There’s a fairly good way to discover a prop firm without paying upfront: compete under their own rules and see how the platform responds. I came across VerticalProp thanks to @Havochl_, and there are several aspects worth examining beyond the headline. 🏔️ The Summit Competition Vertical announces a monthly prize pool of $1,000,000 in funded accounts and rewards. Entry to the competitions is free, but you must check the eligibility criteria for each event. The format is simple: trade during the competition window, compete for your position on the leaderboard, and your profitability during the event determines your final ranking. But here’s the part that really matters: • Risk still rules. Competition accounts have loss limits. Violating them disqualifies you, even if you were previously in profit. • Simply appearing on the leaderboard isn’t enough. To qualify for a prize, you must close at least one trade and not have violated any rules. • $1M in prizes doesn’t mean $1M in cash. Vertical refers to funded accounts and rewards, but I haven’t been able to verify a complete official breakdown of how this prize pool is distributed. A $100K funded account does not equal $100K in cash payout. There’s another reason I find this project interesting to follow: Vertical is building something broader than just a leaderboard: crypto and traditional asset trading, per-trade performance analytics, and integration with AI tools. They also mention on-chain verifiable settlements and payments, though this feature is listed as a future capability on their website. Wishing everyone great success and good trading!