Polymarket is a prediction market built on Polygon — you don't trade a coin, you buy shares in yes/no outcome markets (e.g. "Will Bitcoin hit $100K in 2025?"). Here's how it actually works:
The core mechanic
- Every market has two sides: YES and NO.
- Each share pays out $1 if that side is correct, $0 if it's wrong.
- The share price floats between $0 and $1 and effectively is the implied probability. If YES trades at $0.65, the market thinks there's a ~65% chance it happens.
- You make money two ways: buy YES at $0.65, it resolves correctly, you get $1 (profit $0.35). Or sell your shares early to someone else at a higher price before resolution.
Steps to use it
- Deposit — Polymarket uses USDC on Polygon. Fund via bank transfer / card (US/UK users via fiat) or bridge USDC from another chain.
- Pick a market — browse by category (Crypto, Politics, Sports, etc.) or search.
- Buy shares — pick YES or NO, enter a price/amount. There's an order book (limit orders) plus a "buy at market" option.
- Hold or sell — you can hold until the market resolves, or sell your position at any time before resolution if the price moves.
- Collect — if your side wins, each share settles at $1 into your balance; withdraw as USDC.
Things worth knowing
- You're not buying a crypto asset with upside/downside risk in the usual sense — it's a fixed $0–$1 binary payout.
- Payouts depend on the market's official resolution source (whoever the market designates, e.g. a court ruling or a data feed), and disputed markets can get paused.
- Fees are charged on withdrawals (and there's a spread / fee baked into the trading), not on deposits.
- US users are supported via USDC, but availability can vary by jurisdiction — worth checking current access rules for your region before funding.
There's no Polymarket token to buy — the platform runs on USDC collateral, so there's nothing here to research as a coin.
Want me to check anything specific — like what's trending in the crypto prediction markets right now, or how Polymarket compares to other prediction platforms?