Trading crypto on a funded account: what actually changes
Crypto looks like just another symbol on the platform. It is not. Three things about it interact badly with the rules of a funded account, and none of them are obvious until the account is already failed.
This is about the 27 crypto pairs available here, and how they behave against our limits.
It never closes, and your daily limit does
Gold trades 00:00-20:59 and 22:01-24:00. Forex closes at the weekend. Bitcoin trades
24/7, and so does every other crypto pair on the list.
That sounds like an advantage. It is, for opportunity. It is not, for risk, and here is why.
The maximum daily loss here is measured on equity, not on closed trades. Equity includes the position you are still holding. So a trade left open is still capable of breaching your daily limit while you are asleep, and on crypto there is no close to stop it.
On a $5,000 Two-Step account, the daily limit is 5% — $250. On One-Step and both Instant plans it is 3% — $150 on the same size.
A position that drifts $160 against you overnight has failed a One-Step account before you have opened your laptop. There was no session close to flatten it and no gap to blame. It simply kept trading.
The rule is not unusual. What is unusual is the asset, and the combination is what catches people.
The margin is twenty times gold's
This is the number most traders never look up, and it is the one that decides your position size.
| Margin | Effective leverage | |
|---|---|---|
| Gold (XAUUSD) | 1% | 100:1 |
| Bitcoin (BTCUSD) | 20% | 5:1 |
Bitcoin requires twenty times more margin per unit of exposure than gold.
That is not a restriction for its own sake: it reflects how far crypto can move in a day. But the practical effect is that a position size that feels normal on gold is not available on Bitcoin, and a trader who sizes by habit rather than by margin finds out at the moment the order is rejected, or worse, finds out it was accepted and is far larger than intended.
Work out the position from the daily limit, not from what the platform will let you open.
Holding costs are a percentage, not a few points
Swap on most instruments is a small number of points. On crypto it is a percentage of the position.
Bitcoin: -10% on long positions, -5% on short. Those are annualised rates charged daily, but the shape of the cost is what matters: it scales with the size of your position, not with the number of pips.
For an intraday trade this is irrelevant. For a position held across a week it is a real drag, and on a funded account that drag comes out of the same equity your daily loss limit is measured against. A trade can be flat on price and still be walking toward your limit.
If your strategy holds for days, check the swap before you assume crypto is the right market for it.
What this means in practice
Three things, and none of them are complicated:
- Size from the daily limit. $250 on a $5K Two-Step, $150 on One-Step and Instant. Work backwards to the position size, then check the margin allows it.
- Decide deliberately about holding overnight. There is no session close to protect you, and the limit is measured on equity.
- Check the swap if you hold for days. A percentage-based cost behaves differently from a points-based one.
Crypto is not more dangerous than forex or gold here. It is dangerous in a different place from where most traders are looking, which is the reason it is worth writing down.
The rules referred to here
All the figures above are the rules on your account, not general guidance:
- Daily loss: 5% on Two-Step, 3% on One-Step, Instant Lite and Instant Pro
- Overall loss: 10%, 6%, 5% and 5% respectively
- Both measured on equity, including open positions
Full rules per plan are on the challenges page, and the complete instrument list with margin and swap for all 27 crypto pairs is at tradable symbols.
Educational content only. Nothing here is financial, investment or trading advice.