Phidias Propfirm $30 Entry Fee for 10K Drawdown Challenge

I am posting this review because I believe other traders deserve to know exactly what happened to me before spending their money with Phidias Propfirm.
I spent **nearly $1,000 purchasing accounts from Phidias**. I then invested a significant amount of time and effort trading those accounts, passing the required stages and building the necessary buffers.
Only after I had paid for the accounts and done all of that work, Phidias questioned the location of my connection.
I explained openly and honestly that I reside in Brazil but use a **VPS located in the United States** for technical reasons, including connection stability, lower latency and the convenience of maintaining the same virtual trading environment when I travel.
Their response was shocking.
Phidias informed me that **“the use of VPS and VPN services is strictly prohibited under our terms and conditions”**, terminated my access, banned me from using their services and did not refund the money I had spent purchasing the accounts.
There is one enormous problem with that justification:
**WHERE IS THIS RULE?**
After receiving their response, I searched their publicly available **Terms of Use and published rules**, specifically looking for a prohibition on VPS or VPN usage.
**I could not find it.**
If Phidias claims that VPS and VPN services are “strictly prohibited under our terms and conditions,” then they should be able to point customers to the **exact clause that says so**.
A company cannot reasonably expect customers to comply with a supposed “strict prohibition” that customers cannot find in the publicly available rules they are expected to read before purchasing and trading.
Had this restriction been clearly disclosed, I simply **would not have used a VPS**.
I did not hide its use when questioned. I immediately explained exactly what I was doing and why. Nevertheless, after accepting nearly $1,000 from me and allowing me to put substantial effort into passing and developing these accounts, Phidias used this supposed rule to terminate the relationship and keep the money I had paid.
I have asked them to identify the **specific section, clause or published rule** that prohibited my use of a VPS.
This is not about asking Phidias to make an exception to a clearly disclosed rule. **The fundamental issue is whether this alleged prohibition was actually disclosed to the customer in the first place.**
If Phidias can produce the specific rule that was applicable when I purchased and traded these accounts, people can evaluate it for themselves.
But if they cannot, then in my opinion what happened to me is completely unacceptable: **take a customer's money, allow him to spend considerable time successfully working on the accounts, and then ban him without refund based on a supposed “strict prohibition” that he cannot find in the company's publicly available Terms and Rules.**
I have documentation of the communications and of the reason Phidias provided for its decision.
Based on my personal experience, **I consider the way Phidias handled this situation dishonest and deeply unfair to the customer.**
**My warning to other traders is simple: stay away from this prop firm. Do not risk spending your money and your time only to discover later that an unpublished or difficult-to-find restriction can be used against you after you have already done the hard work.**
**RUN FROM THIS PROP FIRM.**
Until Phidias can show exactly where this supposed VPS/VPN prohibition was disclosed to customers, **I would not trust them with another dollar.**

First time trading with Phidias. The customer support was quick to help me with any issues I encountered (only one). I was able to pass the eval in two days and just got my funded account along with a payout. Great day for me.

I have been with Phidias for months, purchasing funded trading accounts and attempting to pass their evaluations. During that time, I lost several evaluations, and there was never an issue with my account.
Then, yesterday, I finally managed to pass TWO evaluations and make a profit. As soon as I requested my payout, everything suddenly changed.
I received an email stating that I could no longer access my account and that I would be banned. They provided NO meaningful explanation, NO evidence of any violation, and NO real justification for taking this action.
I immediately tried to contact Phidias to ask for an explanation and requested evidence showing what rule I had supposedly violated. Instead of addressing my concerns, they completely ignored me. I was denied access to their communication channels, and I was removed from their Discord as well. I have been unable to get anyone from the company to actually explain what happened.
This is extremely concerning.
It is apparently perfectly acceptable for customers to keep purchasing evaluations and losing money. But when a customer finally passes the evaluations and becomes profitable, suddenly the account is terminated, the payout is denied, and the customer is cut off from communication.
From my experience, this gives the impression that Phidias is happy to take customers’ money when they lose, but unwilling to honor the situation when customers actually make money and request a payout.
I am not asking for special treatment. I am asking for a simple explanation and evidence of the alleged violation. If Phidias believes I broke a rule, then they should clearly identify the rule, provide the evidence, and allow the customer to respond.
INSTEAD, I WAS BANNED, IGNORED, AND REMOVED FROM THEIR COMMUNICATION CHANNELS WITHOUT BEING GIVEN A MEANINGFUL EXPLANATION.
AFTER SPENDING MONTHS PURCHASING EVALUATIONS, THIS IS AN EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTING WAY TO TREAT A CUSTOMER. I WOULD STILL LIKE PHIDIAS TO PROVIDE A LEGITIMATE EXPLANATION AND EVIDENCE FOR THE DECISION THEY MADE REGARDING MY ACCOUNT.
I SINCERELY HOPE THAT THE APPROPRIATE REGULATORY AUTHORITIES, CONSUMER PROTECTION ORGANIZATIONS, OR OTHER RELEVANT AUTHORITIES WILL LOOK INTO THESE PRACTICES AND TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION IF THEY FIND THAT CUSTOMERS ARE BEING MISLED OR UNFAIRLY TREATED.
NO OTHER CUSTOMER SHOULD HAVE TO GO THROUGH WHAT I HAVE EXPERIENCED WITHOUT RECEIVING A CLEAR EXPLANATION, EVIDENCE, AND A FAIR OPPORTUNITY TO ADDRESS THE ALLEGATIONS MADE AGAINST THEM.

Worst company ever. Payouts Denied because they said multiple accounts under my information which is a big LIE i never had an account with phidias until i created my account. When i was losing there was no issue but after i won a ETL 150k account they just banned me and denied my 3600$ payout

I cleared the profit target on a 50k Express to Live (E2L) account by $700. The E2L account has zero consistency rules and no minimum trading days. Despite this, my payout request has been pending for over 20 hours, and my internal support ticket has been completely ignored for 17+ hours. When I politely posted a screenshot of the stuck processing page in the official Discord to ask if there was a system-wide delay, the moderators instantly timed me out to hide the issue from the chat instead of helping, or reaching out to me. This is unacceptable customer service for an account advertised with rapid processing. I recently just logged back on to check in on Sunday, to find out I have been banned from the server, and I can’t log on to my Phidias account under an “authentication error.” This is crazy, how can a prop firm actually get away with scamming people.
Update— September 6, 2026: Since posting this review, the situation has gotten significantly worse. My payout was ultimately denied based on the fact that I posted this exact review; after reviewing the contract I signed when the account was purchased/activated, I could not find in the contract that governed my account at the time I requested the payout, any breach of guidelines in regards to leaving reviews. Rather than simply honoring the terms I agreed to, I was presented with additional reasoning after the fact for why the payout would not be processed.
Even more concerning, during this dispute I was contacted by a member of their discord community who attempted to get me to send additional money in connection with resolving the situation. After everything that had already happened: the delayed payout, ignored support ticket, Discord timeout/ban, and loss of access to my account. I was not comfortable making any additional payment at this stage.
I have preserved screenshots of the payout requests, account status, Discord communications, support communications, the agreement I signed, and the subsequent denial. I am now disputing the applicable charges with my payment provider and evaluating available legal remedies. At this point, my concern is no longer simply slow customer service; it is whether the terms presented to customers are actually applied consistently and whether payout denials are being based on terms customers agreed to beforehand.
If anyone else out there can account to a similar unethical experience: payout stuck, sudden Discord ban, account locked, then asked to pay an undisclosed “fee”. Please reach out and help in the legal pursuit of this matter, this would carry far more weight with the FBI’s IC3 and or the FTC.