FTMO Acquired OANDA: What It Means for Traders (2026)

In December 2025, FTMO completed its acquisition of OANDA — a regulated forex broker founded in 1996 with nearly 30 years of operational history. FTMO is the acquirer. OANDA is the acquired. That distinction matters, because it represents something the prop trading industry has never seen before: a prop firm that grew large enough to buy one of the oldest retail forex brokers on the planet.

As of March 2026, FTMO founders Otakar Šuffner and Marek Vašíček serve as co-CEOs of OANDA, running the brokerage as a standalone entity within the same ownership structure. For traders evaluating whether FTMO is trustworthy, this single fact reshapes the conversation entirely.

This article covers the full acquisition timeline, why FTMO made the move, what it means for traders across different regions, and how this changes FTMO's competitive position relative to firms like The5ers and FundingPips, neither of which owns a regulated broker.

What did FTMO acquire and when?

OANDA was founded in 1996 in Toronto, Canada. It is one of the earliest dedicated online forex brokers and holds regulatory licenses in multiple jurisdictions including the United States (CFTC/NFA), the United Kingdom (FCA), Australia (ASIC), Canada (IIROC), Singapore (MAS), and Japan (FSA). At the time of acquisition, OANDA was owned by private equity firm CVC Capital Partners.

FTMO announced the acquisition on February 3, 2025. The deal was structured as FTMO acquiring OANDA from CVC Capital Partners, with J.P. Morgan acting as financial adviser and Latham & Watkins as legal counsel to FTMO. The purchase price was not publicly disclosed.

Five separate regulatory approvals were required across OANDA's licensed jurisdictions. These approvals came in over the course of 2025 and the deal formally closed in December 2025.

The table below traces the key milestones from announcement to operational integration:

This is not a partnership. This is not a white-label arrangement. FTMO owns OANDA outright. The acquisition took the better part of a year to close specifically because regulators in multiple jurisdictions had to assess the ownership change, which is itself evidence of how seriously regulated OANDA was, and still is.

Why did FTMO buy a regulated broker?

FTMO was founded in 2014 in Prague. In its own words, the company "created an entirely new industry" (the funded prop trading evaluation model). By 2024, FTMO's parent holding company OMHC was generating $329 million in revenue and $62 million in net profit, with $721 million in total assets. Paul has traded FTMO for approximately four years, withdrawing $15K+ across multiple accounts, and that scale of personal experience tracks with what FTMO's financials suggest: they pay at volume.

With that kind of financial position, FTMO could have stayed in its lane. Instead, it bought a broker. Three strategic reasons explain why.

Vertical integration and counterparty control. In the traditional prop firm model, the firm simulates trades and pays out from its own pool. But as firms scale, they increasingly need relationships with real brokers for price feeds, liquidity, and infrastructure. Owning OANDA eliminates the counterparty in that relationship entirely. FTMO now controls the full stack from evaluation challenge through to funded execution infrastructure.

Regulatory legitimacy. Prop trading firms operate in a legal gray area in most jurisdictions. They are not brokers. They are not investment funds. Regulators have been scrutinizing them more closely since 2023, when the US CFTC effectively ended operations for several firms. By owning OANDA (with its active FCA, CFTC, ASIC, and MAS licenses) FTMO now has a regulated brokerage entity within the group. That does not make the prop trading evaluation itself regulated, but it changes the credibility picture significantly when traders or regulators look at the overall structure.

US market access. This is the most immediately visible benefit and is covered in depth below. The short version: MetaQuotes banned US-facing use of MT4/MT5 in connection with prop firms in 2024. FTMO lost US traders overnight. OANDA's CFTC-registered US entity, combined with MT5 infrastructure, gave FTMO a legal and technical path back into the US market.

Who runs OANDA now?

As of March 27, 2026, FTMO founders Otakar Šuffner and Marek Vašíček are co-CEOs of OANDA. The previous CEO, Gavin Bambury, stepped down as part of the leadership transition.

This is a deliberate choice, not a passive ownership move. The founders of FTMO did not install an external executive team to run the brokerage at arm's length. They took the seats themselves. That signals that OANDA is not a financial investment being managed for eventual resale; it is an operational part of FTMO's long-term strategy.

Michael Kamerman had been brought in as CEO of the brokerage division in May 2025, during the transition period before the deal closed, to handle operational continuity. Kamerman and OANDA's newly appointed risk executive (a former IG Group figure brought on in December 2025) now run day-to-day brokerage operations alongside the founders' strategic oversight.

The leadership picture matters for traders because management continuity at OANDA affects the quality of the infrastructure that sits behind FTMO's funded accounts and US-facing products.

What does this mean for prop traders?

For the majority of FTMO traders (those outside the US) the practical impact is subtle but meaningful.

Nothing changes about how you trade. The FTMO 1-Step Challenge, the 2-Step Challenge, the rules, the payout structure, the platforms: all remain unchanged. You still get MT4, MT5, and cTrader. You still get bi-weekly payouts with an average eight-hour processing time. The 1-Step still delivers 90% profit split from day one, with no scaling requirement. The scaling plan structure on the 2-Step path is still intact.

What changes is the credibility layer behind those payouts. When FTMO says it will pay you, you can now look at the parent structure and see a firm that owns a licensed forex broker operating in six regulated jurisdictions, generated $329 million in revenue in 2024, and has $721 million in total assets. The payout promise sits on a stronger foundation than it did in 2024.

There is also a second-order effect on trust: the firm that reviews your funded account and manages your drawdown limits now owns a regulated entity that is itself subject to regulator oversight on how it handles client funds. That is not nothing.

How does this enable the FTMO US relaunch?

In early 2024, MetaQuotes (the developer of the MetaTrader platform suite) restricted the use of MT4 and MT5 for US-facing prop trading operations. The practical effect was that prop firms using MetaTrader platforms lost access to US traders. FTMO, like many other firms, suspended services for US-based customers.

The OANDA acquisition solved this problem at its root. OANDA holds an active NFA (National Futures Association) registration and operates in the US under CFTC oversight. That means OANDA can legitimately offer MT5 infrastructure to US clients.

On August 25–27, 2025, before the acquisition was even formally complete, FTMO relaunched US prop trading via OANDA's MT5 infrastructure. FTMO became the first prop trading firm to offer MT5 to US traders after the MetaQuotes restrictions took effect. US traders can now complete the 1-Step Challenge or 2-Step Challenge on MT5 via this structure.

The mechanism is worth understanding: FTMO's US-registered entity handles the challenge evaluation; OANDA's CFTC-compliant entity handles the funded rewards stage and the MT5 infrastructure. Together they create a compliant structure that no prop firm without a regulated US brokerage partner could replicate.

This is not just about reopening a market. The US is the largest retail trading market in the world. FTMO's earlier US exit was a significant competitive disadvantage. The OANDA acquisition turned it into a competitive advantage: FTMO is back, with MT5, and no comparable firm has a similar structure.

What changes in the trading experience?

For traders outside the US, the answer is: essentially nothing, immediately.

MT4, MT5, and cTrader remain the supported platforms. The FTMO account sizes ($10K through $200K) remain unchanged. The daily loss limits, the max loss rules, the best day consistency rule, and the minimum trading days requirement are all unchanged.

For US traders, the change is substantial: they now have access to FTMO's full challenge product suite on MT5. This was not available to them from early 2024 through to August 2025.

Looking further ahead, the Zerohash investment (October 2025) is a notable signal. Zerohash is a crypto settlement infrastructure provider used by major fintech platforms. FTMO's investment there, alongside SoFi and Apollo, suggests the firm is building toward crypto payout capabilities, potentially using OANDA's infrastructure as part of that rail. As of May 2026, this has not materialized into a confirmed product change, but it is worth tracking.

The January 2026 adoption of institutional-grade KYB (Know Your Business) compliance also signals that FTMO is positioning for B2B and institutional relationships beyond just retail traders. That is a longer-term strategic shift that may eventually show up as white-label or institutional prop solutions built on OANDA's brokerage infrastructure.

What is the broader prop-firm-buys-broker pattern?

There is no pattern to speak of. FTMO is the only prop firm in the industry that has executed this kind of acquisition.

The typical prop firm buys traders' challenge fees, pays out a percentage of simulated profits, and manages its own risk internally. The infrastructure model is: pick a prime broker for price feeds, white-label a platform (usually MT4/MT5), and run the math on expected failure rates. It is a scalable, asset-light model that does not require owning regulated entities.

FTMO has departed from that model entirely. The acquisition of OANDA signals a maturation from "challenge-fee business" to "financial institution with a prop trading division." The $721 million in total assets and $329 million in revenue put FTMO's parent in a different category from virtually every other firm in the prop trading space.

The implication for the industry is that if FTMO's vertically integrated model proves more robust under regulatory pressure, other large prop firms may be forced to consider similar moves or face a structural trust disadvantage.

As of May 2026, no comparable acquisition has been announced by any other prop trading firm.

How does this affect FTMO's competitive position?

FTMO was already the market leader by volume: 2.3 million accounts opened in 2024, $500M+ in cumulative payouts, 3.5M+ customers across 140+ countries. The OANDA acquisition does not change those numbers; it changes the structural credibility behind them.

Compare this to FTMO's direct Forex/CFD competitors.

The5ers is a well-regarded multi-asset firm with a Black Arrow futures-adjacent product and a 7+ year track record. It does not own a regulated broker. FundingPips, UAE-based and rapidly growing, competes directly on profit split and challenge pricing. It does not own a regulated broker. FundedNext has processed substantial payout volume and has a growing Stellar evaluation suite. It does not own a regulated broker. E8 Markets operates across Forex, Futures, and Crypto with a clean three-asset structure. It does not own a regulated broker.

None of them can match the structural backing that FTMO now has by virtue of owning OANDA.

This matters most at the top of the funnel: when a trader who is new to prop trading is deciding whether to trust an evaluation firm with their money. "FTMO owns a 30-year-old regulated forex broker" is a sentence that carries weight in a way that competitor trust signals cannot easily match.

It also matters in the US market specifically. The 1-Step Challenge and 2-Step Challenge are now available to US traders via MT5 through the OANDA structure. No comparable firm has this in place as of May 2026.

What about OANDA's 2024 financials?

Before the acquisition closed, FTMO's parent holding company OMHC disclosed the broader group's 2024 financials on November 14, 2025: $329 million in revenue, $62 million net profit, and approximately $721 million in total assets.

This is the financial picture of a group that can comfortably absorb regulatory setbacks, payout spikes, or market dislocations. For comparison, many prop trading firms that collapsed in 2023 and 2024 did so because their financial reserves were inadequate to cover payout obligations during volatile markets or regulatory stress.

FTMO's 2023 financials, disclosed separately in July 2025, showed $213 million in turnover, approximately $100 million in EBITDA, and $82 million in cash at end of 2023, confirming the trajectory of strong underlying profitability before the OANDA deal added scale.

The combined entity is, by a wide margin, the financially largest prop trading operation in the industry. That financial scale is directly relevant to the reliability of the payout promise that every FTMO trader is banking on when they pass a challenge.

The bottom line

FTMO's acquisition of OANDA is the most consequential corporate development in the prop trading industry's history. A firm that invented the funded trader evaluation model and built it into a $329M revenue business bought one of the oldest regulated forex brokers on the planet. FTMO founders now run both entities.

For traders, this translates into three practical outcomes. First, the counterparty behind your funded account is now connected to a regulated brokerage structure with 30 years of operating history and active licenses in six jurisdictions. Second, US traders have been able to access FTMO via MT5 since August 2025, a direct result of the deal. Third, the financial scale of the combined entity ($721M total assets, $62M net profit in 2024) makes the payout promise more credible than at any previous point in FTMO's existence.

Paul has traded FTMO for approximately four years and withdrawn $15K+ across multiple accounts. The firm that existed when he started is substantially different from, and more structurally sound than, the one operating in May 2026.

If you are evaluating FTMO against alternatives, start with the main FTMO review for a full breakdown of accounts, rules, and pricing. For the specific evaluation structure, see the 1-Step Challenge guide, the 2-Step Challenge breakdown, and the accounts overview. The FTMO vs broker trading comparison also addresses how the OANDA acquisition changes the old "prop firm vs real broker" framing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did FTMO acquire OANDA or did OANDA acquire FTMO?

FTMO acquired OANDA. The prop firm bought the regulated broker, not the other way around. FTMO announced the deal in February 2025 and fully completed it in December 2025. FTMO is now the parent company of OANDA.

When did FTMO complete the OANDA acquisition?

The acquisition was announced on February 3, 2025 and fully completed in December 2025 after receiving five regulatory approvals across multiple jurisdictions where OANDA holds licenses.

Who runs OANDA now?

FTMO founders Otakar Šuffner and Marek Vašíček became co-CEOs of OANDA in March 2026. The previous CEO, Gavin Bambury, stepped down as part of the leadership transition.

How much did FTMO pay for OANDA?

The purchase price was not disclosed publicly. J.P. Morgan advised FTMO on the financial structure and Latham & Watkins acted as legal counsel. OANDA was previously held by CVC Capital Partners.

How does the OANDA acquisition affect US traders?

It directly enabled FTMO's US relaunch in August 2025. FTMO uses OANDA's regulated US entity and MT5 infrastructure to serve US prop traders, making FTMO the first prop firm offering MT5 to US traders after the MetaQuotes restrictions that ended FTMO's earlier US access.

Does the OANDA acquisition change anything for European traders?

Not operationally. European traders continue to use FTMO's challenge and funded account structure as normal. The acquisition strengthens the financial and counterparty credibility behind FTMO, but the trading rules, platforms, and payout process are unchanged.

What happened to OANDA's prop trading clients after the acquisition?

In March 2026, OANDA began transitioning its own prop trading clients to FTMO. OANDA is refocusing on its core regulated brokerage business, while FTMO absorbs the prop trading client base from both firms.

Is FTMO now a regulated broker?

FTMO itself remains a prop trading firm. OANDA operates as a separate regulated brokerage entity under the same parent ownership. The prop trading evaluation structure has not changed. The regulated status is at the parent/entity level through OANDA, not applied directly to FTMO's challenge products.

What were OANDA's financials before the acquisition?

FTMO's parent holding company OMHC reported $329 million in revenue and $62 million in net profit for the combined group in 2024, with total assets of approximately $721 million. This was the financial context in which OANDA was operating at the time of acquisition.

Does any other prop firm own a regulated forex broker?

As of May 2026, no other major prop trading firm owns a fully regulated forex broker with OANDA's scale and jurisdictional reach. This structural uniqueness is one of FTMO's most significant long-term differentiators against firms like The5ers, FundingPips, and FundedNext.

Will FTMO and OANDA merge into one brand?

No. FTMO has stated it intends to operate OANDA as a standalone business. FTMO serves prop traders through its challenge and funded account model. OANDA serves retail and institutional forex clients through its regulated brokerage. The two brands target different customer segments and are expected to remain separate.

What platforms does FTMO offer after the OANDA acquisition?

FTMO continues to offer MT4, MT5, and cTrader. The OANDA deal specifically enabled MT5 access for US-based prop traders, which was unavailable from early 2024 through August 2025 due to MetaQuotes platform restrictions.