Exclusive: Prop Trading Firm FTMO Halts US Client Acquisition amid MetaQuotes Crackdown

In what appears to be related to the latest MetaQuotes crackdown on the proprietary trading landscape, prop firm FTMO has stopped onboarding US clients, Finance Magnates has learned. New traders attempting to register from a US IP address were unable to complete the registration form. Existing accounts of US clients have not been closed or refunded. The firm's support team informed its clients about the migration to the new DXtrade platform.

In an email to one of their clients, published on X, the support team informed "Robert", about an upcoming change affecting the availability of MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 for U.S. clients starting tomorrow (Monday).

It details that this change will affect both U.S. nationals and residents who are non-U.S. nationals but reside in the U.S., across all platforms. The email advises clients to close all open positions by Friday market closure, as any remaining positions will be closed after the market closes.

The email also mentions that the account will be migrated to the new DXtrade platform, with links provided to familiarize with the new platform and the developers.

Over the weekend, industry sources and Twitter influencers reported that FTMO servers are currently not showing up on MT4 and MT5. A prop trading-focused account pondered if the step "could be due to the migration of US traders to DXtrade," echoing the upheaval the nascent sector is undergoing since MetaQuotes has decided to pull the plug on its funded trading clients accepting US clients, due to regulatory concerns. Finance Magnates has reached out to FTMO and will provide updates.

On a Linkdein post, Industry expert Anya Aratovskaya estimated yesterday that Out of 122 Trader Trader Funded Firms she examined, only 3 have cTrader or DXTrader as of last week. According to Aratovskaya, many TTF's are "Not ready to say goodbye to MT4/MT5".

In its latest action, the Limassol-based technology company forced Blackbull Markets, which was grey-labeling its MT5 license to prop trading firms, to terminate its services to Funding Pips.

Although MetaQuotes did not publicly confirm its move against prop trading firms, Blackbull’s Chief Business Development Officer, Anish Lal, told Finance Magnates that the broker was “forced to immediately shut down Funding Pips as a client.”

The CEO of Funding Pips, who goes by the name “Khaled” on X (formerly Twitter), confirmed that it was the push of MetaQuotes that forced Blackbull to terminate its services to the prop trading firm. He further pointed out that MetaQuotes' decision came “due to active US accounts.”

“Today, MetaQuotes decided to abruptly halt services due to active US accounts, with no prior notice,” the CEO of Funding Pips wrote. “[Blackbull Markets] didn’t terminate our partnership, but they were forced to let us go, or they would have lost their license, as you all have seen today, they got delisted from the app itself, hopefully, they come back. I got nothing but that best to talk about them."