The biggest name in crypto wants funded traders next. Kraken added the S&P 500 to its Kraken Prop program on 12 August 2026, the second traditional market on the platform after the Nasdaq 100, with commodities named as the next step. The product is a perpetual contract priced off an index oracle. It tracks the same 500 large cap US companies as the benchmark, never expires and never forces a rollover. Traders get up to 5x leverage and the market runs around the clock, weekends included.
The program mechanics stay the same. Three evaluation tiers, Starter, Intermediate and Advanced, funded accounts from $5,000 to $200,000, and entry fees that start at $20. There are no consistency rules and no time limits, the daily loss cap sits at 3 percent, profit splits run between 80 and 90 percent, and payouts land in a Kraken wallet, typically within 24 hours. On paper it reads cleaner than much of the forex prop industry it is walking into.
Why Forex Prop Firms Should Worry
Consider what Kraken brings that a typical prop shop does not: a global consumer brand, its own wallet and payment rails, an exchange grade matching engine and a client base already comfortable with leverage. The classic forex prop firm sells a challenge, rents a platform and pushes payouts through processors that come and go. Kraken owns the whole stack. A $20 entry ticket and always open index trading is aimed squarely at the same young traders FTMO and its imitators spent five years cultivating.
The Regulation Question Nobody Answers
Here is the uncomfortable part. Kraken Prop is, by its own disclosure, an unregulated service. Most applicants fail their first evaluation, and evaluation fees are not refunded once trading begins. That is the standard prop industry model, and it is exactly the model regulators have started circling. The CFTC's long fight with My Forex Funds turned prop economics into a courtroom subject, and European supervisors have publicly questioned how funded trader schemes are sold. A brand of Kraken's size adopting the model does not settle that debate. It raises the stakes on the answer.
For the funded trading industry this is the moment the moat gets shallow. Prop firms differentiated on payouts you could trust and platforms that stayed online. Kraken makes both table stakes. The survivors will be the shops that treat traders as clients rather than conversion metrics, publish real pass and payout statistics and get ahead of regulation instead of hiding from it. The rest will learn what happens to a middleman when the infrastructure company shows up.
BestForex.io View
A Top Tier Exchange Launching Index Perpetuals for Funded Traders Tells You Two Things at Once.
The prop model prints money, and the model still lives outside regulation. Kraken deserves credit for blunt disclosure — it says openly that most applicants fail and that fees are not refundable.
That honesty does not change the economics, which depend on a steady stream of hopefuls paying to try again.
Forex prop firms now face a competitor with deeper pockets, better rails and a bigger brand, and traders should put the same question to all of them, Kraken included: where does the revenue really come from?
About the Company
About Kraken
Regulator
None | Kraken Prop is an unregulated service
Jurisdiction
Global
Action Type
Product expansion, S&P 500 added
Penalty
None | Product launch
Kraken is a US crypto exchange founded in 2011 that has grown into a group spanning spot and derivatives trading, payments and, since 2025, equities access. Kraken Prop is its funded trading arm, offering evaluations and funded accounts in crypto and now equity indices, with payouts made to Kraken wallets. The prop service is unregulated and sits apart from the licensed exchange activities the group runs in various jurisdictions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Kraken Prop just launch?
An S&P 500 perpetual contract for funded traders, priced off an index oracle with no expiry and no forced rollover, tradable around the clock with up to 5x leverage. It joins the Nasdaq 100, and Kraken says commodities are next.
How much does Kraken Prop cost?
Evaluations start at $20 across three tiers, Starter, Intermediate and Advanced, with funded accounts from $5,000 to $200,000. Profit splits run between 80 and 90 percent and payouts arrive in a Kraken wallet, usually within 24 hours.
Is Kraken Prop regulated?
No. Kraken states plainly that the prop service is unregulated, that most applicants do not pass their first evaluation, and that evaluation fees are not refunded once trading begins.
Is this a threat to forex prop firms?
A direct one. It targets the same audience with a lower entry price, markets that never close and infrastructure the classic prop firms rent rather than own, from payment rails to the matching engine. Compare regulated alternatives in our Best Forex Brokers in 2026 ranking.
Editor's note & source: Product details drawn from Kraken's own product announcement and disclosures. Funded trading evaluations carry non-refundable fees and most applicants do not pass. This article is not investment advice. Last updated: 15 August 2026.