The first quarter of 2025 — when industry growth continued at pace but operator economics began to bifurcate between scale leaders and sub-scale peers.
Q1 2025 was the quarter the industry's economic bifurcation became visible in the data.
Top 10 operators captured 67% of new funded-account growth in Q1 2025, up from 58% in Q4 2024. The remaining 40 tracked operators collectively grew below the industry average for the first time.
Refund ratios diverged for the first time as well: top 10 averaged 3.8%, while the remainder averaged 5.1%. Operator quality is becoming a measurable rather than narrative distinction.
Key Report Takeaways
- Top 10 operators captured 67% of new funded-account growth in Q1.
- Refund ratio bifurcation: 3.8% (top 10) vs. 5.1% (others).
- Mid-tier M&A signals accelerate.
- Compliance spend reframes as competitive moat.
- Executive summary
- Industry landscape
- Operator benchmarks
- The bifurcation thesis
- Regional roundup
- Refund-ratio deep dive
- Compliance spend benchmarks
- H2 2025 outlook
The bifurcation
Operator economics are no longer uniformly distributed. The top of the market is pulling ahead on both growth and quality, leaving sub-scale operators with a narrowing strategic window.
Continue reading the full report.
Full charts, operator-level data tables, and the underlying dataset are available to CobraSight members.
