Polymarket Rides X Hype to $1.1B May Volume—But Fails to Hold Traders

Tech

Polymarket Rides X Hype to $1.1B May Volume—But Fails to Hold Traders

• Polymarkets trading volume climbed for the fourth consecutive month, reaching $1.103 billion in May despite active traders dropping.
• Polymarket has been named the official prediction market partner of X, the social media company owned by Elon Musk, since 2022.

Polymarket, a decentralized prediction market platform founded by Shayne Coplan and launched in 2020, posted $1.103 billion in trading volume in May this year, marking its fourth consecutive month of growth. The platform allows people to bet on cryptocurrency on just about anything, from politics to global events. But even with that momentum, its still got a way to go to match its record high of $2.6 billion in December 2024.

Even as trading volume kept rising, the number of active traders on Polymarket slipped for the fourth month in a row, dropping to 277,700. On the other hand, the platform is still growing; it launched more than 7,000 new markets in April, a 20% increase from March. And in May alone, 145,700 new users signed up, suggesting that while day-to-day activity may be slowing a bit, overall interest in prediction markets is far from fading.

For now, Polymarket remains the largest player in the space. Meanwhile, open interest, the total value of unresolved bets, dropped to around $100 million, down sharply from the $512 million peak seen during the previous years election cycle.

In 2024, Polymarket saw more than $8 billion in total predictions placed on the platform. The excitement around the U.S. election season helped drive trading activity to daily volumes of roughly $85 million. On Election Day itself, the platform hit an impressive $463 million in open interest, underscoring the powerful draw of high-stakes, real-world events on the prediction market.

X and Polyarket Partnership

In other news, Polymarket has officially partnered with X, formerly known as Twitter. The partnership, announced on June 6, introduces a new real-time tool designed to analyze market-moving news. According to a joint press release, the tool will combine live data from X with predictive insights from Polymarket, helping users better understand how key events might impact markets.

The new product will also tap into xAIs chatbot, Grok, along with posts from X, to deliver real-time explanations of market shifts, giving users a clearer picture of why markets are moving the way they are. This collaboration arrives at a time when traditional tech firms are increasingly exploring the digital assets space, and it could prove to be a significant boost for the prediction market industry.

Musk has long been a vocal supporter of Polymarket. In October 2024, just ahead of the U.S. presidential election, he publicly called the platform a more reliable election forecaster than traditional polls. Polymarket ultimately predicted Donald Trumps victory over Democrat Kamala Harris well before the official results came in.

said Shayne Coplan, Polymarkets founder and CEO.

We‘re proud to work with X as its official prediction market partner and to keep building innovative tools that help users make sense of breaking news and make smarter decisions about the future. This is just the beginning as we continue to scale Polymarket’s platform.