By Alex Firdaus · Updated September 3, 2026 · Data checked September 3, 2026
E8 Markets Review 2026: Perpetual Futures, Rules and Payouts
Quick verdict: E8 Markets is a US-based simulated prop firm that rebuilt its product lineup in 2026 around perpetual futures. E8 Markets now sells E8 One and E8 Pro on forex or perpetual futures, E8 Signature on forex or CME futures, and E8 Zero on futures alone. The perpetual accounts price off a Hyperliquid feed and run on the E8 Terminal, E8 Markets' own browser platform. E8 Markets has paid out $76.7 million across 22,606 requests since 2021. Two rules deserve attention before you buy: perpetual accounts are netting only, so you cannot hedge, and E8 Pro releases half your accumulated profit per payout request no matter which split you chose.
Use code FTR5 for 5% off · Up to 100% profit split on E8 One · $76.7M+ paid out since 2021
Table of Contents
- What Is E8 Markets?
- E8 Markets Perpetual Futures Explained
- E8 Markets Challenge Types
- E8 Markets Drawdown Rules
- E8 Markets Payout Rules
- Platforms and Instruments
- Trading Rules on Funded Accounts
- E8 Markets Discount Code
- Pros and Cons
- Best For and Avoid If
- Is E8 Markets Legit?
- E8 Markets Alternatives
- Final Verdict
- FAQ
What Is E8 Markets?
E8 Markets is a US-based simulated proprietary trading firm registered as E8 Funding LLC in Dallas, Texas. E8 Markets launched in November 2021 as E8 Funding and rebranded in November 2023. E8 Markets sells one-step evaluations across forex, CME futures and perpetual futures, and pays traders on validated performance in a simulated environment.
Traders pay a one-time fee, trade simulated capital against live market data under fixed risk rules, then request payouts. E8 Markets does not take deposits and does not operate as a broker. If you are new to this structure, our guide to how prop firms actually work covers the mechanics.
Three legal entities appear in E8 Markets' own disclosures. E8 Funding LLC in Dallas runs TradeLocker, cTrader and Match Trader. E8 Markets Ltd, registration number 2025-00347, incorporated in Saint Lucia, runs MetaTrader 5. Digital Renaissance LLC in Puerto Rico governs the website's internal policies. Dylan Elchami has been CEO since launch.
E8 Markets now runs three market properties, not two
E8 Markets splits its business across three market segments, and the firm names all three in its own site navigation. Classic Markets covers forex on e8markets.com. Futures Market covers CME contracts on e8futures.com. Perpetuals 24/7 sits behind a market switch on e8markets.com and runs on the Hyperliquid feed.
The documentation is split three ways too. Forex and perpetual rules live at help.e8markets.com. Futures rules live at helpfutures.e8markets.com. Platform documentation for the E8 Terminal lives somewhere else again, at trade.e8markets.com/docs. Traders checking a rule regularly land in the wrong help centre and read a number that does not apply to their account.
E8 Markets' own evaluation disclaimer still cites a 17.7% pass rate for active traders between January 2023 and March 2024. E8 Markets has not published an updated figure since.
E8 Markets Perpetual Futures Explained
E8 Markets sells two perpetual futures challenges, E8 One Perpetual and E8 Pro Perpetual. Both price off a Hyperliquid feed and run inside E8 Markets' simulated SimFi environment on the E8 Terminal, a browser platform at trade.e8markets.com. Perpetual futures track an asset's price and never expire, so there is no contract to roll.
You are not trading on Hyperliquid
E8 Markets takes the Hyperliquid price feed and runs simulated positions against it. Trades stay inside E8 Markets. There is no on-chain execution, no wallet, and no funding rate paid to a counterparty on a decentralised exchange. This is the detail every other write-up of this launch has skipped, and it matters, because traders who already use Hyperliquid will expect their fills to behave the same way and they will not.
The feed does buy real breadth. One perpetual account covers crypto, US stocks, indices, metals, forex and energy, and it runs around the clock. E8 Markets built its previous crypto product on Binance infrastructure and positioned that as the serious crypto offering in 2025. The Hyperliquid perpetual accounts have now replaced it, and the three older crypto products have been filed as legacy.
Leverage on E8 Markets perpetual accounts
| Asset class | Leverage |
|---|---|
| Bitcoin | 1:15 |
| Ethereum | 1:15 |
| Other crypto | 1:2 |
| Stocks | 1:5 |
| Indices | 1:15 |
| Metals | 1:15 |
| Forex | 1:25 |
| Energy | 1:15 |
Forex leverage on a perpetual account is 1:25, lower than the 1:30 on E8 Markets classic forex accounts. Altcoin leverage of 1:2 is severe by crypto standards. A position size that worked on an old E8 Markets crypto account will need roughly a quarter of the notional exposure here, and traders who carry their sizing across will find their profit target much further away than they expected.
What the E8 Terminal does
The E8 Terminal is E8 Markets' own build, not a white-labelled third-party platform. Its documentation lists an Analytics section with performance reporting and a journal roll-up, a Journaling section with a monthly profit and loss calendar, leaderboards, a markets and news section, and a Trader Score that grades behaviour across Execution Quality, Risk Integrity, Session Repeatability, Revenge Control and Regime Robustness. On a challenge or funded account the header shows daily loss limit, trailing loss limit and profit target at all times. The terminal also exposes an API key and an MCP interface, so traders can wire it into their own scripts or an AI assistant.
E8 Markets Challenge Types
E8 Markets sells four products and every one is a single-phase challenge. E8 Markets offers E8 One and E8 Pro on forex or perpetual futures, E8 Signature on forex or CME futures, and E8 Zero on futures only. E8 Markets has moved its three crypto products into a legacy folder.
E8 One Perpetual
E8 One Perpetual has a 6% profit target on closed profit, a 3% daily drawdown measured from the day's starting balance as a hard breach, and a 4% dynamic drawdown that rises only when you close a profit. There is no time limit, but E8 Markets requires one closed trade every 60 days. Those are preset figures and several are customisable at checkout.
The dynamic drawdown only moves on closed profit, which cuts both ways. An open position sitting 3% up buys you nothing until you close it. Traders who hold winners for days get no cushion for the whole hold, then get the full step up at once.
In the challenge stage E8 Markets applies no consistency rule and allows unrestricted news trading. Once funded, a 40% best-day rule applies and E8 Markets prohibits trading in the five minutes either side of a high-impact release. Net profit at request time must exceed 50% of the daily drawdown.
E8 Pro Perpetual
E8 Pro Perpetual has an 8% profit target, a 2.5% daily drawdown as a hard breach, an 8% static drawdown that does not move until your first payout, and a 2% daily profit cap. E8 Markets applies no best-day rule, no consistency rule and no minimum trading days on E8 Pro. Payouts can be requested daily once profit clears 1% of initial balance.
The 2% daily profit cap is the rule that catches people. On a $100,000 account only $2,000 of a day's profit counts toward the 8% target, however much more you make. Catch one clean 5% move and three fifths of it is decoration. Passing E8 Pro takes a minimum of four profitable days by construction, so it rewards grinders and quietly penalises anyone whose edge is a small number of large trades.
E8 Markets calculates every E8 Pro payout in two steps. E8 Markets sets aside 50% of accumulated profit as the requestable amount, then applies your chosen split to that half. On a 100% split with $4,000 in profit you receive $2,000. The other $2,000 stays in the account as a drawdown buffer after the static loss level moves up to your starting balance, and E8 Markets is explicit that this half is still yours and rolls into the next cycle. Cash in hand per request runs at roughly half the headline split. A request larger than the remaining buffer fails the account instantly, so the buffer matters more than the percentage.
E8 One Forex and E8 Pro Forex
E8 One Forex is the fully customisable option. You select drawdown, daily loss limit and a split of 80%, 90% or 100% at purchase, with no payout caps and no buffer withheld. E8 Pro Forex runs the same static drawdown and the same 50/50 payout mechanic described above.
E8 Signature
E8 Signature is the cheaper fixed-parameter product, sold on forex and CME futures. E8 Signature has a 6% profit target, an end-of-day dynamic drawdown, an 80% split with no upgrade path, tiered payout caps, and a Daily Pause soft breach on funded accounts. A 35% best-day rule applies once funded. E8 Signature Futures accounts bought after 14 July 2026 cap at five payouts per account, and only profit earned in the current cycle counts toward a request.
That cycle rule is harsher than it reads. Profit left unrequested at the end of a cycle does not carry forward. A trader who builds up across two cycles and requests once loses the earlier cycle's unclaimed profit from the calculation.
E8 Zero
E8 Zero is now a futures-only product on e8futures.com, in Starter and Max variants with identical rules and different pricing and payout caps. E8 Zero runs an end-of-day dynamic drawdown, applies a 40% best-day rule during the challenge stage only, and drops consistency requirements once funded. Each E8 Zero account allows five payouts, then closes and E8 Markets issues a free replacement challenge.
The inactivity window on E8 Zero is seven days, against 60 days on E8 One and E8 Pro. Take a two-week holiday on a funded E8 Zero account and it is gone. E8 Markets does not allow expert advisors, overnight holding or weekend holding on E8 Zero.
| E8 One | E8 Pro | E8 Signature | E8 Zero | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Markets | Forex, Perpetual Futures | Forex, Perpetual Futures | Forex, CME Futures | CME Futures |
| Profit target | 6%, customisable | 8% | 6% | Varies by size |
| Max drawdown | Dynamic, closed balance | Static | EOD dynamic | EOD dynamic |
| Daily limit | Daily drawdown, hard breach | 2.5% daily drawdown, hard breach | Daily Pause, soft, funded only | None |
| Daily profit cap | None | 2% | None | None |
| Consistency | 40% best day, funded only | None | 35% best day, funded only | 40% best day, challenge only |
| Payout caps | None | None | Yes, tiered | Yes, 5 payouts max |
| Profit split | 80%, 90%, 100% | 80% or 100% of a 50% payout half | 80% | 80% or 100% |
| News, funded | Banned around Tier 1 events | Allowed | Allowed | Allowed |
| Expert advisors | Yes | Yes | Forex yes, futures no | No |
| Weekend holding | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Inactivity | 60 days | 60 days | 60 days forex, 7 days futures | 7 days |
As of September 2026, checked against E8 Markets' product comparison article and individual product pages on help.e8markets.com and helpfutures.e8markets.com.
E8 Markets Drawdown Rules
E8 Markets uses three different drawdown types across its lineup. E8 One runs a dynamic drawdown that moves on closed profit. E8 Pro runs a static drawdown that never trails. E8 Signature and E8 Zero run an end-of-day dynamic drawdown that updates once a day at close. Picking the wrong one for your holding period is the most common way traders fail an E8 Markets account.
Dynamic drawdown, on E8 One
The floor rises each time you close a profit, based on your highest closed balance, and locks permanently once it reaches your starting balance. Unrealised gains do not move it. This is friendlier than a real-time trailing drawdown, because an open-trade spike you give back does not count against you. It is less forgiving for anyone who takes profit in pieces, since each partial close ratchets the floor up under you.
Static drawdown, on E8 Pro
The floor is fixed at purchase and never trails. It moves once, up to your initial balance, when your first payout is processed. After that, E8 Markets deducts each payout from the remaining buffer, and a request larger than the buffer covers fails the account on the spot. The static floor is safer for traders who run drawdown early, and it builds no cushion as you profit, so a late-account losing streak is as dangerous as an early one.
End-of-day dynamic drawdown, on E8 Signature and E8 Zero
The floor updates once a day at close, based on your highest end-of-day balance. Intraday excursions do not move it in either direction. Intraday traders who dig a hole and climb out before the bell survive here and would not survive a real-time trailing floor. Our guide to max trailing drawdown covers the difference between intraday and end-of-day models, and the full prop firm drawdown rules guide explains how each type is calculated.
E8 Markets Payout Rules
E8 Markets pays on demand with no fixed waiting period, gated by product-specific conditions rather than a calendar. E8 Markets processes payments through Plane for bank transfer with a $100 minimum and Rise for crypto or bank with a $250 minimum, both quoted at one to two business days. E8 Markets reports average processing of roughly 17 hours across 22,606 completed payouts.
| Product | Frequency | Gate |
|---|---|---|
| E8 One | On demand | 40% best-day rule, net profit above 50% of daily drawdown |
| E8 Pro | Daily | 1% minimum profit, 50% of profit withheld as buffer |
| E8 Signature | On demand | 35% best-day rule, 5 profitable days between requests, permanent buffer |
| E8 Zero | Daily | Payout caps, 5 payouts per account lifetime |
The buffer deduction rule applies to E8 Pro and E8 Zero and is the single most dangerous mechanic on the page. Requesting more than the remaining drawdown buffer covers does not get rejected, it fails the account. Check the buffer before every request, not the split percentage.
Platforms and Instruments
E8 Markets supports five platforms: MetaTrader 5, TradeLocker, cTrader, Match Trader and the E8 Terminal. Perpetual accounts run on the E8 Terminal only. Forex accounts run on MetaTrader 5, TradeLocker, cTrader or Match Trader. E8 Markets routes futures accounts through Tradovate for E8 Zero, with NinjaTrader, Quantower, TradingView and Sierra Chart on E8 Signature Futures.
Instrument coverage runs to around 150 markets. Forex pairs, indices including US30, NAS100, GER40, FTSE100 and Nikkei, metals, energy, US equities, and crypto perpetuals from BTC and ETH down to smaller alts. Futures covers standard CME contracts including ES, NQ, YM, RTY, CL and GC. Forex account sizes run from $5,000 to $500,000.
E8 Markets restricts MetaTrader 5 access for US residents and does not serve residents of Cuba, Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, North Korea, Russia, Ukraine or Belarus. If you are trading from the US, our best US prop firms guide covers the alternatives. Match Trader users can compare across the field in our best Match Trader prop firms ranking.
Full platform documentation for the E8 Terminal is published at trade.e8markets.com/docs.
Trading Rules on Funded Accounts
E8 Markets allows expert advisors on E8 One, E8 Pro and E8 Signature Forex, restricted to one unique strategy per trader. E8 Markets does not allow expert advisors on E8 Zero or E8 Signature Futures. E8 Markets allows copy trading across accounts you own personally on every product.
Accounts running patterns identical to other users get flagged and terminated. That rule catches traders who buy a commercial EA off the shelf, since dozens of E8 Markets accounts can end up running the same logic without any of them knowing.
A scalping cap applies across the lineup. Hold more than 50% of your trades under one minute and E8 Markets flags the account. E8 Markets closes accounts after 60 days without a trade on forex and perpetual products, and after seven days on futures products. The seven-day futures window is short enough that a normal break from trading ends a funded account, so E8 Zero and E8 Signature Futures need a trade placed before any time away.
E8 Markets Discount Code 2026
FTR5 is the verified FundedTrading discount code for E8 Markets and gives 5% off at checkout. FTR5 works on E8 One, E8 Pro, E8 Signature and E8 Zero across forex, futures and perpetual futures.
FundedTrading Exclusive: 5% Off with Code FTR5
Enter FTR5 in the promo field at the final step of checkout, then click Validate before paying.
Offer: 5% off any E8 Markets challenge.
E8 Markets runs its own promotions alongside affiliate codes, and they are often larger than 5%. E8 Markets' help centre states that the house code E8 gives up to 35% off depending on product, and E8 Markets was advertising 25% off a $100,000 forex challenge as of September 2026. Only one code applies per order, so compare the live offer against FTR5 before you buy.
E8 Markets charges a one-time fee with no subscription and no built-in reset cost. Drawdown choice, split choice and account size all move the price, so the checkout figure is the only one that counts. E8 Markets states in its own terms that payments cover access to educational software and services and are non-refundable unless unused, so treat the fee as spent at the moment you place your first trade.
Third-party sites list other E8 Markets codes with claimed values from 5% to 50%. FTR5 is the only code FundedTrading has verified directly. For every code we have checked across the industry, see our prop firm discount codes page.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- $76.7M paid across 22,606 requests since 2021, on a live tracker anyone can check
- One perpetual account covers crypto, stocks, indices, metals, forex and energy, running 24/7
- The E8 Terminal is E8 Markets' own build, with behavioural scoring, journaling and an API and MCP interface
- E8 One pays a full 100% split on total profit with no buffer withheld
- No minimum trading days on any E8 Markets evaluation
- 4.8 out of 5 from 483 PropFirmMatch reviews, plus that platform's 2025 Best Payout Process award for forex
Cons
- Perpetual accounts are netting only, ruling out hedged and market-neutral strategies
- Altcoin leverage of 1:2 is severe, and perpetual forex drops to 1:25 against 1:30 on classic accounts
- E8 Pro releases half your accumulated profit per request regardless of the split you chose
- An oversized payout request on E8 Pro or E8 Zero fails the account instantly
- E8 Markets restructured its lineup again in 2026 and retired three crypto products traders had bought into
- Seven-day inactivity window on futures products, against 60 days on forex and perpetual accounts
- Perpetual pricing is not published anywhere readable outside the checkout flow
Best For and Avoid If
Is E8 Markets Legit?
E8 Markets is a legitimate simulated prop firm operating since November 2021 and registered as E8 Funding LLC in Dallas, Texas. E8 Markets publishes a live payout tracker showing $76,708,711 paid across 22,606 requests, and holds a 4.8 out of 5 rating from 483 PropFirmMatch reviews as of September 2026. E8 Markets is not regulated as a broker, which is standard across the industry.
The payout record is the strongest evidence available. E8 Markets has paid on schedule in every case documented during this research, at an average of $3,393 per payout and roughly 17 hours processing, and the tracker updates continuously at e8markets.com/e8-traders-stories so anyone can check it independently. E8 Markets won PropFirmMatch's 2025 award for Best Payout Process in forex.
Trustpilot shows roughly 3,275 reviews at a 4.3 score, with third-party citations over recent months ranging from 4.3 to 4.5. Trustpilot displays a notice on the E8 Markets profile stating that fake reviews were removed, which is a platform action rather than a firm statement, and it should be read as one.
The clearest risk at E8 Markets is documented in E8 Markets' own product pages rather than in reviews. E8 Markets has restructured its lineup twice in 2026, launching E8 Zero in July and retiring three crypto products by September, so a trader who bought a crypto challenge earlier this year now holds a product E8 Markets files as legacy. Check the product page for the exact account you are buying, and our guide on how to tell if a prop firm is legitimate covers what else to verify before paying at any firm.
E8 Markets discloses both legal entities on its terms page and does not manage client funds.
E8 Markets Alternatives
E8 Markets is the only prop firm currently offering perpetual futures on a Hyperliquid feed, so there is no direct substitute for that product. For traders who want the underlying exposure rather than the feed, the closest alternatives split into real-exchange crypto firms and established multi-asset firms.
| Firm | Angle | Trust signal |
|---|---|---|
| E8 Markets | Perpetual futures on a simulated Hyperliquid feed, plus forex and CME futures. One-step only. | 4.8/5 from 483 PropFirmMatch reviews |
| FTMO | Conventional forex evaluation benchmark. Balance-based drawdown, so normal trade fluctuation does not trigger a breach. Leverage capped at 1:30. | Longest track record in the category |
| Hola Prime | Multi-asset forex firm, FundedTrading's #1 Prop Trading Firm USA 2025. | 4.5/5 from 2,773 Trustpilot reviews as of July 2026 |
HyroTrader is worth naming separately for crypto traders. It routes orders to a real Bybit account rather than a simulated feed, which is the opposite design decision to E8 Markets. If the appeal of the perpetual product is genuine crypto exposure rather than the multi-asset breadth, that distinction matters more than any rule comparison. Compare specifications across the field with our prop firm comparison tool, or browse the full prop firm directory.
Final Verdict
E8 Markets is worth considering for directional traders who want multi-asset exposure in one account and a platform with genuine analytics behind it. The perpetual futures products are the most interesting thing any prop firm shipped this year, and the payout record behind them is $76.7 million across 22,606 completed requests.
Two things hold the score down. E8 Markets rewrites its product lineup roughly every six months, and each rewrite strands traders holding the previous version. And the rules that matter most, netting on perpetuals and the 50% buffer on E8 Pro, are the ones E8 Markets does not put in its marketing. Read the product page for the exact account you are buying, not the homepage.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are E8 One Perpetual and E8 Pro Perpetual?
E8 One Perpetual and E8 Pro Perpetual are one-step evaluations from E8 Markets that trade perpetual futures on a Hyperliquid price feed inside the simulated SimFi environment. E8 One Perpetual has a 6% profit target, a 3% daily drawdown and a 4% dynamic drawdown. E8 Pro Perpetual has an 8% profit target, a 2.5% daily drawdown and an 8% static drawdown.
Do E8 Markets perpetual accounts trade on Hyperliquid?
E8 Markets prices its perpetual accounts off a Hyperliquid feed and runs the positions inside a simulated environment. Trades stay inside E8 Markets. There is no on-chain execution, no wallet and no funding payment to a counterparty on the decentralised exchange.
Can you hedge on an E8 Markets perpetual account?
E8 Markets runs perpetual futures accounts on a netting system. An opposite order in an instrument you already hold reduces or closes that position rather than opening a second one. Strategies that need simultaneous long and short exposure in the same symbol do not work on E8 Markets perpetual accounts.
Does E8 Markets still offer crypto accounts?
E8 Markets has moved E8 One Crypto, E8 Pro Crypto and E8 Signature Crypto into a legacy products folder in its help centre. Crypto exposure at E8 Markets now runs through the perpetual futures accounts. A Crypto tab still appears in the E8 Markets configurator, so confirm the product at checkout.
Is E8 Zero still available on forex and crypto?
E8 Markets now lists E8 Zero as a futures-only product, sold through e8futures.com in Starter and Max variants. The forex and crypto versions of E8 Zero are no longer in the current E8 Markets product list.
Does E8 Pro really pay a 100% profit split?
E8 Markets sets aside 50% of accumulated profit as the requestable amount on E8 Pro, then applies the chosen split to that half. A trader on a 100% split with $4,000 in profit receives $2,000 on that request. The retained half stays in the account as a drawdown buffer and rolls into the next cycle.
How much has E8 Markets paid out to traders?
E8 Markets has paid out $76,708,711 across 22,606 payouts, according to the live tracker E8 Markets publishes at e8markets.com/e8-traders-stories. That averages $3,393 per payout at roughly 17 hours processing time. The tracker updates continuously and anyone can check the current figure.
Is E8 Markets legit?
E8 Markets is a legitimate simulated prop firm registered as E8 Funding LLC in Dallas, Texas, operating since November 2021. E8 Markets publishes a live payout tracker showing $76.7 million paid across 22,606 requests and holds a 4.8 out of 5 rating from 483 PropFirmMatch reviews. E8 Markets is not regulated as a broker.
What is the E8 Markets discount code?
FTR5 is the verified FundedTrading discount code for E8 Markets and gives 5% off at checkout. FTR5 works on E8 One, E8 Pro, E8 Signature and E8 Zero. E8 Markets also runs its own site promotions that are often larger than 5%, so compare the live offer before buying.
Get 5% Off Your E8 Markets Challenge
Use code FTR5 at checkout. Compare it against E8 Markets' live site promotion first.
Claim 5% Off with FTR5

