Trading tournaments in Bangladesh

No. Bangladesh Bank has explicitly prohibited cryptocurrency transactions since a 2014 circular and reiterated the position in 2017 and 2022, invoking the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act 1947 and Money Laundering Prevention Act 2012 as the legal basis. Bangladesh Bank has publicly warned that crypto transactions can trigger criminal penalties. No BSEC or Bangladesh Bank-licensed crypto exchange exists domestically. P2P USDT via offshore exchanges is common in practice but sits in tension with the ban.

FundedNext (which has strong Bangladeshi founding leadership and is one of the largest global prop firms today), FTMO, Topstep, MyForexFunds and The Funded Trader all accept Bangladeshi residents per their public terms. This is the dominant cash-prize path for BD active traders given the ban on crypto and the thin DSE-broker contest market. Payouts to Bangladeshi bank accounts via SWIFT are typically slow or impractical, so USDT via P2P is the standard workaround.

DSE and CSE brokers (LankaBangla Securities, IDLC Securities, City Brokerage, EBL Securities, BRAC EPL Stock Brokerage) run occasional retail engagement events, but recurring cash-prize PnL leaderboards are structurally absent. The local retail-tournament market has not developed density comparable to India, Indonesia or Malaysia. The Bangladeshi active-trading community concentrates on offshore prop-firm evaluations instead.

Yes, both accept international entrants including Bangladeshi residents. The practical constraint is funding an offshore brokerage account for the audited-statement requirement. Bangladesh Bank BDT outward-remittance restrictions make retail funding of offshore trading accounts difficult; most Bangladeshi WCTC-scale participants use offshore corporate structures, non-resident external accounts, or family members abroad to route capital.

Prize income is reportable under the Income Tax Act 2023 (which superseded the Income Tax Ordinance 1984) as income from other sources. NBR filing thresholds and withholding rules apply. Crypto-related winnings sit in a legal grey zone because the underlying activity is prohibited by Bangladesh Bank, reportable in principle but treated inconsistently in practice. Consult a Bangladeshi chartered accountant for non-trivial amounts, especially for USDT-denominated prop-firm payouts that intersect with foreign-exchange controls.