Pass the challenge. Trade funded. Keep the profit.
The MUTEX prop desk sells prop trading challenges and funded trading accounts on crypto, stock, ETF, commodity and forex perps from inside the exchange. Reach a profit target without touching two loss floors, or skip the evaluation with instant funding, then keep up to 90% of the profit, paid in USDC.
The account is live the moment you activate it. Open the builder for today's fee or read the full rules.
Trailing drawdown, measured on the same engine that fills the order. Payouts on request in USDC, at least 7 days apart.
A prop desk run by the exchange, not a third party
Most crypto prop firms sit on top of someone else's platform. The MUTEX prop desk is part of the exchange: you buy the challenge, trade it, get funded and get paid in one account, in the same terminal, with the same charts and order tickets as a normal perp account.
Be clear about what the account is. A MUTEX prop account, challenge or funded, is simulated: it trades on the desk's own engine, and every fill walks the live Lighter perpetual futures order book at its real depth and spread, pays the standard taker or maker fee and pays or receives hourly funding. Your orders are signals to the desk. Nothing is placed on Lighter under your name and no capital is handed to you. What is real is the payout: it is paid in USDC from the desk's own funds into your MUTEX funding balance.
How the prop trading challenge works
Every MUTEX prop desk account follows the same four steps. Instant funding starts at step three.
- 01
Buy a challenge
Pick a route and an account size in the builder. The fee leaves your USDC funding balance once, and the account opens in the same terminal you already trade in.
- 02
Hit the profit target
Grow the account to its target while equity stays above both loss floors. The pass is measured on closed profit with the account flat, and no single trade may make up 50% or more of it.
- 03
Activate the funded account
A passed challenge waits for you, and never expires, until you press Activate. Instant funding starts here.
- 04
Trade funded and take payouts
Trade under the same two floors with no target, and request a payout in USDC whenever you are flat and in profit above the payout line.
Challenge routes, profit targets and account sizes
The MUTEX prop desk sells three ways in: a 1-Step evaluation, a 2-Step evaluation and instant funding. Each comes on two loss floors, and the tighter floor is the cheaper ticket. Accounts come in $2.5K, $5K, $10K, $25K, $50K. This table reads the desk's live price sheet.
| Route | Account sizes | Profit target | Max daily loss | Max total loss | Your split |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instant Funding, 6% max loss | $2.5K, $5K, $10K | None | 4% | 6% trailing | 70% |
| Instant Funding, 3% max loss | $2.5K, $5K, $10K | None | 2% | 3% trailing | 70% |
| 1-Step Evaluation | $2.5K, $5K, $10K, $25K, $50K | 10% | 4% | 6% trailing | 90% |
| 1-Step Evaluation, 3% max loss | $2.5K, $5K, $10K, $25K, $50K | 9% | 2% | 3% trailing | 90% |
| 2-Step Evaluation | $2.5K, $5K, $10K, $25K, $50K | 8% then 5% | 5% | 8% trailing | 90% |
| 2-Step Evaluation, 5% max loss | $2.5K, $5K, $10K, $25K, $50K | 8% then 5% | 3% | 5% trailing | 90% |
You can also build your own challenge in the app: no evaluation, one phase or two, a profit target from 4% to 12%, a daily loss from 3% to 8% and a total loss from 5% to 15%. A custom challenge is priced live as you move the sliders.
The two loss floors, and what a breach means
Every MUTEX prop account carries two limits, both measured on equity, so open positions and floating losses count. Both are a percentage of the starting balance.
- Max daily loss
- At 00:00 UTC the engine records your equity as the day's anchor. The daily floor is that anchor minus the daily allowance, for the next 24 hours.
- Max total loss
- The floor trails your high-water mark: it sits the total-loss percentage below the highest equity the account has reached and only ever moves up. A funded account always runs this trailing floor.
- Breach
- Touch either floor and the desk cancels every order, closes every position at market and ends the account for good. There are no resets. You never owe a trading loss: the most you can lose is the fee.
The worked examples, with dollar figures, are in the prop desk rules.
The funded trading account, payout split and timing
A passed evaluation or an instant purchase gives you a funded account on the MUTEX prop desk: the same starting balance, the same two floors, and no profit target. Press Activate and it is live at once. You can run up to 3 live funded accounts and hold up to 10 open challenges at the same time.
- You keep 90% of the profit on an evaluation route and 70% on instant funding. The split is locked in when you buy.
- Request a payout whenever the account is flat, with no open order, and the profit is above 1% of the starting balance. There is no fixed payout day.
- Payouts on the same account are at least 7 days apart, and no single trade may make up 50% or more of the profit.
- A payout sweeps all profit, pays your split in USDC to your funding balance and resets the account to its starting balance. Small payouts are approved automatically; larger ones are reviewed.
- The first payout on an evaluation route also returns the challenge fee in full.
Prop challenge fees and leverage
The MUTEX prop desk charges one fee per challenge, in USDC from your funding balance, with no subscription and no monthly, inactivity or payout fee. Each route and size has its own price, and the desk retunes them, so today's fee is shown live in the challenge builder and in the rules. Trades on a prop account pay the default MUTEX perp fee, the book's spread and depth, and hourly funding, and all of it counts toward the floors.
Leverage is capped per market at 20% of Lighter's own maximum, never above 10x. BTC, which Lighter lists at 50x, gets 10x. The cap is the same on every route and size, challenge and funded alike.
Who the MUTEX prop desk suits
A good fit
- Perp traders with a tested edge who want more size than their own balance.
- Traders who want no deadline and no minimum trading days.
- Anyone who wants to cap the downside at a known fee.
- Bot and AI agent users: any strategy is allowed inside the floors.
Think twice
- Most traders do not pass. The fee is lost on a breach.
- Floating losses count, so one bad position can end the account.
- One big winning trade cannot carry a pass or a payout on its own.
- A funded account is simulated. You own no capital in it.
Prohibited conduct, identity and place rules and the full risk acknowledgment are in the prop desk rules. Prefer to trade your own balance? See perps and spot or run a trading bot.
Start a prop challenge
Pick a route, see today's fee and buy from your USDC funding balance. Your challenges and funded accounts live on the prop desk in the app.