Vest Markets Review: Vest Capital Prices, Rules, Payouts and Restricted Countries

TL;DR: Vest Markets is a perpetual-futures exchange run by Vest Labs Inc., and Vest Capital is the prop program built into it. You pay once for a 1-Step evaluation ($25 to $894, with your choice of target, daily loss limit and split), a fixed 2-Step evaluation ($15 to $175), or an Instant account ($10 to $2,000) on sizes from $500 to $50,000. Every account has a static drawdown that never trails: 6% on evaluation accounts, and on Instant accounts the same dollar amount as the fee. You can trade index, stock, crypto, metal, energy and FX perps on Vest’s own venue, with leverage up to 75x on ES. Profit is claimed on demand (24 hours to your Vest Primary Account) and withdrawn in USDC. Vest’s prop terms say every account, Instant included, is simulated, while its docs and FAQ say live accounts use “real Vest capital”. The US is not barred by the prop terms, but the exchange terms that govern the Primary Account, where claimed profit lands, bar US and UK persons. Trustpilot showed 3.3 from 6 reviews on October 26, 2026. We found no discount code published by Vest itself.

Research status: Checked October 26, 2026. That day we read the vestmarkets.com homepage, the Vest Capital purchase page and the public price catalog it loads (all 57 products), the 63-question FAQ, the live Prop Trading Terms of Service (updated October 20, 2026) and Terms of Service (updated October 21, 2026), the Vest docs (Vest Capital, loss limits, claiming profit, leverage, markets, funding, weekend leverage limits, withdrawals, contract specifications, exchange notices, incident reports, audits and the docs copies of both terms), Vest’s October 7, 2026 funding announcement, the Trustpilot and PropFirmMatch pages and the Reddit threads we could open. We did not buy an account. Prices, rules and payout terms are read from the firm’s public pages on October 26, 2026; not verified by purchase.

Vest Markets review verdict: is Vest Markets legit?

Vest Markets is run by a named company with published terms, named investors and a public funding record. The live terms are an agreement with Vest Labs Inc., a Delaware corporation, under Delaware law. On October 7, 2026 Vest Labs announced a $13 million round led by Portal Ventures, bringing its total raised to $18 million, and it says 26% of its more than 27,000 traders had received a payout by late September 2026 (its own, unaudited figure). It publishes detailed docs, dated incident reports and a smart-contract audit. So the basic “is Vest Markets legit” answer is that it is an operating, funded business that sells prop accounts and reports paying traders.

The open questions are about what you are actually buying, and Vest’s own pages do not agree on several of them:

• Simulated or real. The prop terms say every account, including Instant accounts, is simulated and that payouts are “Program compensation”. The docs and FAQ call live accounts “real Vest capital. Not simulated”. The terms are the binding document, so we treat the accounts as simulated.
• Which company. The live terms name Vest Labs Inc. (Delaware). The copies of the same terms in Vest’s docs still name Vest Exchange Inc., a Panama corporation, under Panama law.
• Who can be paid. The prop terms allow US residents, but claimed profit is paid into the Primary Account on Vest’s exchange, whose terms bar US and UK persons. Vest does not explain how the two fit together.
• Price feed. Vest runs its own perpetual markets that track an index price. Half of its six Trustpilot reviews, and several Reddit posts, say Vest prices or fills moved differently from the real futures market.

What stands out in its favour: the drawdown is static on every account, there is no consistency rule and no minimum days, you can claim profit on demand with no cap, trading fees are low (0% maker), and the 1-Step builder lets you price your own mix of target, daily limit and split.

Our view: Vest Capital has some of the simplest published rules among perpetuals prop firms, but it is new (PropFirmMatch dates it to October 2025), its pages contradict each other on capital, company and country eligibility, and its venue is its own. Read the conflicts section before you pay, and if you are in the US or UK, ask Vest in writing how you will receive profit.

What Vest Markets is: Vest Capital, Vest Labs and Vest Exchange

Four names describe one business:

Name	What it is
Vest Markets	The trading platform and brand, at vestmarkets.com. The app, purchase page, FAQ and terms are on next.vestmarkets.com, and the docs are at docs.vestmarkets.com.
Vest Capital	The prop program inside the platform: “Vest’s proprietary funded trading program”.
Vest Labs Inc.	The company in the live terms and the website footer (“© 2026 Vest Labs Inc.”).
Vest Exchange	The older name of the venue. The old site, vest.exchange, now says “We’ve Moved! Our new home is at vestmarkets.com”.

Unlike most prop firms, Vest is not a reseller of someone else’s platform. It operates a perpetual-futures venue where anyone eligible can deposit USDC and trade with up to 100x leverage, and it sells prop accounts that trade on the same platform. The docs say both prop paths “use the same trading platform and the same execution”.

Who is behind it. Vest’s funding announcement is datelined New York and names Justin Ma as founder and CEO; press coverage of the round adds co-founders Rikuya Takatsu and Maximilian Tsiang. Vest names its backers differently on different pages:

• Homepage: “Backed & Supported By Portal Ventures, Coinbase, Jane Street, Selini”.
• Docs: “backed by Coinbase, Jane Street, Selini, Amber, QCP, BBH, IVC, and executives from Citadel, BlackRock, and HRT”. Note that this says executives from BlackRock, not BlackRock itself, although some Reddit posts describe Vest as “funded by BlackRock”.
• October 7, 2026 announcement: a $13 million round led by Portal Ventures, with Coinbase Ventures, Amber Group, Selini Capital, Auros and Flowdesk. An earlier $5 million seed was announced in March 2025.

When it started. Vest does not say when Vest Capital launched. PropFirmMatch lists “Date Created Oct 2025”, the Trustpilot profile was claimed in October 2025 and the @VestExchange account on X dates from January 2023.

Simulated or real capital? What the terms say

This is the single most important conflict on Vest’s pages, so here are the words side by side:

Source	What it says
Prop Trading Terms of Service (live, updated October 20, 2026)	“All Accounts, including Instant Funded Accounts, are simulated. No real trading capital, assets, margin, or collateral are credited or entrusted to you.” Payouts are “Program compensation” paid from general corporate funds.
Prop terms, hedging clause	“We may record a hypothetical result without executing a live trade, or independently enter into trades or hedges for our own accounts using our own capital.”
Site disclosure (homepage and purchase page)	“The program uses virtual accounts to collect nonbinding trade ideas.”
Docs, Vest Capital overview	“Real Vest capital. Not simulated, actual platform capital backing your positions.”
FAQ, “What changes when my account goes Live?”	“The capital behind it is real.” Fees “stop being simulated” once live.
October 7, 2026 announcement	Says traders “trade in a simulated trading environment” and also that “Every funded trade is placed in the real market, so Vest never takes the other side”.

The terms are the contract you accept, and they also let Vest copy, hedge, ignore or trade against your positions for its own account. We therefore call every Vest Capital account simulated. In practice this changes little for your rules or payouts, but it means you are not trading your own money on the exchange, and the “Vest never takes the other side” line is not something the terms promise. What you can lose is the fee: the terms say you do not owe simulated losses or negative balances.

How the Vest Capital prop program works, step by step

1. Create a Vest account. Sign up with email, Google or a crypto wallet (the docs say 500+ wallets are supported). The homepage FAQ says Vest Capital needs an email account; the docs and the app FAQ say wallet logins can buy too.
2. Choose an account. 1-Step (build your own target, daily loss limit and split), 2-Step (fixed rules) or Instant (no evaluation). Pay once by card or Apple Pay through Stripe or TailoredPay, through Whop, with crypto, or from your Vest Payout Balance. There is no subscription.
3. Trade the evaluation, if you bought one. Reach the profit target without breaching the static drawdown or your daily loss limit. There is no minimum number of days and no time limit, so it can be passed in one day.
4. Go live. On passing, “a Live Funded Account of the same size is created instantly”, with the same drawdown floor, the same daily limit if you chose one, and the split you picked at purchase. Instant accounts start here.
5. Claim profit. Submit Claim Profit whenever you like, with no minimum and no cap. Your share is credited to your Primary Account in 24 hours. You may need to close positions first, and a claim cannot be reversed.
6. Withdraw USDC. Send USDC from your Primary Account to your own wallet: on Base or Arbitrum One for email and Google accounts, or on any chain shown for wallet accounts.

A breach of either loss limit closes the account “immediately and permanently” with no warning. There is no reset; you buy a new account.

Pros and cons

Pros	Cons
Static drawdown on every account; it never trails profit	The prop terms call every account simulated, while the docs say “real capital”
No consistency rule, no minimum days, no time limit	The drawdown is tight: 6% on evaluations, 2% to 4% on Instant
Profit claims on demand, no minimum, no cap on amount or frequency	Claimed profit lands in the exchange account, whose terms bar US and UK persons
Build-your-own 1-Step pricing, 48 combinations, from $25	Payouts only in USDC to a crypto wallet; no bank or fiat payout route
Option to remove the daily loss limit entirely	Vest runs its own perps markets; some reviewers report prices and fills that differ from CME
Up to 95% split on Instant accounts, 80% or 90% on evaluations	No reset product: a breach means buying a new account
0% maker fees; 0.0025% taker on index and commodity perps	No API trading on any funded account
News trading, scalping, overnight and weekend holds allowed	Leverage on ES and NQ cut to 5x (gold 3x) from Friday 4:00 PM ET
Crypto trades 24/7; indices, stocks and FX 24/5	Young program (PropFirmMatch: October 2025) with only 6 Trustpilot reviews
Detailed docs, dated incident reports and a published audit	Thirteen conflicts between Vest’s own pages (company, refunds, sizes, leverage and more)

Vest Markets pricing and account types

All prices below come from the public catalog that the Vest Capital purchase page loads, checked October 26, 2026 and spot-checked against the cards shown on the page. All are one-time fees in US dollars, with no activation fee and no monthly fee published.

1-Step evaluation (configurable)

Choose a size (Silver $5K, Gold $10K, Platinum $25K or Emerald $50K), a profit target (10% or 20%), a daily loss limit (3%, 4% or none) and a split (80% or 90%). The maximum drawdown is always 6% and static. The purchase page’s default card shows no daily limit, a 10% target and an 80% split ($75 / $150 / $375 / $745); switching on the 3% daily limit shows $40 / $80 / $210 / $415.

Profit target	Daily loss limit	Your split	Silver $5K	Gold $10K	Platinum $25K	Emerald $50K
10%	3%	80%	$40	$80	$210	$415
10%	3%	90%	$48	$96	$252	$498
10%	4%	80%	$60	$110	$280	$555
10%	4%	90%	$72	$132	$330	$666
10%	None	80%	$75	$150	$375	$745
10%	None	90%	$90	$180	$450	$894
20%	3%	80%	$25	$50	$130	$255
20%	3%	90%	$30	$60	$156	$306
20%	4%	80%	$33	$65	$170	$335
20%	4%	90%	$40	$78	$204	$402
20%	None	80%	$50	$95	$250	$495
20%	None	90%	$60	$114	$300	$594

1-Step fixed values	Silver $5K	Gold $10K	Platinum $25K	Emerald $50K
Max drawdown (6%, static)	$300	$600	$1,500	$3,000
Drawdown floor	$4,700	$9,400	$23,500	$47,000
Target at 10%	$500	$1,000	$2,500	$5,000
Target at 20%	$1,000	$2,000	$5,000	$10,000
Daily limit at 3% / 4% of a flat starting balance	$150 / $200	$300 / $400	$750 / $1,000	$1,500 / $2,000

How the price moves: a 20% target costs roughly half to two-thirds of the 10% price, the 90% split adds about 20%, the 4% daily limit costs 1.3 to 1.5 times the 3% price, and removing the daily limit costs about 1.8 to 2 times the 3% price. Vest’s docs list only Silver, Gold and Platinum; the $50K Emerald size is on the live purchase page and catalog.

2-Step evaluation (fixed)

2-Step	Silver $5K	Gold $10K	Platinum $25K	Emerald $50K
Price	$15	$35	$90	$175
Step 1 target (10%)	$500	$1,000	$2,500	$5,000
Step 2 target (5%)	$250	$500	$1,250	$2,500
Daily loss limit	3%	3%	3%	3%
Max drawdown (6%, static)	$300	$600	$1,500	$3,000
Split once live	80%	80%	80%	80%

Instant accounts (no evaluation)

Instant	$500	$5K	$10K	$25K	$50K
Price	$10	$200	$400	$1,000	$2,000
Max drawdown (static, equals the fee)	$10 (2%)	$200 (4%)	$400 (4%)	$1,000 (4%)	$2,000 (4%)
Drawdown floor	$490	$4,800	$9,600	$24,000	$48,000
Daily loss limit	None	None	None	None	None
Profit target	None	None	None	None	None
Split	95%	95%	95%	95%	95%

Vest’s docs describe “four capital sizes, from $500 up to $25,000” for Instant. The live catalog adds the $50K size for $2,000. The homepage still advertises funded accounts “up to $25,000”, and PropFirmMatch lists a $500K maximum that no Vest page supports. Use the purchase page as the source for what you can buy.

1-Step, 2-Step or Instant: which account fits

Question	1-Step	2-Step	Instant
Cheapest entry	$25 ($5K, 20% target, 3% daily, 80%)	$15 ($5K)	$10 ($500)
Fastest to a live account	One target, can pass in a day	Two targets	Live at purchase
Daily loss limit	3%, 4% or none (your choice)	3%, fixed	None
Drawdown	6% static	6% static	2% to 4% static, equal to the fee
Split	80% or 90%	80%	95%
Price per $1,000 of drawdown room at $50K	$85.00 to $298.00	$58.33	$1,000

In short: the 2-Step is the cheapest way to buy loss room if you can hit two targets under a 3% daily limit. The 1-Step suits traders who want to remove the daily limit or lift the split, and will pay for it. The Instant account skips the evaluation, but you pay a dollar of fee for every dollar of drawdown, so it only makes sense if you expect to claim well above the fee quickly.

What it really costs: loss room and break-even

“Loss room” is the static drawdown: the most the account can lose before it closes. “Break-even” is the gross profit you need to claim so that your share equals the fee. Both use the catalog prices from October 26, 2026.

Account	Fee	Loss room	Fee per $1,000 of loss room	Gross profit to claim back the fee
2-Step $50K	$175	$3,000	$58.33	$218.75 at 80%
1-Step $50K, 20% target, 3% daily, 80%	$255	$3,000	$85.00	$318.75 at 80%
1-Step $50K, 10% target, 3% daily, 80%	$415	$3,000	$138.33	$518.75 at 80%
1-Step $50K, 10% target, no daily, 80%	$745	$3,000	$248.33	$931.25 at 80%
1-Step $50K, 10% target, no daily, 90%	$894	$3,000	$298.00	$993.33 at 90%
Instant $25K	$1,000	$1,000	$1,000	$1,052.63 at 95%
Instant $50K	$2,000	$2,000	$1,000	$2,105.26 at 95%

Is the 90% split worth it? On a 1-Step $50K with a 10% target and 3% daily limit, the 90% option costs $83 more ($498 against $415). The extra 10 points of split pay that back after $830 of claimed profit.

Is removing the daily limit worth it? On the same account it costs $330 more ($745 against $415). You get rid of a $1,500 daily line on a flat $50K account, but the $3,000 static floor stays.

Instant versus evaluation. A $25K Instant account costs $1,000 for $1,000 of room. A 1-Step Platinum $25K with a 20% target, 3% daily limit and 80% split costs $130 for $1,500 of room, but you must first make $5,000 without a $750 losing day. Reddit threads on Vest argue over exactly this trade-off.

The static drawdown and daily loss limit, with examples

Max drawdown. “A fixed floor, set once when your account is created. It never moves.” Profits do not raise it, and it is measured on equity, including open profit and loss, at every moment, not at the end of the day. It is 6% of starting capital on all evaluation accounts and equal to the fee on Instant accounts.

Daily loss limit (evaluation accounts that include one). The daily floor is the reset balance × (1 − 3% or 4%), plus or minus any non-trading transfers since the reset. The reset happens at 20:00 ET. The docs say the reset balance includes reserved collateral but excludes unrealized profit or loss; your live equity, including open trades, is checked against the floor. The FAQ instead says the floor is set from equity including unrealized profit and loss. Plan on the stricter reading.

Example, Platinum $25K, 1-Step with a 4% daily limit (Vest’s own example):

Moment	Balance at reset	Daily floor	Max drawdown floor
Day 1 reset	$25,000	$24,000	$23,500
Open trade up $2,000 during day 1	$25,000 (open profit not counted)	$24,000	$23,500
Day 2 reset with $27,000 realized	$27,000	$25,920	$23,500
Withdrawal of $500 after a $25,000 reset	$25,000	$23,500	$23,500

Two details to note. First, after a winning day the daily floor can sit well above the static floor, so the daily limit is often the rule that closes the account. Second, the docs say “equality alone does not breach a limit”, while the FAQ says the account closes if equity “touches or drops below” the floor ($23,500 “or lower” on a $25K). Treat touching the floor as a breach.

Every rule, with more worked examples, is on our Vest Markets rules page.

The order form shows an estimated “Fail Price” for long and short trades: the price at which the position would hit your drawdown or daily floor. Check it before every order.

Leverage by market, and how it meets the drawdown

Vest’s docs list a maximum leverage for each market. Funded accounts (evaluation and live) have lower caps than the Primary Account on most markets:

Market	Primary account max	Funded account max (docs table)
ES (S&P 500)	75x	75x
NQ, RTY, YM	50x	50x
Gold (GC)	25x	25x
Silver, copper, platinum	25x	5x
Crude oil (CL)	10x	10x
Brent, natural gas	10x	5x
BTC	50x	25x (the docs text says 15x)
ETH	50x	15x
SOL	20x	10x
XRP, HYPE	10x, 5x	Not available
NVDA	25x	25x
TSLA, INTC, MU, SNDK, SPCX	10x to 25x	10x
Most other stocks and ETFs, including SPY and QQQ	5x to 50x	5x
FX majors (EUR, GBP, JPY and others vs USD)	100x	5x

The FAQ says funded accounts go “up to 50x”, the docs say “up to 75x”, and the public catalog returns a maximum leverage of 5 on every plan without explaining it. Check the leverage shown on the order form for your account.

What leverage does to a 6% floor. Vest sizes ES and NQ in units: one ES unit moves 1 USDC per index point, so 50 units match one E-mini and 5 units match one Micro E-mini. On a Platinum $25K funded account with $1,500 of room, using the docs’ own hypothetical ES price of 6,000:

Position	Notional	Effective leverage	Points to the drawdown floor
5 ES units (1 Micro E-mini equivalent)	$30,000	1.2x	300 points
50 ES units (1 E-mini equivalent)	$300,000	12x	30 points
312 ES units (the 75x maximum)	$1,872,000	75x	About 4.8 points

With a 3% daily limit ($750 at the start of a day), the 50-unit position has 15 points of room. High leverage is available, but on a 6% static floor it buys very little room.

Liquidation versus breach. Vest liquidates a position when account equity falls below maintenance margin, using the mark price, and maintenance margin is half of initial margin. At 75x, initial margin on $25,000 of equity is the full $25,000, so liquidation would only come after a loss of about $12,500. The $1,500 drawdown floor closes the account long before that. On a Vest Capital account the drawdown, not liquidation, is the limit that matters; Vest also uses the mid price for profit and loss and the mark price only for liquidations.

Trading fees and funding rates

• Maker fee: 0% on every market and session.
• Taker fee: 0.0025% on index and commodity perps; 0.01% on everything else (stocks, crypto, FX).
• Evaluation accounts: fees are simulated but still deducted, and they count toward the drawdown and daily limit. Once live, the FAQ says fees are collected against the account balance.

Example: a 50-unit ES position at 6,000 is $300,000 of notional. A taker order costs $7.50 each way, $15 for a round trip. A hundred such round trips would use the whole $1,500 floor on a Platinum $25K, so limit orders (0% maker) matter on small accounts. A $100,000 BTC position costs $10 each way at 0.01%.

Funding. Funding is paid between longs and shorts, not to Vest, and is settled every hour. It combines a premium (how far the perp trades from the index) with a base interest rate:

Market type	Annual base rate	Normalization interval
Crypto	10.95%	24 hours
CME index futures (ES, NQ, RTY, YM)	0%	48 hours
Other CME futures, including FX and commodities	0%	120 hours
All other markets (stocks, ETFs)	5%	120 hours

Vest’s docs give a worked example: a $1.25 million NQ position with a 0.12% average premium pays $31.25 an hour if long. At the same premium, a $300,000 ES position would pay $7.50 an hour. Base interest on markets with a non-zero rate keeps accruing through weekends and trading locks. Vest’s pages do not say funded accounts are exempt from funding, so plan on it moving your account value like any other profit or loss.

24/7 crypto, weekend locks and the Friday leverage cut

Market	Schedule
Crypto	Trades continuously, including weekends
Index and commodity perps	Tradable through the daily 5:00 to 6:00 PM ET CME maintenance break; locked Friday 5:00 PM ET to Sunday 6:00 PM ET
Single stocks	Regular, pre-market, extended and overnight sessions Monday to Friday; locked Friday 8:00 PM ET to Sunday 8:00 PM ET
FX	Regular hours Monday to Friday; locked over the weekend

Weekend trading on non-crypto markets was paused from July 31, 2026, so those markets now trade 24/5. Holding over the weekend is allowed, but a position held into a lock “cannot be adjusted, added to, or closed until the market resumes”, and the drawdown keeps applying, so a Sunday gap can close the account.

Temporary leverage limits. From Friday 4:00 PM ET until the market reopens, the maximum leverage on Vest Capital accounts drops to 5x on ES and NQ and 3x on gold. Positions more than 2% above the reduced cap are cut down to it, unless your account is not in drawdown and can cover the margin all your positions need at the lower caps. If your account value is more than 1% below starting capital, those positions are closed in full instead. Limit orders above the reduced cap are cancelled, and fixed-size take-profit and stop orders shrink with the position. On a $25K account at ES 6,000, 5x is about 21 ES units of notional.

Trading rules: news, scalping, bots, API and banned strategies

• News: allowed. “You are free to open and hold positions before, during, and after any news release.”
• Scalping and high-frequency trading: allowed. “Scalping, news trading, and high-frequency approaches are all allowed.”
• Consistency and minimum days: none, in the evaluation or live. There is no cap on how much profit can come from one day.
• Position size: no per-trade limit beyond the drawdown and daily limit; the contract specifications list no position or order size limits.
• Markets: XRP and HYPE are not available on evaluation or live funded accounts. 25 markets are being delisted on October 30, 2026.
• API trading: not available on any funded account, so tools that need API access cannot be connected. The terms say Vest does not support third-party tools, and you use them at your own risk.
• VPNs: banned when used to get around the agreement’s restrictions, including country restrictions.
• Banned conduct (prop terms, section 5): manipulating prices, liquidity, volume, funding or settlement values; trades meant to make Vest’s hedges or liquidations distort markets; trading on Vest Exchange or elsewhere to front-run or trade against Vest’s hedges; wash trading, spoofing, layering and pre-arranged trades; collusion, multiple identities and misuse of multiple