Velotrade, a new crypto proprietary trading firm founded by former institutional derivatives traders from JP Morgan, Dresdner Kleinwort, and Bank of America, has officially launched its funded trading platform. The firm, operating as Velotrade Re Limited out of Hong Kong, offers traders accounts ranging from $5,000 to $200,000 without requiring them to risk their own capital.
The launch marks a significant entry into the crypto prop trading space, backed by a team with decades of combined experience in capital markets and risk management. The founders previously built Velotrade Management Limited, a separate fintech trade finance platform that has paid out over $2.5 billion to clients worldwide since 2016.
CEO Gianluca Pizzituti explained the motivation behind the venture: "We looked at the crypto prop market and found firms run by people with little experience in trading, in risk management, or in running a financial services company. That shows. We thought: there is an opportunity to build something the industry actually needs."
A key differentiator is Velotrade's business model. Unlike many prop firms that generate revenue primarily from challenge fees when traders fail, Velotrade uses institutional liquidity bridges and AI-driven hedging to mirror profitable trader positions in real markets. "Our revenue model is tied to trader performance. That changes everything about how you design rules, and how you treat the people trading your capital," said Pizzituti.
The platform's rule set was designed specifically for the crypto market, rejecting frameworks borrowed from forex. Notable features include: no consistency rule penalizing large winning days; no time limit on evaluations; permission for news trading during market events; and allowance for weekend holding of positions. Traders can choose between a two-step challenge with more drawdown room or a one-step challenge for faster funding.
Velotrade trades exclusively cryptocurrencies with leverage of up to 6x on BTC and ETH. Payouts to funded traders can be requested after 14 calendar days for the first withdrawal, with subsequent weekly payouts processed within 24 hours in USDC or USDT.
