How it works
- Sign up free with Townline now.
- See the eligible coin list with live prices.
- Submit your $1,000,000 allocation by Nov 30, 2026 (picks lock).
- Dec 1, 2026 — everyone starts together.
- Final valuation at close Dec 31, 2026; winners early January 2027 after a skill-testing question.
Free to enter: sign up with Townline. No purchase necessary. Prize pool: C$12,000. Virtual portfolio: $1,000,000.
Competition Rules v1.0
Published October 1, 2026. These rules lock the current competition design. Paid entry remains disabled until final launch gates are cleared.
1. Sponsor and format
Sponsor: ARQS — ACK Research Quantitative Systems. Contact: sales@arqs.ca. The Million-Dollar Year Crypto Challenge is a simulated paper-portfolio competition. No entrant buys, sells, deposits or transfers real cryptocurrency through the competition.
2. Competition calendar
Final valuation: December 31, 2026 at 12:00 AM Pacific. Entries may close earlier if all 1,000 slots are accepted. Binding timestamps will be repeated in the final Launch Notice.
3. Eligibility
Initial launch eligibility: legal residents of Canada, excluding Québec, age 19 or older. Sponsor employees, contractors materially involved in administration, and members of their immediate household are ineligible. Void where prohibited.
4. Entry cap and entry methods
Maximum 1,000 accepted entry slots. Maximum five accepted entries per email account across all entry methods combined.
Paid-entry option
Planned price: CFree per accepted entry. Payment processing will be activated only through a provider that permits this type of competition.
No-purchase entry method
No purchase necessary. An equal online no-purchase method will be available throughout the official Entry Period, subject to the same five-entry-per-email cap, identity/eligibility checks, portfolio rules, deadlines and scoring. Paid entries receive no scoring or prize advantage.
5. Crypto universe and portfolio
Entrants choose from 10 cryptos: BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, ADA, AVAX, LINK, DOT, LTC and DOGE, plus cash. Each entry starts with a simulated C$1,000,000 paper bankroll. A portfolio must use at least 2 and no more than 10 crypto positions, total exactly 100%, and allocate no more than 40% to any one crypto. No leverage, borrowing, shorting, derivatives, staking yield or outside deposits. No rebalancing after lock.
6. Scoring and ties
At portfolio lock, weights are converted into simulated units using the approved official reference price at or before the lock. Rank is determined by final paper-portfolio value at the Final Valuation timestamp. The official price source, backup source, stale-price rule and abnormal-price review procedure will be frozen in the Launch Notice.
Exact final-value ties are broken by: (1) lower maximum drawdown; (2) higher cash balance at portfolio lock; then (3) earlier accepted official entry timestamp. No random draw is used as a ranking tie-break.
7. Prizes
Total prize pool: C$12,000. Maximum one prize per person/email account. If multiple entries controlled by the same person/email place in the top five, that person receives only the highest applicable prize and the lower prize rolls to the next eligible distinct entrant. Potential winners must pass identity/eligibility verification and correctly answer a time-limited mathematical skill-testing question before award.
8. Charity and community
ARQS intends that 100% of net contest proceeds remaining after the fixed C$12,000 prize pool, refunds/chargebacks, approved processing costs, applicable taxes and documented direct contest administration costs be directed to disability-focused causes represented by these beneficiaries.
If all 1,000 slots were paid at CFree, paid-entry gross would be Cfree entry (no fee revenue). After the fixed prize pool, the pre-expense balance would be Coptional community support. ARQS will publish a post-contest reconciliation.
Optional Townline Community Fund contribution
An optional C$5 Community Fund contribution may be offered separately. It does not create an entry, improve ranking or affect chances, and is accounted for separately.
Donations of C$100+ can request charitable-receipt processing by submitting donor and mailing details through the Community Fund receipt-request form.
9. Payment and refunds
Official payment processing will not be activated until an approved provider is in place. Payments that exceed the five-entry-per-email cap, arrive after closing, use an incorrect amount/currency, or otherwise fail eligibility requirements will be handled under the published refund procedure.
10. Privacy, integrity and conduct
Public leaderboards use display names rather than legal names or email addresses. Contest notices are separate from marketing consent. Automated entry abuse, false identity data, exceeding the five-entry cap, collusion intended to manipulate scoring, tampering with the site/data feed, or interference with another entrant may result in documented disqualification.
11. Cancellation and amendments
Before official launch, ARQS may amend the rules or decline to launch. After launch, material changes may be made only when reasonably required by law, provider requirements, security, data failure or circumstances outside Sponsor control, and may not be used to favour a particular entrant. Material changes will be dated and published.
12. Launch gates
No paid entry opens until final legal review, payment-provider acceptance, five-entry enforcement, no-purchase entry path, market-data source/backup, security review, privacy/consent review, real-device QA and beneficiary wording are complete.