Polymarket finally starts charging? US app launches trading fees, ending the era of zero fees

Decentralized prediction market platform Polymarket officially bids farewell to the “zero fee” model. According to an official announcement, Polymarket has introduced a trading fee mechanism for short-term cryptocurrency price prediction markets in its US app (currently still in internal testing), marking the platform’s first establishment of a clear revenue source.

Specifically, Polymarket has started charging for 15-minute cryptocurrency price markets, with counterparties in the US app being charged a 1 basis point fee, or 0.01%. This is a significant shift for Polymarket since its inception. Previously, all prediction market products on the platform adopted a zero-fee strategy for the long term, focusing on user growth and liquidity expansion.

Polymarket positions itself as the world’s largest decentralized prediction market, with products covering macro events, election results, and short-term cryptocurrency price trends. The introduction of fees in the US market is seen as an important step towards compliance and commercialization, and also reflects the increasing maturity of prediction markets within the US crypto application ecosystem.

Against the backdrop of ongoing integration of cryptocurrency prediction, on-chain trading, and decentralized finance, Polymarket’s fee pilot could provide a new business paradigm reference for similar prediction market platforms.