Numbers about industry-wide payouts diverge sharply between firm marketing and third-party observation. This guide aggregates only the independently observable numbers as of mid-2026 to triangulate the real scale of payouts. Every figure is sourced; we mark what is third-party verified versus what is firm-disclosed.
Three tiers of observability
Numbers about industry payouts fall into three tiers, in descending order of reliability.
Tier 1: fully third-party observable. Trustpilot review counts and scores, regulator disclosures, independent press confirmations. These can be verified and the firms cannot manipulate them.
Tier 2: firm-disclosed, partially verifiable. Firm annual reports, statements in industry press interviews, wind-down CEO statements. Not fully independently verifiable but useful for order-of-magnitude reference.
Tier 3: firm marketing. “$N billion paid,” “X thousand traders funded” headline numbers. No verification mechanism, high exaggeration risk. We exclude these by default.
Major firm independently observable data (as of 2026-06-22)
From our comparison table, here is each major firm’s independently observable data:
| Firm | Trustpilot score | Review count | Disclosed cumulative payout |
|---|---|---|---|
| FundingPips | 4.5 | 58,747 | not disclosed |
| The5%ers | 4.7 | 30,269 | not disclosed |
| MyFundedFutures | 4.9 | 19,286 | not disclosed |
| Topstep | 3.4 | 13,981 | not disclosed |
| Take Profit Trader | 4.4 | 9,539 | not disclosed |
| FXIFY | 4.4 | 5,558 | not disclosed |
| Maven Trading | 4.6 | 5,067 | not disclosed |
| Earn2Trade | 4.7 | 4,693 | not disclosed |
| E8 Markets | 4.3 | 3,287 | $74M+ (since 2021, firm-disclosed) |
| Tradeify | 4.6 | 2,767 | not disclosed |
| Funded Trading Plus | rating frozen | 2,662 | not disclosed |
| Hola Prime | 4.6 | 1,544 | not disclosed |
| TradeDay | 4.6 | 1,347 | not disclosed |
| Fintokei | 4.5 | 1,160 | not disclosed |
| Trade The Pool | 4.4 | 698 | not disclosed |
| ThinkCapital | 4.2 | 507 | not disclosed |
Few firms publish cumulative payouts. The most explicit is E8 Markets at $74M+ (since 2021). The most recent wind-down statement was FundingTicks’ CEO citing $220M+ cumulative payouts (see shutdown tracker).
What the review counts imply about scale
Trustpilot review counts can be used as a proxy for business scale. Assume an industry-average review-rate of one Trustpilot review per 5–20 active traders.
- FundingPips 58,747 reviews → ~300k–1.2M active trader base
- The5%ers 30,269 reviews → ~150k–600k
- MyFundedFutures 19,286 → ~100k–380k
- Topstep 13,981 → ~70k–280k
- Earn2Trade 4,693 → ~23k–94k
At conservative average evaluation fees of $50–$150 per attempt, a firm at FundingPips scale generates cumulative evaluation revenue in the tens-to-hundreds of millions of USD. This revenue scale is what enables the payout pool that funds successful traders — the industry’s underlying math holds together.
Four cautions in reading these numbers
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Counts alone are not enough. A 4.9 score on 50 reviews has near-zero statistical reliability. Counts ≥ 500, combined with the score, are the minimum for meaning.
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Trustpilot has its own manipulation history. Hola Prime had roughly 1,300 fake reviews removed by Trustpilot in March 2025. Audacity Capital currently shows “rating unavailable due to breach of guidelines” on Trustpilot. Funded Trading Plus is in the same state. A Trustpilot self-warning on a firm is itself the top signal to weigh.
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Treat firm-disclosed numbers as floors. A CEO saying “we paid $220M” means “not less than that.” It may be higher, but independent verification is not available.
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“Has paid” and “will keep paying” are different problems. FundingTicks paid $220M+ and then wound down. Historical payout records do not guarantee future continuity. Many firms on the shutdown tracker were citing strong payout records weeks before closing.
Aggregate industry size estimate
Summing only publicly observable data, the 8–10 major firms cumulatively paid out in the hundreds of millions of USD between 2021 and mid-2026. Claims of “$1B+ across the industry” are not unreasonable but more than half of that figure is firm-disclosed without third-party verification, so we use the conservative phrasing “hundreds of millions across 5–8 firms” as the defensible claim.
What this means for firm selection
Three principles when using payout data for picking a firm:
- 5,000+ Trustpilot reviews is the floor. Below that, the sample is too small to evaluate.
- Read the score and the last 20 reviews directly. Recent complaint patterns (payout delays, retroactive rule changes, support absence) are leading indicators of risk.
- Prefer firms that disclose payout figures. Even when unverified, the willingness to disclose is itself a transparency signal.
The comparison table has the latest Trustpilot data for every firm we track. Closure history with sources is in the shutdown tracker, and our data evaluation framework is published on the methodology page.
This page is informational and is not investment advice. Trustpilot counts and scores drift over time; check each firm’s page for current values.