Polymarket, a crypto betting platform, has hit a major milestone. It's racked up $1 billion in trading volume. The kicker? A third of that came in just the last month.
July saw $343 million in bets. That's a big jump from June's $111 million and May's $63 million. Dune Analytics crunched these numbers.
What's driving this surge? It's all about the US presidential election, folks.
Bets on who'll win the White House in November have topped $429 million. Trump's the frontrunner with 60% odds.
Kamala Harris has seen a wild ride. Her odds shot up from 1% to 38% after Biden bowed out unexpectedly.
Politics isn't the only game in town, though. Polymarket lets you bet on crypto, sports, business, and even the 2024 Olympics.
The platform's growth hasn't gone unnoticed. In May, they bagged $70 million in Series B funding. Peter Thiel's Founder Fund led the round. Ethereum's Vitalik Buterin also chipped in.
Polymarket's not resting on its laurels. They've teamed up with MoonPay to make it easier for non-crypto folks to join the party. Now you can use your regular old debit or credit card.
They've also brought in some big guns. Nate Silver, the election stats whiz, is now advising them. Smart move, given all the US political action.
Here's the rub, though. Despite all the buzz around US events, Americans can't use Polymarket. Regulations, you know how it is.
Yuga Cohler, a bigwig at Coinbase, has some thoughts on this whole prediction market thing. He reckons it's "the purest technological manifestation of liberal democracy." Strong words, mate.
Cohler argues these markets are a truth machine. They take free markets and free speech as input and spit out unvarnished truth. In an age of dodgy info, that's pretty valuable.