The short answer
The figures at the top of this page cover all four City Traders Imperium programs, and their price ladders do not line up. The two evaluations run $29 to $549. The two routes that fund you at purchase run $79 to $3,999 and stop at $80,000.
To pass an evaluation you need 8% on the 1-Step, or 10% then 5% on the 2-Step, plus three profitable days per phase. The 1-Step has no daily limit, but its drawdown trails up behind your highest balance. The 2-Step holds a static drawdown and adds a 5% daily limit instead.
Once funded you keep 80% on either evaluation. The first payout needs seven profitable days and 2% profit or $100, whichever is higher, and payouts run monthly after that. Instant Funding starts you on half the account size at a 50% share until you reach its first target.
The thing to check before you buy is the conduct rules, because they reach further than the loss limits do: a stop loss within 60 seconds on every trade, no hedging even inside one account, one trader per household and two devices at most. A crypto payout is capped at $1,000 a month.
How it works
CTI has four programs. The table shows how each one starts and what can fail it.
| Program | Before funding | Profit target | Maximum drawdown | Daily limit | Sizes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-Step Challenge | 1 phase | 8% | 5%, trailing | None | $2,500 to $100,000 |
| 2-Step Challenge | 2 phases | 10%, then 5% | 10%, static | 5% | $2,500 to $100,000 |
| Instant Funding | None | 10% to scale | 6% of the starting half, static | None | $2,500 to $80,000 |
| Direct Funding | None | 10% to scale | 6%, static | None | $5,000 to $80,000 |
- The 1-Step drawdown trails. The floor sits 5% of the starting balance below your highest balance and moves up as you make money. CTI’s pages disagree on what a withdrawal does to it: the help center subtracts your last withdrawal before applying the 5%, while the 1-Step FAQ says withdrawals do not affect the calculation.
- Both challenges need 3 profitable days per phase. A profitable day means closed trades that make at least 0.5% of the starting balance, counted on the day you close.
- Instant Funding starts at half size. A $80,000 account starts at $40,000 with a $2,400 drawdown. Make 10% and it doubles to $80,000.
- Direct Funding starts at full size, and its 10% target scales the account up.
- After you pass, CTI reviews the account within 2 business days before sending funded logins, and you complete an ID check.
How much does City Traders Imperium cost?
CTI charges one fee per account and bills nothing monthly. The two evaluations share a ladder:
| Account | 1-Step | 2-Step |
|---|---|---|
| $2,500 | $29 | $39 |
| $5,000 | $49 | $59 |
| $10,000 | $79 | $99 |
| $25,000 | $159 | $199 |
| $50,000 | $299 | $329 |
| $100,000 | $449 | $549 |
The two routes that fund you at purchase use a different ladder, and it stops lower:
| Account | Instant Funding | Direct Funding |
|---|---|---|
| $2,500 | $79 | Not sold |
| $5,000 | $139 | $229 |
| $10,000 | $259 | $399 |
| $20,000 | $449 | $999 |
| $40,000 | $849 | $1,999 |
| $80,000 | $1,599 | $3,999 |
Only the three smallest sizes exist on both ladders. Above $10,000 the evaluations go $25,000, $50,000 and $100,000 while the funded-entry routes go $20,000, $40,000 and $80,000, so there is no size above $10,000 at which you can compare all four prices.
Four more costs sit outside both tables:
- The 1-Step and 2-Step fee comes back once you hit your first 10% profit on the funded account. Instant and Direct fees are not refunded that way.
- Otherwise refunds are narrow. You can ask within 7 days only if you have not placed a single trade, and a chargeback after trading suspends every account you hold.
- A failed account can be restarted at a discount. The help center says 15% on every program; the Instant and Direct pages say 10%.
- Trading has costs: $5 a lot on forex and metals, $0.50 on indices, $0.05 on oil and nothing on crypto, plus overnight swaps, tripled on Wednesdays or Fridays depending on the market.
You can pay by card, cryptocurrency or bank wire on request. CTI’s program pages also display PayPal, Skrill and Neteller badges.
Before paying, you can try CTI with a 14-day free trial: a $100,000 demo account on MetaTrader 5 or Match-Trader, opened without a card, with the same spreads, commissions and execution as CTI’s funded accounts. It has no profit targets and pays nothing, so it tests the firm rather than you, and it does not count toward the grade.
Platforms and trading conditions
CTI offers MetaTrader 5 and Match-Trader. MetaTrader 5 is not available to US traders, and Match-Trader is open to everyone.
- You trade CFDs on forex, metals, oil, indices and a handful of crypto pairs.
- Leverage on the 1-Step, 2-Step and Instant Funding: 1:30 on forex, 1:10 on indices and commodities, and 1:1 on crypto.
- News trading, overnight holds and weekend holds are allowed on every program.
- Expert advisors: a third-party EA is allowed on the 1-Step; on the other programs only one you own, with the source code on request. Arbitrage, high-frequency, tick-scalping, news-spike and rollover bots are banned on every program.
- Swap-free accounts are available on MetaTrader 5 if you ask before trading.
The rules that matter
CTI’s loss limits are simple, but its conduct rules are strict and apply to every program. Five matter most.
Every trade needs a stop loss within 60 seconds
The stop loss must be visible on the platform. Without one, the system closes the trade after a minute, and any profit from it does not count toward your target.
Hedging is banned, even in one account
CTI counts as hedging any buy and sell on the same symbol at the same time, whether in one account, across your accounts, with another trader, or on closely related markets. Grid trading is banned on every program, and Martingale is allowed only on the 1-Step, with total risk kept to 2%.
Big single bets count as gambling
Trying to pass on one trade idea, suddenly trading much larger, or letting margin level fall to 150% or lower is treated as gambling. So is trading heavily in one direction without analysis. CTI may cut your leverage or cap risk at 1% a trade, and repeat cases fail the account.
One trader per household, two devices
Only one person per household IP address may trade with CTI. You can use one computer and one phone, and the same devices must be used from the first phase onward. VPNs are banned, a VPS needs approval, and you must email proof before trading from another country.
Assume open losses count
CTI’s program pages say the drawdown uses your balance, not open losses. Its help center says an account is stopped out when equity, including open losses, reaches the floor. Size positions as if open losses count.
Getting paid: how does City Traders Imperium pay out?
You keep 80% on either evaluation. Instant Funding starts at 50% and Direct Funding at 70%, and both climb to 80%. The first payout needs profitable days and a profit floor: seven days and 2% profit or $100, whichever is higher, on a funded 1-Step or 2-Step account; five days and the same floor on Instant, from Level 2. On Direct, the help center asks for five days and 2% or $100, while the program page lists no minimum days.
After the first one, the evaluations pay monthly in the last five days of the month, and the two funded-entry routes pay twice a month, on the 14th or 15th and in the last five days. Direct Funding is the unsettled one: its own page says payouts are on demand from day 5, and the FAQ on that same page says the schedule starts monthly. The minimum withdrawal is $100. No maximum is published, except on crypto, which is capped at $1,000 a month.
The table sets the first-payout conditions side by side.
| Program | First payout | Share | Later payouts |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-Step and 2-Step | 7 profitable days and 2% profit or $100, whichever is higher | 80% | Monthly, in the last 5 days of the month |
| Instant Funding | From Level 2: 5 profitable days and 2% or $100, whichever is higher. The 50% share earned on Level 1 can only be requested once the 10% target on Level 2 is reached | 50% on the starting half, then 70%, then 80% | Twice a month |
| Direct Funding | 5 profitable days and 2% or $100 | 70%, then 80% | Twice a month |
- VIP levels speed things up, on conditions. Bronze pays 90% weekly, and asks for an active funded account, no failed accounts in 4 months, and 4 payouts of at least 4% profit each. Silver pays 100% at any time, and asks for 4 months at Bronze, 4 more payouts at 3%, and maximum allocation.
- On the 1-Step and 2-Step, reaching 10% eligible net profit lets you request a payout without waiting for the end of the month.
- Payouts go through a risk review that CTI says takes up to 2 business days, then a $100 minimum withdrawal it says is processed in 1 business day. A bank transfer can take 1 to 14 more days. These are the firm’s published timetables.
- Crypto payouts are USDT on the Tron network only, with a 5% fee and a cap of $1,000 a month. Larger amounts need a bank account in your name.
- A small reward comes back as a card refund. If your total reward is no more than the fees you have paid CTI, it is processed as a refund to the same cards rather than paid out.
What can end your account
These rules can end a City Traders Imperium account. Each comes from CTI’s own help center and policies:
- Reaching the maximum drawdown, or the daily limit on the 2-Step. CTI’s own pages disagree on whether open losses count toward either.
- Hedging, grid trading, or Martingale outside the 1-Step.
- Repeated gambling or one-sided bets, after warnings.
- Account sharing, copying other traders, pass services, or a VPN.
- Going 30 days without a trade. A terminated account cannot be reactivated, but CTI can freeze an account for up to 2 months if you ask first.
- Registering from a restricted country, which closes the account with no refund.
Who can join
CTI does not accept residents or nationals of the places on its list, and you must register in your own name as an individual:
- Excluded: Cuba, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Venezuela, North Korea, Russia, Belarus, and the Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
- Vietnam: the 2-Step is not available, and crypto payouts are not offered.
- No company accounts, and no groups trading together.
- One verified profile per person. The ID check comes after you pass, or at your first payout on Direct Funding.
Who you are dealing with
CTI’s Terms and site footer name two companies with separate roles. The table shows who does what.
| Company | Role | Where |
|---|---|---|
| City Traders Imperium Limited | Runs the trading programs | Registered in Anjouan, Comoros; operating address in San José, Costa Rica |
| CTI FZCO | Named as “the Company” in the Terms, company no. DSO-FZCO-21340. Provides the CTI Academy courses and runs the website’s data handling | Dubai Silicon Oasis, United Arab Emirates |
The company numbers, the jurisdictions and the split of roles are set out in the preamble to the Terms and repeated in the footer of every page:
CTI FZCO (Company No. DSO-FZCO-21340), registered at Dubai Silicon Oasis, DDP, Building A1, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (the “Company”), operates under: City Traders Imperium Academy, which provides educational course services through academy.citytradersimperium.com, operated by CTI FZCO; and City Traders Imperium Limited provides structured trading skill assessment programmes through citytradersimperium.com, operated by City Traders Imperium Limited, registered in Hamchako, Mutsamudu, Autonomous Island of Anjouan, Comoros Union (Registration No. 15969) […] [site footer] Skill assessment programmes and simulated demo trading services are provided exclusively by City Traders Imperium Limited, a company incorporated under the laws of Comoros Union with company number 15969 (License No. L15969/CTI), registered address at Hamchako, Mutsamudu, Autonomous Island of Anjouan, Comoros Union, with operating address at Edificio Faro, Oficina 4, Avenidas 12 y 14, Calle 12, Barrio Luján, San José, Costa Rica.
The company that actually sells you the evaluation is the Comoros one. A buyer who reads the Terms meets a Dubai company defined as “the Company” throughout, while the programs are run by a different entity in a different jurisdiction. That split is disclosed, and it is not resolved.
- No regulator is named. CTI’s footer quotes “License No. L15969/CTI” without saying who issued it or where, and the same footer says neither company is a broker.
- All trading is on demo accounts with virtual capital, according to the footer, even though some help center articles describe instant accounts as real funding.
- CTI has operated since 2018. It names Martin Najat as its co-founder and chief executive.
- The code of conduct bans false negative reviews, not honest ones.
Why this grade
The contract finding behind City Traders Imperium’s grade is that the Terms a buyer accepts are written in the name of a company that does not run the challenge. Its own pages also disagree about how its drawdown limits are measured, which is a real problem for a trader but is not one of the deductions behind the grade.
The Terms name a Dubai education company, while the challenge is run by a Comoros company under a separate agreement that is not published where the Terms are. The Terms do not say which of the two pays your reward.
One warning that sits outside the grade: CTI’s own pages disagree on whether your open losses count against your limits. The program page says floating losses do not count toward the maximum drawdown. The help center says equity, including floating losses, is what gets measured. The same disagreement appears on the daily limit. Whichever is right, you would find out by breaching.
No payout has been independently verified, so how reliably CTI pays, and how its support handles a payout dispute, are both still unknown.
City Traders Imperium · what the record shows before you start
From the facts we hold for City Traders Imperium: the published profit split reaches 80%, entry starts at $29, 47 trading rules are on record. This summary is assembled from the canonical record, not from the firm's marketing.
Read the full summary
The current grade is B (preliminary) under methodology firm-grade-v1.1.0. Preliminary means the letter rests on what we have read so far and no payout has been tested yet, so it can move as verification completes.
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Our verdict
City Traders Imperium offers a cheap one-step challenge, a two-step with a static drawdown, and two no-evaluation routes, but its conduct rules reach into how you place, size and copy every trade, and crypto payouts are capped low.
Best for
- Traders who always use a stop loss and never hedge.
- Traders who want news, overnight and weekend holds allowed.
- 1-Step traders who run third-party EAs or controlled Martingale.
Avoid if
- You want to take more than $1,000 a month in crypto without a bank account.
- You share a home with another CTI trader, or trade from several devices.
- You expect Instant Funding’s headline size and a full share from day one.
Questions traders ask
Which company am I contracting with?
Is the firm regulated?
What profit split will I actually get?
When can I take a first payout?
What happens after I request a payout?
How much capital does Instant actually start with?
Facts checked: 17 August to 3 September 2026. No payout independently verified.
