How we verify and rank prop firm payouts.
Our job is not to decide which firm sounds trustworthy. Our job is to record the strongest payout evidence we can observe, label its limitations, and apply the same ranking method to every firm.
Observed does not mean exhaustive. Unless complete coverage has been established, observed payout volume should not be read as a firm’s total payout volume.
The payout settles on a public blockchain and can be independently inspected using its transaction record. This includes eligible Rise, Confirmo and other crypto payouts that can be matched to a public transaction. Important limitation: a blockchain transaction proves that a transfer occurred — it does not independently prove every contractual detail surrounding the payment. Public-chain and payment-rail evidence share the top confidence band. Label: PUBLICLY VERIFIED.
The payout is confirmed through a direct integration with an eligible payment provider, including supported connections such as Aeropay, Wise, Plane and Cleff. The underlying banking record may not be publicly inspectable, but OnTheTape receives the transaction data directly rather than relying on a screenshot or firm announcement. Because the payment is attributable to a named account rather than an anonymous address, rail-verified evidence is weighted marginally ahead of public-chain evidence within the same top band. Label: DIRECTLY VERIFIED.
The payout was identified through a public announcement in a firm’s Discord or another approved community source. These records are included for coverage and context, but they are always clearly marked as unverified, assigned the lowest confidence, never presented as equivalent to blockchain or direct-rail evidence, and subject to correction or removal if stronger contrary evidence appears. Label: COMMUNITY REPORTED · UNVERIFIED.
How the rankings work
Select a time window. We aggregate eligible payout records observed for each firm in that period, calculate observed payout volume, median observed payout and verification-source quality, then account for evidence quality — public-chain and direct-rail evidence share the top band, with rail weighted marginally ahead, and community-reported activity lowest. The same rules apply to every firm, with no manual commercial adjustment.
What does not count toward ranking
Advertising spend, sponsorships, affiliate commissions, discount-code revenue, influencer relationships, social followers, review-site ratings, challenge prices, profit splits, a firm’s self-reported payout total, incoming wallet top-ups, and unverified private screenshots. This makes OnTheTape a payout ranking — not a general recommendation score.
Cash on Hand — treasury funding, not payouts
Cash on Hand reads the live RiseUSD token balance of each mapped firm treasury on Arbitrum, and watches Transfer events into those wallets. A large top-up ($25,000 or more) is flagged. Those figures are published as context only. They never enter observed payout volume, median, or ranking position. A treasury credit is not evidence that a trader was paid.
Coverage and limitations
Coverage varies: a firm may use several payment methods, some providers are not integrated, some chain transactions cannot be reliably attributed, community announcements may be incomplete, and historical records may predate our tracking period. Metrics are therefore reported as observed payout volume, payouts recorded, and median observed payout.
What a ranking does not mean
A high ranking means we observed stronger payout activity under the published methodology during the selected period. It does not guarantee future payment, firm solvency, regulatory compliance, fair trading rules, successful dispute resolution, or suitability for any particular trader. Rankings are evidence for research, not endorsements.
Commercial independence
Prop firms may purchase or use OnTheTape payment and verification products. That relationship does not entitle a firm to a higher ranking, a featured position, removal of unfavorable data, manual adjustment of its metrics, or preferential treatment under the methodology. An integration may produce stronger evidence because we can verify the underlying transactions directly. That is an evidence-quality difference, not a purchased ranking boost.