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Hong Kong based Velotrade has launched a crypto funded trading platform allowing traders to operate proprietary trading accounts without risking personal capital. The platform offers account sizes ranging from $5,000 to $200,000 with profit sharing arrangements.
The initiative is operated by Velotrade Re Limited, a Hong Kong company incorporated in November 2025. It is separate from Velotrade Management Limited, a fintech trade finance platform founded in 2016 which has paid out more than $2.5 billion to clients globally.
Velotrade was founded by former institutional derivatives traders from JP Morgan, Dresdner Kleinwort, and Bank of America. According to the firm, the founding team brings decades of experience across capital markets, financial technology, and risk management. Velotrade Management Limited continues to operate as a separate legal entity.
The firm said the decision to launch a crypto focused proprietary trading platform followed an assessment of the existing crypto prop trading market.
Gianluca Pizzituti, Chief Executive Officer, Velotrade
Gianluca Pizzituti, Chief Executive Officer, Velotrade said:
“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. It shows in the rules, in the structure, in the fine print. We thought: there is an opportunity to build something the industry actually needs.”
Velotrade said its business model differs from many proprietary trading firms which rely heavily on challenge fees. The firm said it uses institutional liquidity bridges and AI driven hedging to replicate selected trader positions in live markets.
Gianluca Pizzituti, Chief Executive Officer, Velotrade also commented:
“We are not here to collect challenge fees and hope people fail. 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.”
The platform is built specifically for cryptocurrency trading rather than adapting existing forex proprietary trading models. Velotrade said many prop trading frameworks used in crypto markets were originally designed for foreign exchange markets, where trading structures differ from the 24 hour crypto market.
Velotrade’s evaluation framework removes several restrictions common in other proprietary trading models. Traders are not subject to a consistency rule, allowing large single day gains without penalty. There is no time limit for completing evaluations, and traders are permitted to trade during market news events and hold positions over weekends.
The firm offers two evaluation formats. A two step challenge includes a 10 percent overall drawdown and 5 percent daily drawdown. A one step challenge offers a faster route to funding with a 7 percent overall drawdown and 4 percent daily drawdown. Both programmes operate on the DXtrade platform.
Velotrade said it focuses exclusively on cryptocurrency trading and does not offer forex, equities, or indices. The platform provides access to a range of cryptocurrencies with leverage of up to six times on BTC and ETH.
Funded traders can request their first payout after 14 calendar days, with subsequent withdrawals available weekly. Payouts are processed within 24 hours in USDC or USDT.
Velotrade’s leadership team includes Gianluca Pizzituti, Chief Executive Officer, Velotrade, who previously worked on the derivatives desk at Dresdner Kleinwort in London and later founded a proprietary high frequency trading firm in Singapore before establishing Velotrade in Hong Kong.
The firm’s Executive Chairman is Vittorio De Angelis, Executive Chairman, Velotrade, who has more than 30 years of experience in capital markets and risk management. His career includes trading equity derivatives at JP Morgan and Dresdner Kleinwort in London before becoming Co Head of Equity Derivatives at Bank of America and later serving as Head of Brokerage at a global broker in Hong Kong.
Velotrade said its earlier trade finance platform has been covered by Bloomberg, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Nasdaq.
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