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The State of Prop Trading:
The Numbers at a Glance
I spent months manually researching, verifying, and cross-referencing every prop trading firm I could find. 157 firms. One by one. No scraping, no AI-generated lists, no copy-paste from aggregator sites. Just me, a spreadsheet, and way too many browser tabs. Here's what the data actually says about the industry right now.
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Here's the big picture. I tracked 157 prop trading firms — every one I could verify through websites, Trustpilot, regulatory databases, community feedback, and in many cases my own trading accounts. Of those, 123 are currently active and 34 have shut down since the modern prop firm boom started around 2020-2021.
The growth curve is insane. Before 2022, you could count the number of serious prop firms on two hands — Topstep, FTMO, Earn2Trade, The5ers, a handful of others. Then 14 new firms launched in 2022. Another 36 in 2023. And 48 in 2024 alone — that single year produced more firms than the entire industry had in total just two years prior. We're not looking at steady growth. This was an explosion.
Geographically, two countries run the show. The United States (43 firms, 35% market share) and the United Kingdom (38 firms, 31%) together control two-thirds of the entire industry. The UAE is the fastest-growing hub with 11 active firms, most founded in 2023-2024. After that, it drops off fast — Australia has 8, Czech Republic 3, and everyone else is in single digits.
The business model split tells you a lot about where the industry's vulnerability sits. 89% of firms are fully independent — meaning they run on challenge fee revenue, no broker backing, no parent company safety net. Only 13 firms (about 11%) are broker-backed, where an established broker launched a prop arm using their own infrastructure. That matters when you look at the graveyard data: broker-backed firms survive at significantly higher rates. When the money gets tight, independent firms have nowhere to turn.
One more stat that should shape how you think about this industry: the average active firm is just 3.4 years old. Almost 40% of currently active firms didn't exist before 2024. That doesn't mean they're all going to fail — but it means the vast majority haven't been stress-tested through a real market downturn, a regulatory crackdown, or the kind of payout pressure that killed 34 of their predecessors.
I'm not saying this to scare anyone. I trade prop firms every single day. But picking the right firm starts with understanding what you're actually walking into — and these numbers are the most honest snapshot I can give you of where the industry stands right now.
This research represents my best effort at mapping an industry with no official registry and no mandatory disclosure. I've verified every entry against multiple sources, but I'm one person tracking 150+ companies across 20 countries. If something's wrong or missing, hit me up — it gets more accurate every quarter. This is research, not financial advice.