Topstep has retired its Live Performance Bonus and replaced it with the Topstep Octagon, a monthly competition for Live Funded Accounts carrying $250,000 in performance bonuses. The old level-based bonus was retired as of June 2026, and the replacement took effect on July 1, 2026, according to Topstep’s help center. Traders who earned bonuses by reaching profit levels on their own account now rank against each other.
What changed
| Was | Now |
|---|---|
| One level-based bonus per calendar month, exclusive to TopstepX (Topstep Help Center) | A monthly competition with $250,000 in performance bonuses for Live Funded Accounts (Topstep blog) |
| Paid for hitting a profit level, regardless of what other traders did | Paid by rank, with launch terms of $100,000 for first place and bonuses for the top 100 Live Funded Traders (Topstep blog) |
How the Octagon is scored
Ranking uses total monthly profit and loss only, and each account starts the month at a virtual $0, so a large balance built up earlier does not carry into the standings, Topstep says. There is no registration step: “Every active Live Funded Account automatically earns a spot in the Octagon,” the firm writes.
Bonuses are paid the following month into the account balance and follow Topstep’s standard payout guidelines, the firm says. That matters because money credited to a balance still has to clear the usual withdrawal terms before it reaches a trader’s bank.
Topstep’s help center page for the Octagon also describes a second event scored on the longest winning streak, counted as consecutive days with more than $500 in profit, and states that a trader must finish the month net positive to qualify and can win from both pools in the same month (Topstep Help Center). That page is maintained by the firm and is not dated to the launch, so treat its wording as the firm’s current description rather than the announced launch terms.
Who it affects
The change concerns Live Funded Accounts. The retired bonus was exclusive to TopstepX, so traders who were collecting level bonuses there are the group most directly affected. Every active Live Funded Account is enrolled by default, including accounts held by traders who have no interest in a leaderboard.
What traders should check
Read the payout guidelines before counting on a bonus, since the money lands in the account balance first. Check the firm’s own Octagon page for qualifying terms, because the launch blog post and the help center describe the competition at different levels of detail. Note also that a bonus now depends on where a month’s profit and loss ranks against other traders, which is outside any one trader’s control. An evaluation with Topstep remains a paid service using simulated trading, and none of this is investment advice.
