The Bitcoin Trading Challenge: Trade BTC for a chance to win your share of 1 BTC

TL;DR

• Kraken is running the Bitcoin Trading Challenge, a one-month BTC perp trading competition with a prize pool of 1 BTC, paid in Bitcoin rather than a fiat equivalent.
  
• The competition runs from August 19 to September 19, 2026 and is open to eligible clients outside the EEA, US, UK, Australia and Canada.
  
• Traders are ranked by realized PnL on closed BTC perp positions, so placement reflects trading performance rather than account size.
  
• Up to 600 places share the pool, with 0.15 BTC going to first place and a $25 realized PnL minimum to qualify.

Most Bitcoin trading competitions pay out in something other than Bitcoin. You trade the asset, and the prize arrives as a stablecoin balance, a voucher or a piece of hardware.

We wanted to run it the other way around. From August 19 to September 19, 2026, the Bitcoin Trading Challenge puts 1 BTC on the table across a single BTC perp leaderboard, and every payout is settled in the asset you traded to earn it. You must enroll in the challenge first for your BTC perp trading to be included in the contest.

How does the Bitcoin Trading Challenge work?

One asset. One leaderboard. One month.

The competition covers BTC perp only, our perpetual futures contract on Bitcoin, with no basket of pairs to spread your attention across and no separate tracks to keep score of. You go long or short, you close positions, and where you land depends on what those closed trades actually returned.