Polymarket’s presence overshadows BET despite strong debut

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Crypto prediction markets see 740% volume growth in 2024, US elections drive activity.

Solana-based prediction market BET surpassed $20 million in daily volume on Aug. 29 but failed to sustain the volume spike the following day. Meanwhile, Polymarket is showing over ten times the trading volume of BET on Aug. 30.

BET is a prediction market launched by the money market Drift on Aug. 17. Thus, registering a significant amount of daily trading volume in less than two weeks after launch is no small feat. Polymarket has only crossed this threshold in 10 out of 90 days since May 30.

Yet, BET’s daily trading volume is below the $500,000 mark today, while Polygon-based Polymarket is at nearly $6 million. The comparison can be used to gauge how long the ground BET should cover to gain more relevance among crypto investors.

Moreover, Polymarket’s US presidential election data was added to Bloomberg’s notorious Terminal yesterday. The amount of bets on the election outcome surpassed $766 million on the Polygon-based prediction market today.

Significant yearly growth

The crypto prediction market sector experienced substantial growth in 2024. Analyzing Polymarket’s data, its monthly trading volume has risen roughly 740% this year, leaping from $54.1 million in January to current $454 million.

Notably, the trading amount registered in August is the platform’s new all-time high, representing a nearly $70 million jump when compared to July.

The growth can also be observed in the number of users, as they totaled 4,097 in January and are now over 61,500. This represents 1,500% yearly growth.

The key factor driving the activity on prediction markets is the US elections, as the topic dominated the weekly trading volume on Polymarket in 3 out of 35 weeks in 2024. 

This dominance can also be witnessed in the number of users, as the number of the platform’s traders interested in the US elections represents the majority since the last week of May.