Polymarket is the world's largest prediction market platform. It lets anyone trade on the outcome of real-world events — from presidential elections to Fed rate decisions to crypto prices to sports results — using USDC stablecoin on the Polygon blockchain.
Polymarket markets work like this: each event has YES and NO shares that trade between $0.01 and $1.00. The price represents the market's collective probability estimate. If an event is at 72%, it means traders collectively believe there's a 72% chance it will happen.
When the event resolves:
All settlements are automatic via Polygon smart contracts. No human involvement in payouts.
Polymarket gained massive mainstream attention during the 2024 US presidential election. While traditional polling showed an extremely close race, Polymarket markets had Donald Trump at 65-70%+ winning probability for weeks before election day. Trump won. This sharply contrasted with polling aggregators and prediction models, making Polymarket a household name in forecasting circles.
The platform was cited by Bloomberg, the New York Times, Reuters, the Financial Times, and dozens of other major media outlets as a superior forecasting tool.
Polymarket hosts 1,000+ active markets across categories including:
| Polymarket | Sports Betting | |
|---|---|---|
| Exit before resolution | ✓ Yes — sell anytime | ✗ Usually no |
| Effective fees | ~2% | 5–10% vig |
| Topics | Anything (politics, economics, etc.) | Mostly sports |
| Currency | USDC (crypto) | USD |
| Regulation | Unregulated (offshore) | Licensed in many states |
Polymarket attracts a wide range of users: professional traders seeking alpha from political markets, researchers and forecasters who want financial stakes in their predictions, crypto enthusiasts who want to put their market knowledge to work, and informed citizens who follow news closely and believe they can identify market inefficiencies.
1,000+ live prediction markets with real-time odds. No signup required to browse.
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