Velotrade, the Hong Kong based crypto proprietary trading firm founded by former institutional derivatives traders from JP Morgan, Dresdner Kleinwort, and Bank of America, today announced that full programmatic access to its funded trading accounts is now open to all clients via its API.
The release of open API access marks the latest step in Velotrade’s strategy of building a crypto prop firm on institutional foundations. Every Velotrade account, from a trader’s first evaluation challenge through to a fully funded account, now has access to the same programmatic interface used by professional brokerage and proprietary trading desks.
Traders can place, modify, and cancel orders, stream live market data and account metrics via WebSocket, and run custom execution systems, signal automation, or quantitative strategies against the same infrastructure that powers the firm’s discretionary trading. There is no additional fee, application, or approval process.
A different model for crypto prop
The announcement comes against a backdrop in which most prop firms in the crypto space restrict or discourage automated trading, viewing it as a risk to their revenue model. Velotrade has taken the opposite position from launch: a firm whose revenue is tied to trader performance has every incentive to give good traders the tools they need to succeed.
Automated and algorithmic trading sit at the centre of this release. Where most crypto prop firms either ban bots outright or impose undisclosed restrictions that surface only when a payout is disputed, Velotrade has permitted algo trading, systematic strategies, and automated execution from day one. The API formalises that commitment: traders can now connect any external system, from a simple signal bot to a full quantitative execution engine, directly to a funded account, with no separate approval and no additional terms.
“We are not here to collect challenge fees and hope people fail. Our entire model is built on finding good traders and backing them with capital. Once a trader has shown they can perform, we want them to have everything they need to keep performing. An institutional grade API is part of that.”
— Gianluca Pizzituti, CEO and Co-Founder, Velotrade
Pizzituti began his career on the equity derivatives desk at Dresdner Kleinwort in London before founding and running a proprietary high frequency trading firm in FX and equity indices out of Singapore. In 2016 he founded Velotrade in Hong Kong, scaling the original trade finance business to over USD 2.5 billion in disbursements worldwide before launching the firm’s crypto prop trading platform in March 2026.
What traders can now build
- Custom execution engines for algorithmic (algo) trading, systematic and discretionary strategies, written in any language
- Real time risk dashboards reading live equity, drawdown, and margin via WebSocket
- Signal automation that consumes external feeds and routes orders into a Velotrade funded account
- Portfolio management, and multi account orchestration
Automated trading is permitted on the same terms as manual trading. The firm’s evaluation rules, including daily loss limits and maximum drawdown, apply to API activity in the same way they apply to discretionary trades, and traders are expected to design their systems to track account state and halt before any limit is breached.
Aligned with the broader Velotrade thesis
Open API access continues a pattern that has defined the Velotrade crypto offering since launch: a rule set built specifically for the volatility and liquidity profile of crypto markets, no consistency rules, no weekend holding bans, no restricted news trading windows, payouts processed within 24 hours in USDC or USDT, and a structure designed by people who have traded professionally on both sides of the institutional and proprietary divide.
“We have already seen traders running everything from execution algorithms to full systematic strategies on Velotrade accounts. Opening the API formally removes the last friction between someone with a good idea and a funded account they can deploy it on.”
— Vittorio De Angelis, Executive Chairman, Velotrade
De Angelis spent over three decades in capital markets and risk management, holding senior derivatives and capital markets roles at JP Morgan, Dresdner Kleinwort, and Bank of America before moving into fintech and alternative lending, and joining Velotrade as Executive Chairman.
About Velotrade
Velotrade is a Hong Kong based crypto proprietary trading firm founded by former institutional derivatives traders from JP Morgan, Dresdner Kleinwort, and Bank of America. The firm offers crypto funded trading accounts ranging from USD 5,000 to USD 200,000, offering leverage of up to 6 times on Bitcoin and Ethereum and a rule set designed specifically for crypto markets. The crypto funded trading platform is operated by Velotrade Re Limited, a separate Hong Kong entity incorporated in November 2025, alongside the original Velotrade trade finance business which continues to operate as a separate legal entity and has disbursed over USD 2.5 billion to date. The Velotrade name and founding team carry a track record covered by Bloomberg, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Nasdaq.
Media contact
Velotrade Re Limited
Hong Kong
Email: press@velotrade.com