London-based Audacity Capital becomes the latest prop trading firm to “temporarily” suspend its new onboarding of customers based in the United States. The decision came when several prop trading firms were restricted from offering their services to US customers due to alleged pressure from MetaQuotes, the company behind the MetaTrader trading platforms.

However, the service restriction will not impact the existing customers of the prop trading platform, which claims to have been present in the prop trading space since 2012.

“Aligning with Regulatory Standards”

In a notice published today (Monday), Audacity Capital wrote: “After a thorough review of our services and policies, we have decided to temporarily pause new registrations from the United States.”

“For our existing traders, the access to our programs remains unchanged.”

Although the company highlighted that the move was taken to “align with regulatory standards,” it did not specify which regulatory framework it was referring to.

The Crackdown on Prop Trading

Prop trading is an unregulated sector. Since prop firms do not handle traders’ money for trading purposes, they do not qualify as brokers. So, the stringent regulations for retail brokers globally do not apply to prop firms.

Before Audacity Capital, other established prop trading firms, including The5ers and FTMO, also restricted services to US-based customers, whether they were US citizens or residents. Several brokers, including Purple Trading and Blackbull Markets, terminated the grey label offerings of their MetaTrader license to prop trading firms. A Blackbull executive even confirmed that MetaQuotes forced the move.

Several prop trading firms also confirmed that Eightcap, another broker offering brokerage services to prop platforms, will terminate its services on February 29. However, the brokerage called contract terminations of commercial agreements with prop firms “not uncommon to us or anyone else in the industry.”