Polymarket has become one of the most profitable protocols in decentralized finance after a pricing overhaul, generating approximately $7.1 million in fees in the first week of the second quarter, according to new data.
This pace, if maintained, would mean an annual execution rate of approximately $365 million, making the on-chain prediction platform one of the top fee generators in the industry, driving nearly all of the sector’s revenue at 96.8% of on-chain prediction market fees.
This gain was due to a price change on March 30th that raised daily fees to approximately $1 million, a level that has largely remained as trading activity continues to rise, according to DeFiLlama data, making Polymarket the eighth largest DeFi protocol by fees, along with stablecoin issuer Circle ($USDC) and Tether (USDT) and decentralized derivatives exchange Hyperliquid.
On-chain metrics also show Polymarket’s footprint beyond fees. As of Tuesday, the total amount locked on the platform exceeded $432 million, according to DeFiLlama data, approaching a high of about $510 million for the November 2024 U.S. election as the company’s share of on-chain prediction market revenue rises.
ICE supports polymarkets, but regulatory uncertainty remains
Polymarket’s commission engine is starting to attract more mainstream partners. Intercontinental Exchange, owner of the New York Stock Exchange, deepened its bet on Polymarket on March 27, when ICE completed a $600 million cash investment as part of a broader $2 billion effort to distribute the platform’s event-driven data to institutional clients.
Related: Betting on Iran war turns prediction markets into real-time macro radar: Signum
On the infrastructure level, Polymarket announced on Monday that it will replace its bridged services. $USDC.e collateral on Polygon using the new 1:1 $USDCThe -backing token, called Polymarket USD, was taken over as trading collateral as part of the platform’s April exchange upgrade and continues to power the heavily traded market on the US-Iran conflict, oil, inflation, stock indexes, and more.
Despite increasing revenues, regulation remains a risk. Prediction markets continue to face pushback from some U.S. states and other gambling regulators, including recent moves by Hungary and Portugal to order regional blocks, and Argentina issuing a nationwide block on Polymarket for operating as an unlicensed gambling site.
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