In the third quarter, Polymarket’s trading volume surged past the $1 billion mark, driven by the increasing popularity of Web3 prediction markets.
The platform’s US presidential prediction market alone has seen an inflow of nearly $1 billion, as users bet on potential election outcomes.
Prediction markets are becoming a focal point in Web3, with platforms like Polymarket leading the charge. While Polymarket holds the largest share of the market, competitors like Azuro and Drift (BET) are also making waves. Azuro, for example, focuses primarily on sports betting and operates as an infrastructure layer that allows users to contribute to liquidity pools in exchange for earning APY. Drift’s BET, on the other hand, is a decentralized exchange (DEX) that has recently added prediction market features, leveraging the existing liquidity from its perpetual futures platform on Solana.
Polymarket’s Success Has Its Trace
Polymarket’s success in 2024 can be attributed to several factors, including its simple and user-friendly interface. The platform specializes in binary outcome markets, where users can place bets using USDC. As one of the earlier hybrid-decentralized, low-fee prediction platforms, Polymarket has successfully capitalized on the heightened interest in the US election year.
Meanwhile, BET and Azuro provide unique approaches to the market. BET offers more than 30 tokens for placing bets and benefits from Solana’s audience and total value locked (TVL), while Azuro’s peer-to-pool betting mechanism offers liquidity contributors a way to earn passive income.
Although Polymarket is likely to dominate in the short term, especially with its election-based markets, the platform will need to develop strategies to maintain its trading volume once the election cycle concludes.
Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any Metaverse crypto coins.