Prop Firm Restricted Countries: Who Is Blocked and Why

The 8 futures prop firms whose lists we read in November 2026 restrict from 21 to 90 jurisdictions each, and only 15, among them Iran, Russia and Syria, are blocked by all 8. The rest is not explained by any public list: 53.9% of the 432 entries on these restricted-country lists (the countries whose citizens or residents a firm will not accept) match no US sanctions programme, no FATF list and no payout-processor list, which is why Nigeria is blocked by 5 of the 8 firms, South Africa by 2, the UAE by 1 and India by none.

Which countries do prop firms restrict?

Fifteen jurisdictions are on all 8 lists checked on 12 November 2026: Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela and Yemen. After them the lists split: DR Congo and Mali are on 7, and Albania, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Lebanon and Pakistan are on 6.

The 8 firms are Topstep, MyFundedFutures, Lucid Trading, Alpha Futures, FundedNext Futures, Earn2Trade, Top One Futures and Elite Trader Funding. With name variants merged, the occupied Ukrainian regions folded into one entry, Topstep's "Chinese Military Companies" line dropped and Elite Trader Funding's three US territories left out, their pages hold 432 entries covering 118 jurisdictions, 23 of them on a single list. The pages of Apex Trader Funding, Take Profit Trader, Tradeify and Bulenox could not be fetched this round, so they are not counted: read theirs directly.

The pages also differ in date, coverage and travel rules, shown below as of November 2026; check the firm's current page before buying.

The widest list, MyFundedFutures at 90, holds more than four times as many entries as the narrowest, Elite Trader Funding at 21 countries: 69 more.

Why do prop firms restrict countries at all?

Firms name three reasons themselves: US sanctions law, the rules of the brokers, clearing firms and platforms they depend on, and their own view of fraud risk. A fourth gate sits at the end of the chain, the payout processor, which can refuse to pay a country the firm would otherwise accept.

Topstep's eligibility article puts the first two in one sentence: "Citizens or residents of OFAC-sanctioned or partner-restricted countries are not eligible to trade, earn funding, or receive payouts". Elite Trader Funding points at "regulatory restrictions imposed by our U.S. FCMs (Futures Commission Merchants), clearing firms, and brokers". MyFundedFutures' KYC/AML policy adds the third: "Countries with high fraud risk, such as those with significant credit card fraud, identity theft, and financial scams, are also restricted."

No prop-firm regulator writes these lists; as how regulators treat prop firms shows, the rules arrive through sanctions law and regulated partners.

Rise, the payout provider behind Earn2Trade and Elite Trader Funding, lists 24 jurisdictions where it cannot onboard users or pay, including Guam, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Earn2Trade told traders in January 2025 that Rise would stop paying traders in Haiti, and that Rise does not support payouts in Iowa, Minnesota or South Carolina either. A processor's list binds you as firmly as the firm's, which is part of how prop firm payouts work.

Checked against three public lists, all 15 universal entries fall under a broad US embargo or an OFAC programme tied to the country (for Syria, the Assad-related PAARSS programme), and all 15 are on Rise's list, as are DR Congo and Mali at 7.

Lower down, the columns go blank while the firm count stays high: Belarus, at 6 of 8, has an OFAC programme but is not on Rise's list, and Albania and Burkina Faso, also at 6, match none of the three. The FATF column is patchier: Iran, Myanmar and North Korea are on its call-for-action list, and Iraq, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen on its grey list.

Why do restricted country lists differ so much between firms?

Lists differ because most entries are not explained by sanctions, which are the same for every US firm: in our count, only 6.5% of the 432 entries are the four jurisdictions under broad US embargoes, and 53.9% match no sanctions programme, no FATF list and no payout-processor list. The firms give general reasons for those entries (brokers, partners, fraud risk), but not country by country.

The embargo set is small. OFAC's FAQ 10 names Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Crimea and the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk regions as the jurisdictions under broad US sanctions, and warns that "Each sanctions program is unique, and sanctions programs may change frequently." OFAC's programme page listed 36 active programmes on 12 November 2026, about 19 named after a single country, but most of those target named people and entities rather than every resident. So our share for country programmes is an upper bound.

The table splits each firm's list. Computed by Phoenix Technologies from the 8 lists fetched 12 November 2026; method: each entry takes the first category it matches, in the order broad US embargo, OFAC programme tied to the country, FATF black or grey list (October 2026), Rise's unsupported list, none.

At five of the eight firms, more than half the entries match none of these public lists.

In gate order, 28 entries (6.5%) stop at a broad US embargo, 132 (30.6%) at an OFAC country programme, 33 (7.6%) at a FATF list, 6 (1.4%) at Rise's list, and 233 (53.9%) at none.

Elite Trader Funding's 21 countries are exactly Rise's 21 non-US jurisdictions, which is why its residue is 0: a processor's list can be a firm's entire list.

The residue also includes EU members. Bulgaria and Slovenia are on 3 lists (MyFundedFutures, Lucid, Alpha Futures), Croatia and Romania on 2, Malta and Lithuania on 1, and MyFundedFutures also excludes Corsica and France's non-mainland islands. None of them is under an OFAC country programme, and none is on the FATF lists published after the October 2026 plenary, at which Bulgaria left the grey list.

Germany is on no main list but appears on Topstep's second table of 25 countries where, in Topstep's words, "Brokerage restrictions prevent Live Funded Account access in certain countries." Topstep gives no further reason, and we found no FCM or clearing firm that publishes its country list. MyFundedFutures' founder, quoted by Finance Magnates in October 2024, referred to "countries that will never be approved to trade live" under FCM guidelines, but we found no published copy of that list.

Which prop firms accept traders from Nigeria, Pakistan, India or South Africa?

Among the 8 firms checked, India is on no list, the UAE on 1, South Africa on 2, the Philippines on 4, Nigeria on 5 and Pakistan on 6. The table shows, for the countries readers ask about most, which firms leave them off their purchase list.

The myth that one refusal means all firms will refuse does not survive this table: only the 15 universal entries are closed everywhere. Here is the check for a trader resident in Nigeria, step by step.

1. Start with 8 lists. Topstep, MyFundedFutures, Lucid, Alpha Futures and Earn2Trade name Nigeria, which leaves 3.
2. FundedNext Futures does not block purchases from Nigeria but puts it on its second list of 81 jurisdictions, whose traders, per its help center, "are eligible to purchase accounts, trade, and receive performance rewards from simulated trading." The Risk Desk reviews them on reaching live eligibility.
3. Top One Futures does not list Nigeria.
4. Elite Trader Funding does not list Nigeria, and neither does its processor Rise, but the firm warns that more countries may be restricted from its LIVE program.
5. Result: 3 of 8 firms are open at purchase; 1 of those states a live review and 1 carries a general warning about live access.

The same steps for Pakistan leave 2 firms, both with a caveat at the live stage.

Does citizenship or residence decide whether you can trade?

It depends on the firm: Elite Trader Funding goes by residence alone, while Lucid Trading and Top One Futures exclude citizens or residents of a listed country. Holding a restricted country's citizenship therefore disqualifies you at some firms and not at others.

Elite Trader Funding states it plainly: "Eligibility is based on your country of residence, not your citizenship." Topstep lets residence override citizenship if you can prove it, asking you to "Submit a government-issued photo ID proving permanent residency in the eligible country, plus a bank statement from that country." Rise, the processor, also serves people from its listed countries who live elsewhere and can document their current residence. Alpha Futures says only that "you need to be either a resident or a citizen of a non-restricted country".

Take an illustrative case, a Pakistani citizen who lives in the UAE: Elite Trader Funding judges the UAE, which is not on its list. Topstep may accept with UAE permanent-residency ID and a UAE bank statement. Lucid Trading lists Pakistan and excludes its citizens wherever they live. These identity checks are part of KYC (know-your-customer verification), defined in the prop firm glossary.

What happens to your account if a firm adds your country?

Only three firms say, and they say different things: at Topstep you lose trading, funding and payouts, at Earn2Trade you cannot continue or reset an evaluation, and when MyFundedFutures stopped new purchases from 21 countries in October 2024, existing active accounts were not affected. The other five pages are silent, and none of the 8 pages gives the date each country joined its list.

Topstep's page says that once a country is ineligible, "traders are unable to trade with, get Funded by, or receive payouts from Topstep." Earn2Trade says a user from a newly added country "will not be able to continue or reset your evaluation", and that purchases or resets from listed countries are not refunded from a May 15 date whose year the page does not give.

For MyFundedFutures' 2024 change, Finance Magnates reported: "However, this doesn't apply to individuals who already had active accounts with MyFundedFutures." That is the one documented case of grandfathering we found, at one firm; it is not a rule. A country change is one of the ways prop firm payouts get denied, and it fits the wider pattern of a firm changing its rules mid-account.

The insider point most lookup pages miss is the two-tier list. Topstep's 25-country table lets residents trade the simulated Express Funded Account but not a Live Funded Account; with both tables Topstep covers 58 jurisdictions. FundedNext Futures' 81-jurisdiction list works the same way at the live step. If you are on a second tier, read up on simulated versus live funded capital before you pay.

Can you trade from a restricted country while travelling or through a VPN?

Travel rules run from allowed to an instant breach: MyFundedFutures lets you trade while visiting a listed country, Alpha Futures forbids it even in transit, and Top One Futures treats it as a hard breach.

MyFundedFutures' policy reads: "Traders traveling to or vacationing to any of these restricted countries can execute trades on their accounts while there." Alpha Futures says that "even if only visiting or traveling through any of the countries below, trading is not permitted". At Top One Futures, placing trades from a listed country "will result in a hard breach of your account due to regulatory and compliance constraints." Topstep tells traders not to trade from an ineligible country, since even brief trading there may trigger a review by its Trust team.

A VPN (virtual private network, which routes your traffic through another server) does not hide a location from a firm that is looking, and our check of VPN and VPS rules has the firm-by-firm clauses. OFAC's 2021 sanctions guidance, written for the virtual currency industry rather than prop firms, notes that "Analytic tools can identify IP misattribution, for example, by screening IP addresses against known virtual private network (VPN) IP addresses and identifying improbable logins". Earn2Trade is explicit: "Any attempts to circumvent this policy by providing false information regarding your country of origin or address will result in an immediate ban".

Why is Syria still on every prop firm list?

Syria is on all 8 lists although US comprehensive sanctions on it ended with effect from 1 July 2025. No firm says why. The other public gates have not moved: Rise still cannot pay there, and the FATF still lists Syria for increased monitoring. So a lifted embargo does not, on its own, take a country off a firm's list.

OFAC's PAARSS programme page states that "U.S. persons are not broadly prohibited from engaging in transactions with respect to Syria or the Government of Syria". An Assad-related programme (PAARSS) remains. Rise's list, updated 4 September 2026, still includes Syria, and ComplyAdvantage's report on the 28 to 30 October 2026 FATF plenary keeps it among 18 jurisdictions under increased monitoring, next to 3 on the call-for-action list. Ukraine shows the same gap from the other side: broad US sanctions cover only Crimea and the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, yet all 8 firms list the whole country.

The dates show the lag. On 15 October 2024 MyFundedFutures stopped new purchases from 21 countries. On 3 January 2025 Earn2Trade told traders that Rise does not support payouts in 6 US states and territories, and on 7 January 2025 that Rise would stop paying in Haiti. Syria's embargo ended on 1 July 2025, the Caesar Act was repealed on 18 December 2025, its State Sponsor of Terrorism designation was rescinded on 24 August 2026, and on 30 October 2026 the FATF removed Bulgaria, Cote d'Ivoire, DR Congo and Monaco from its grey list. In November 2026, Syria is still on all 8 lists.

How do you check a prop firm's country rules before you pay?

Read four things before paying: the restricted list and its date, any second list for live funding, the travel rule, and the payout processor's country list. Then apply these rules.

1. If your country of residence is one of the 15 on every list, none of the 8 firms will take you while you live there. Documented residence elsewhere is the only route the pages describe (Topstep, Elite Trader Funding, Rise).
2. If your country is on some lists, shortlist firms whose purchase list leaves it off, using the table above as a starting point, not as proof.
3. If the firm runs a second tier (Topstep's 25, FundedNext Futures' 81) and your country is on it, plan for a simulated funded stage with no live account or a review at live.
4. If the firm pays through a processor, read that processor's list too: Rise's 24 jurisdictions include three US territories.
5. If the page is old, ask the firm in writing: Earn2Trade's page was last updated in March 2025, while Elite Trader Funding's list refreshes weekly.
6. If you will travel, read the travel rule for the countries on your route.
7. If a workaround involves a VPN or someone else's address, do not use it: Earn2Trade answers false country or address details with an immediate ban.

A firm that passes these checks still has to pass the rest of verifying a prop firm before you pay, and how your payout is treated at home is covered in payout basics for non-US traders.

Go deeper

• Can You Use a VPN or VPS With a Prop Firm? 11 Firms Checked
• Prop Firm Payouts for Non-US Traders: The Structural Questions to Ask Before You Withdraw
• Funded Account "Real Money" vs Simulated Capital: What to Actually Check in Your Firm's Terms
• Is Copy Trading Legal? What Regulators Actually Say

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. U.S. Department of the Treasury, OFAC (2026), FAQ 10: What jurisdictions or countries are sanctioned by the United States?
2. U.S. Department of the Treasury, OFAC (2026), Promoting Accountability for Assad and Regional Stabilization Sanctions (PAARSS)
3. U.S. Department of the Treasury, OFAC (2021), Sanctions Compliance Guidance for the Virtual Currency Industry
4. Rise (2026), Unsupported Countries, Regions, and States
5. Topstep Help Center (2026), Am I Eligible to Trade with Topstep?
6. MyFundedFutures Help Center (2026), Restricted Countries Policy
7. Elite Trader Funding Help Center (2026), Countries Restricted and Supported
8. Alpha Futures Help Center (2026), Countries with Limitations
9. Top One Futures Help Center (2026), Countries With Limitations and Restrictions
10. Earn2Trade Help Center (2025), I'm not an American/US Citizen, can I still get Funded?