Singapore based Prop Trading firm MPFunds, whose website touted the company as Asia’s first Modern Prop Firm, is closing.
MPFunds’ website (at mpfunds.com) shows an “open letter” from founder and CEO Dean Wong (see full text below), blaming the firm’s closure on its bank having terminated all services to MPFunds without sharing the reason. Mr. Wong also shared that a planned Series-A financing round that was initially secured for 11th September 2024 fell through. The fundraising was required after MPFunds found some “suspicious activities” amongst its users, where traders collectively took advantage of its platform.
MPFunds becomes the latest in a string of several Prop Firm closures in recent months (e.g. Fund for Traders), as the ultra-competitive business of selling trading “Challenges” to retail traders – in return for the chance at running a funded account – gets hit by a combination of regulatory crackdown (which we believe is the case now in Singapore), trading platform providers being more careful how their tech is used, and just good old competition.
Apparently MPFunds’ closure caught the company’s affiliates – who sell Challenges on behalf of the prop firm in return for some sort of compensation – unaware. One of these affiliates, prop firm comparison site PropFirmMatch, issued the following announcement on X (formerly Twitter) about the situation.
MPFunds announced today that they are ceasing operations following claims of regulatory changes and stricter enforcement in Singapore. Unfortunately, Prop Firm Match had not received any information about this before today’s announcement. At this time, MPFunds have not stated if they intend to compensate affected traders, and our inquiry about the matter has not been addressed.
Regardless of their approach, if you are a Prop Firm Match member who purchased with MPFunds and have uploaded proof of purchase to your member section, we will provide you with a free challenge account from another listed firm. If the account was previously breached due to your trading, we will offer a 5K account. If it was active and breached today due to this, we will give you a free challenge account of the same size (10K-200K).
The Prop Firm Match support team will be actively reaching out to everyone who was impacted by this event. If this applies to you, expect an email from us by Friday (September 14).
The letter posted by Dean Wong regarding MPFunds’ closure reads as follows.
An Open Letter from the Founder and CEO of MPFunds
To all our valued clients and traders,
I started MPFunds with a dream, a goal, and a vision to reward traders, and change their lives. Built over 4 years of hard work not just by myself, but everyone at MPFunds. It was always an inspiration to see that day in and day out, countless individuals benefitted from our services. However, it is my deepest regret to announce the official, permanent closure of MPFunds.
Recently, MPFunds has met with tough obstacles that have unfortunately led to this circumstance. Due to the local landscape’s regulatory decisions and strict enforcement, our bank has unanimously terminated all services to us without sharing the reason. Despite provision of all the necessary evidence and legal documents requested from the bank, appeals to reinstate the account was closed without any room for negotiations. Further attempts to source for other financial institutions were also met with rejections, thus severely affecting our operations and leading to unnecessary burdens when processing all the finances.
In addition, an increase in prohibited and/or suspicious activities amongst our users in recent months has also been found, where traders collectively take advantage of our platform. Investigations into the matter were conducted, and although most traders were not affected, a very small minority threatened the integrity of our reward structure. Following the sudden series of events that unfolded, our latest Series-A Round that was initially secured for 11th September 2024 unfortunately fell through, which led up to this very difficult decision.
To all our traders, thank you for journeying with us and being an essential part of MPFunds, especially all who have been with us since our launch. I have sincerely learnt a lot during this journey, seeing how many of you benefited, shared feedback and suggestions to improve, and thanking us is always very heartwarming. Getting to see many of you in person at our physical events was also always such an enjoyable one, as we get to share the joy of our company’s growth and progress with you, and be transparent on what is ahead for MPFunds.
I didn’t fail the system, the system failed me. This decision was not made lightly, and I am truly sorry for what happened, and I sincerely seek your kind understanding during this difficult time.
Sincerely,
Dean Wong
Founder & CEO of MPFundsP.S. To my MPFunds Team, thank you for being the most trusted, capable, and dedicated team I can only dream of. All of you chose to believe in me, support me, and help grow MPFunds when we were nothing, all the way to where we are today.
