How USD Cash-Prize Leagues Work

Published August 18, 2026 · Updated September 5, 2026 · MongoTrader Team

Most MongoTrader leagues pay out in $MON, our virtual currency. Cash-prize leagues pay out in US dollars. Same simulated portfolios, same live markets, same leaderboard, but with a real prize pool, and with a few extra rules that come with real money. This guide covers all of them.

If you have entered any league on MongoTrader, you already know how a cash-prize league works as a competition: everyone trades simulated money on real-time prices over a fixed window, and a leaderboard ranks portfolios by percentage return. The competitions guide covers that side. What follows is everything that is specific to the dollars: who can play, how we verify it, how the pool is split, and how winnings reach your bank account.

What makes a league a cash-prize league

Cash-prize leagues are created and funded by MongoTrader. They carry a fixed US-dollar pool that does not depend on how many people enter, and they are labeled with a dollar badge wherever leagues are listed. Players cannot create cash leagues, and the developer API cannot enter them; a real-money contest needs a verified human in the app. The flagship cash league is the Weekly Cash Cup: a $200 pool, every week, traded Monday through Wednesday.

What it costs to enter

Entry is paid in $MON, not dollars. $MON is earned daily by every account (3 per day on Free, 10 on Premium, 30 on Max), can be won in leagues, and cannot be purchased. The Weekly Cash Cup costs 25 $MON. Your very first league entry on MongoTrader, cash or otherwise, is free.

Because the fee is virtual and the pool is platform funded, there is no scenario in which you lose money by entering. The downside of a bad week is a bruised ranking, nothing more.

Who is eligible

Real-money contests are regulated at the state level in the United States, so cash-prize leagues are open only to players who are physically located in an eligible state when they enter. The current list:

Alabama, Alaska, California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Eligibility is about where you are, not where you live. A resident of an eligible state who is traveling somewhere ineligible cannot enter until they are back, and someone visiting an eligible state can. Anyone, anywhere, can still enter every $MON league on the platform.

How location verification works

When you enter a cash league, MongoTrader asks for your device's location. The coordinates are sent to our servers, resolved to a state using bundled US Census boundaries (no third-party lookup service, and the coordinates are not shared), and cross-checked against the country and region of your internet connection. If the two disagree in a way that looks like a VPN or a spoofed location, entry is refused.

• Checked twice. Once when you enter, and again when you withdraw winnings, because you may have moved in between.
• Precise enough to be fair, no more. A location fix that is too coarse to place you in a state is rejected rather than guessed at.
• Logged for compliance. Each check is recorded so a disputed entry or payout can be reviewed.

On iOS the prompt is the standard system location permission. On the web it is the browser's location permission on app.mongotrader.com. Denying it simply means you cannot enter cash leagues; it has no effect on anything else.

How the prize pool is split

Each cash league states its pool and its payout curve up front. The Weekly Cash Cup uses a geometric curve: every rank's share is a fixed fraction of the rank above it, so the pool is weighted toward the top but keeps paying down the board rather than stopping at a podium. With a full field, first place in a $200 cup takes roughly $75, second about $47, third about $29, fourth about $18, fifth about $11, and smaller amounts continue from there. Ties on the leaderboard are settled by the league's ranking rules before the curve is applied.

A cash league also sets a minimum field. If fewer than that many players enter (ten for the Weekly Cash Cup), the pool is not distributed and every entry fee is refunded.

From settlement to your bank account

1. Settlement. When the league closes, final standings are computed and the pool is distributed. Your share is credited to the USD balance in your MongoTrader wallet.
2. Holding period. Winnings become withdrawable 14 days after they are credited. This window exists to review results and reverse any payout that came from a broken feed or a rules violation before it leaves the platform.
3. Connect PayPal. Withdrawals are paid to PayPal. You link your PayPal account from the wallet, and MongoTrader verifies the email on it before any payment is sent.
4. Request a withdrawal. Minimum $10, maximum $500 per request. A $2 processing fee applies to requests under $50 and is waived at $50 or more. Every withdrawal requires a two-factor code, so enable two-factor authentication in your security settings before you need it.
5. Location check. The same eligibility check runs at withdrawal time.
6. Payment. Approved withdrawals are paid through PayPal Payouts and you can follow the status in your wallet.

Taxes

Prize money is income. Once your cumulative winnings reach the IRS reporting threshold, MongoTrader will ask you to complete a W-9 before further withdrawals and will issue the required tax form. Keep your own records regardless of the threshold; the wallet shows every credit and withdrawal with dates.

Fair play

Cash changes the incentives, so a few rules are enforced strictly. One person, one account. Coordinating portfolios across accounts to game the leaderboard, exploiting a stale quote, or entering from an ineligible location voids the entry and can forfeit winnings. Re-entry (resetting your baseline mid-league) is allowed under the normal re-entry rules, including in cash leagues, and it charges the entry fee again each time.

Frequently asked questions