A growing unease is taking hold among forex traders in Kenya who operate through online proprietary trading firms that promise funding, profit sharing and exposure to global markets but often retain sweeping control over accounts, balances and payout procedures that can be withdrawn without notice.
Behind the glossy social media advertisements that speak of opportunity and independence lies a web of opaque rules and algorithmic decisions that determine whether a trader’s success translates into real income or vanishes at the moment of withdrawal.
In early October, a Nairobi-based forex trader participating in a funded account programme run by an international firm known as VPropTrader began to experience precisely that kind of digital erasure.
For nearly a month, the trader engaged exclusively in gold trading, focusing on the XAU/USD pair while adhering to every operational limit prescribed in the firm’s terms.
Those stipulations, standard in the proprietary trading industry, required strict discipline on exposure and drawdown, capping daily losses at USD 30 (KSh3,930) and setting a 35 % ceiling on consistency deviation across sessions.
Upon fulfilling these metrics, traders would normally qualify to withdraw their profit share under an eighty-to-twenty split arrangement, a mechanism designed to reward disciplined performance.
The documentation reviewed by this publication shows that over the course of October, the trader’s account accumulated a verified profit of USD 1,478 (approximately KSh 193,000) from an initial funded balance of USD 1,000 (KSh 131,000).
Trading records reveal a consistent pattern of small-volume, low-risk buy positions on gold, executed within defined limits and aligned with the firm’s stated conditions.
The platform’s internal records confirmed eligibility for withdrawal after compliance checks were completed.
Profit Lockout
It was at this juncture, when the trader sought to process the withdrawal through the company’s internal portal, that the system abruptly shifted from verification to exclusion.
The trader had been issued a withdrawal ticket (Request Number 2025101613081818) alongside a message acknowledging compliance and instructing that funds be transferred from the MetaTrader 5 terminal to the internal wallet balance before withdrawal but moments after this process was initiated, the platform displayed an error message and access to the trading account was instantly suspended.
Within minutes, the account was marked as deactivated.
The official explanation that followed cited a violation involving “multiple linked accounts,” a category often used by firms to justify termination.
The trader maintains, however, that all trading activity originated from a single mobile device and that no proxy, duplicate, or shared access existed. Login records reviewed by this newsroom corroborate that claim, showing consistent IP data and uninterrupted session integrity throughout the trading period.
No external login events or overlapping connections were detected.
Nonetheless, the platform’s algorithm flagged the account, permanently freezing both access and accumulated profits.
Account Switch
In a follow-up communication, the trader reported uncovering an additional irregularity involving his trading instrument.
He stated that the gold pair he had traded throughout October appeared under the symbol “XAUUSD.w,” but after the deactivation, the platform interface displayed only “XAUUSD” — without the “w” suffix.
According to him, this change suggested that the firm may have duplicated or swapped the live account with a pseudo copy reflecting the same balance but disconnected from the real trading record.
Screenshots reviewed by this publication show the discrepancy, adding weight to the trader’s suspicion that the system may have mirrored his results on a non-active account after suspending the original one.
Subsequent attempts to engage the firm’s support team through its communication portal yielded no substantive response.
Within hours, the trader’s access to the dashboard and chat interface had been revoked entirely.
Recurring Pattern
The case, while individual in circumstance, fits a discernible pattern that has become increasingly familiar to Kenyan traders working through foreign proprietary platforms.
Many describe a recurring cycle: profitability is achieved, eligibility is confirmed, and the moment a withdrawal request is initiated, the account is disabled under claims of policy breach or technical anomaly.
Evidence shared with this publication paints a disquieting picture of how performance validation within such systems can be reversed without external verification or right of appeal.
Screenshots captured before the lockout show that the account’s profit, balance, and drawdown metrics all remained within prescribed limits.
Less than an hour later, automated notifications from the same platform declared the account ineligible for withdrawal, nullifying a month’s work without recourse or review.
The incident has reignited debate about the governance of proprietary trading firms that target emerging markets through digital advertising but operate from loosely regulated jurisdictions. In Kenya, agencies such as the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) and the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) do not currently license or supervise these offshore entities, which conduct operations entirely online while offering what appears to be institutional trading exposure.
The absence of cross-border oversight leaves traders without any formal avenue for redress once an account is suspended or a payout withheld.
For many local traders, the implications extend beyond financial loss.
A withdrawal of USD 1,478 (KSh 193,000) represents not just potential profit but months of analysis, discipline, and technical skill.
When such an outcome is reversed by a platform’s unilateral decision, it undermines confidence in the very notion of merit-based trading that these firms claim to promote.
The economic impact is compounded by emotional strain, as traders who invest both time and capital into mastering volatile markets find themselves disqualified by arbitrary technicalities.
Interviews with several Kenyan participants suggest that the experience is far from isolated.
Others recount similar encounters with different firms, where accounts were deactivated after achieving high returns under similar reasoning of alleged “third-party trading,” “AI-assisted execution,” or “linked devices.”
In most of these cases, no supporting evidence was ever disclosed, and communication ceased once access to the platform was revoked.
This pattern points to a structural imbalance that continues to define the relationship between offshore proprietary trading firms and local traders in developing economies.
The firms retain full control over account validation, performance verification, and fund release, while traders operate entirely at the mercy of automated systems and opaque terms of service.
It is a relationship built on ambition but fraught with asymmetry, where those who perform best often face the highest risk of exclusion.
Below is the full account shared by the trader, outlining his experience with the platform from the moment of registration to the sudden deactivation that followed his profit withdrawal request.
“Hi Nyakundi. I hope you are doing well. I am reaching out because I need help exposing what happened to me with a proprietary trading firm I had been working with this month. I have been trading gold with them throughout October, and after weeks of consistent effort, I made a profit of about USD 1,450. They even verified that I had qualified for withdrawal. However, the moment I pressed the withdraw button, my account was deactivated and they claimed that I had multiple accounts. That is completely false. I have only one phone, and I trade alone. Their explanation does not make any sense. I met every single rule they set out for the USD 1,000 funded account. I kept my daily losses below USD 30, stayed within the 35 percent consistency limit, and did not violate any other trading condition. Everything was clean and transparent on my end. I passed my evaluation on October 2, 2025, received the funded account, and began trading the XAU/USD (gold) pair. My trades were small, consistent, and low-risk, all within the rules. The system showed a balance of USD 2,426, which included my profit of USD 1,478, and I received a message from support confirming that I had met the withdrawal criteria. They even provided me with a withdrawal request number, 2025101613081818, and instructed me to transfer funds from the MT5 terminal to my internal wallet before completing the withdrawal. Moments after I followed those instructions, an error message appeared, and my account was locked. I was immediately logged out of both the dashboard and the chat portal. A few minutes later, I received a system notification stating that my account was linked to multiple accounts, which is not true. I trade from one device, one IP address, and one account. Within my circle, I am actually the only trader who trades profitably. Later on, while reviewing my trading records, I noticed something unusual that made me even more suspicious. The gold pair I had been trading throughout October appeared under the symbol “XAUUSD.w” on my MetaTrader terminal. After my account was deactivated, however, I realised that the platform now displayed only “XAUUSD” without the “.w” at the end. From what I can tell, this suggests that the firm may have swapped or duplicated my live trading account, leaving behind a pseudo copy with the same balance but disconnected from the real trade history. I still have screenshots showing this discrepancy. Since then, I have tried to contact their support several times, but I have not received any response. My dashboard access has been removed, and the chat feature has been disabled. It feels as if they waited for me to make a profit, verified everything, and then terminated my account immediately after I initiated the withdrawal request. I am not asking for special treatment. I only want fairness and transparency. Traders invest a great deal of time, effort, and emotional energy into this craft, and it is unfair for a company to erase all that without explanation or proof. I hope that my experience can help expose what these firms are doing to other traders as well.”
