each other, the target-to-maximum-loss ratio comes to 2, and a static limit stays fixed where it starts instead of following the account's high.

The daily loss limit is $1,500 (3%). A trader in the evaluation holding a position through a CPI print has that much room in one session before the day's limit is breached.

Each dollar of that fee buys 13.2 dollars of loss room. That ratio, and the target set against the maximum loss, shape the odds of ever reaching the payout that triggers a refund.

What to check before the next purchase

Set the fee against the account it buys before setting it against the refund. Kraken Prop, which returns nothing, charges $20 for its cheapest evaluation, a $5,000 account, which comes to $4 for every thousand dollars of account.

BEM Funding and Bitfunded, which can return the fee, charge $7.8 for every thousand dollars on their cheapest plans. That gap is what a trader pays up front for the chance of seeing the fee again, and the prop firm calculator sets fee against account for every firm.

For anyone already holding a Kraken Prop account, the next USD deposit through Plaid comes with the new check. The firm listed first in the table, OptimistFi's sponsor, also rewrote its FAQ overnight: its Prime plan is no longer offered to new buyers, while Prime accounts already held keep a 12% profit target and 5% static maximum drawdown.

Each overnight edit, at every firm, lands in every prop firm rule change on record.

Is a prop firm evaluation fee refundable if I fail?

Not where the refund is tied to a payout, because a failed evaluation never reaches one. The fee becomes part of what the attempt cost.

How many payouts before the evaluation fee comes back?

One at BEM Funding, BrightFunded and HyroTrader where the refund applies, three at Bitfunded, Leveraged and WenCrypto, and the first or third at FundedNext. Each firm's page sets the plan and add-on conditions.