Which Countries Can Trade a Futures Prop Firm Funded Account?
Why some countries are excluded, how identity checks work, and the list Phoenix Trader Funding uses.
Most futures prop firms, including Phoenix Trader Funding, accept traders from most countries and exclude only a short list tied to financial sanctions. That list is OFAC-based: Russia, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea and a few others, plus only Ukraine's restricted regions. Anyone else can sign up, verify their identity and start an evaluation.
- Why prop firms restrict any countries at all
- How eligibility actually gets decided at signup
- Which countries Phoenix Trader Funding excludes
- What KYC actually checks, and how fast it happens here
- Do you need a trading license to trade a funded account?
- Who this does not fit
You have picked a funded futures account that fits. Then a smaller question stops you: does any of this even apply where you live?
Eligibility here comes down to two checks:
- Which country you are signing up from, checked once against a short excluded list.
- Whether you can verify your identity, checked once and never again per trade.
Why prop firms restrict any countries at all
OFAC, the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, publishes the sanctions list most regulated financial firms doing business in the United States build their restricted-country policy around. Ignoring it can put a firm's own ability to operate at risk.
Phoenix Trader Funding's excluded list is OFAC-based, but it runs wider than OFAC's own country sanctions programs. Some of the named countries sit under a full OFAC embargo, others under a narrower targeted sanctions program, and a few under neither. Phoenix Trader Funding does not publish a country-by-country reason for the list, so treat the summary below as the current policy rather than a sanctions map.
How eligibility actually gets decided at signup
The country check happens early, before you have paid for anything or placed a single trade. From there, identity verification, commonly shortened to KYC ("Know Your Customer"), confirms you are who you say you are before you can trade real funded capital or receive a payout.
At Phoenix Trader Funding, identity verification runs through Phoenix Identity, a dedicated verification product built specifically for this check. The country check at signup and the identity check after you pass are the whole of what has to happen before real money moves.
Which countries Phoenix Trader Funding excludes
Phoenix Trader Funding's excluded list is OFAC-based and currently names Russia, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea and a small number of other countries. Ukraine is a partial case: only its restricted regions are excluded, not the country as a whole.
That list is not exhaustive here on purpose. Sanctions lists get reviewed and can change, so treat the summary above as the shape of the policy and confirm your own country on Phoenix Trader Funding's accepted-countries page before you buy an evaluation.
- Not on the list above: you can sign up, verify and start an evaluation.
- On the list above, or unsure: nothing else here applies until that is settled.
What KYC actually checks, and how fast it happens here
KYC verification exists so a firm knows it is paying real money to the person who earned it, not to an account opened under a false identity. In practice that means confirming a valid form of government identification against the details used to sign up.
KYC does not run at signup. It lands after you pass the evaluation, inside the 48-hour window you then have to complete it and sign the funding contract. Once you start it, verification through Phoenix Identity completes instantly, in minutes rather than days, so the check itself does not eat into that 48 hours.
Do you need a trading license to trade a funded account?
No. Phoenix Trader Funding states AMF accreditation in France, the license it holds with that national regulator to legally offer its product. That accreditation belongs to the firm, and a trader signing up for an evaluation needs no license of their own.
No brokerage exam, professional certification or prior trading credential is required to attempt a Classic, Daily, Spark or Merit evaluation. The bar to clear is the account's own drawdown and profit rules.
Who this does not fit
Two situations are worth naming honestly rather than discovering at checkout. A trader based in one of the excluded countries above will not clear the first step, and no amount of trading skill changes that.
And a trader hoping to trade without ever completing identity verification will not find that option here, or anywhere in this industry. Every funded account requires KYC before a payout, because a firm cannot legally send money to an unverified identity. Expecting to skip it causes problems only once a payout is due.
Eligibility here is only ever the country check and the identity check. Nothing about income, employment, funds on hand or prior trading history is part of it.
Is Phoenix Trader Funding available in my country, and could that change?
Check the accepted-countries page: the summary above is not exhaustive, and sanctions lists can change.
Is the country check based on where I live or my citizenship?
Phoenix Trader Funding states its policy at the country level, not separately by residence or citizenship. Confirm which one governs on the accepted-countries page before paying.
How soon after passing do I need to complete KYC?
Within 48 hours of the passing review, which can itself run up to 72 hours. KYC and the funding contract both have to clear inside that window, and on Spark the activation fee falls due there too, not at checkout; miss it and the evaluation voids.
Confirm your country, then see what it takes to pass.
Start a Phoenix Trader Funding evaluationNew funded-account types are trialled at Phoenix Labs as real, tradable accounts before they join the permanent offer. The ones that work graduate; the ones that do not are retired.