Trading platforms spend heavily to win new users, and a growing share of that spending goes into trading competitions: leaderboards that pay cash, tokens or funded accounts to the traders who trade the most or perform the best. A new monthly dataset puts numbers on that market for the first time, and the picture it shows is lopsided.

In October 2026, 156 trading campaigns were active across 80 trading platforms, according to TraderComps, the home of trading competitions, bonuses and rewards, which tracks campaigns on crypto exchanges, decentralised exchanges, prediction markets, brokers, trading apps and prop firms. Published cash prize pools in trading competitions came to $18.0 million across 27 competitions.

Three events account for $16 million of that.

Crypto exchanges hold almost all of the cash

Crypto exchanges ran 53 of the 156 campaigns, about a third, but carried $17.1 million of the $18.0 million in cash prize pools: roughly 95%. The three largest pools were all on centralised crypto exchanges:

Every other category was far smaller. Decentralised exchanges ran 31 campaigns across 24 platforms, more platforms than any other category, but published only $330,000 in cash pools. Prop firms ran 25 campaigns with $250,000 in cash, and prediction markets ran 9 with $250,000. Brokers published $30,800.

The gap reflects how each category pays. Decentralised exchanges mostly reward traders with points that may later convert into a token, not with a cash pool. Prop firms pay largely in funded trading accounts rather than cash. Centralised exchanges, which compete hard for derivatives volume, are the ones putting headline stablecoin numbers on a leaderboard.

Competitions are only the most common format, not the only one

Trading competitions were the most common campaign type, at 33 of 156. The rest of the market looks like this:

• Points seasons: 25
• Fee discounts: 19
• Prize pools: 18
• Demo contests: 15
• Deposit bonuses: 14
• Sign-up bonuses: 12

Points seasons, which run mostly on decentralised exchanges, are the second largest group. They pay no cash during the campaign, and a points program is no guarantee of a future token. Demo contests, run on virtual money by brokers and prop firms, are the only common format where the trader risks no capital.

“Up to” and the long tail

Headline pools deserve a careful reading. Most of the largest pools are published as “up to” figures, which can depend on how many traders join or how much volume they generate. They are also shared across thousands of participants, usually weighted heavily towards the top places.

Access matters too. 53 of the 156 campaigns (34%) stated that identity verification is required, and 41% excluded at least one country or were open to a single region only. A trader in the UK or the US will find that a large share of the advertised prize money is not open to them at all.

The typical campaign ran for 27 days (the median across the 97 campaigns with published dates); the average was 35 days.

Crypto is the main market, but not the only one

By market, 81 campaigns covered crypto, 42 stocks, 30 commodities, 29 forex, 28 indices, 13 event contracts, 10 futures and 6 options. Many campaigns cover more than one market. Stock trading apps and brokers now run campaigns of their own, from fee-free windows to demo contests, though rarely with the cash pools of the crypto exchanges.

Why the data matters

For traders, the concentration is the main finding: most of the money is in a handful of high-volume futures competitions where the leaderboard tends to reward large accounts. Smaller pools that are shared among every qualifying trader, or demo contests with no capital at risk, are often better value for ordinary participants even though their headline number is lower.

For platforms, it shows how crowded the market for attention has become. Eighty platforms running campaigns at the same time, most announced only through their own blogs and social channels, makes it hard for any one campaign to stand out on prize size alone.

Method

A campaign counts for the month if it ran on any day of it. Cash prize pools add up trading competitions, prize pools and demo contests that pay cash with a published dollar or stablecoin amount; token, points and voucher rewards are left out. Every campaign links to its official source. TraderComps began tracking on 11 October 2026, so campaigns that ended earlier in the month are under-counted, and the October figures are frozen on 1 November.

The full tables and the campaign list as CSV are in State of Trading Competitions: October 2026, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0. TraderComps (tradercomps.com), the home of trading competitions, bonuses and rewards, is built by Surgence Labs.

Source: TraderComps, “State of Trading Competitions: October 2026”, data to 13 October 2026, CC BY 4.0. This article is for information only and is not investment advice. Trading carries risk of loss, and campaign terms and eligibility are set by each platform.