Polymarket “hints” at airdrop to retain users after US presidential election

The transaction value on Polymarket has dropped by 64% after the US presidential election ended.

According to statistics from The Block, the open interest value on the Polymarket prediction market platform has decreased significantly after the 2024 US presidential election ended, with the victory belonging to Mr. Donald Trump.

Compared to the peak of 510.95 million USD on November 5, open interest on Polymarket by November 8 has dropped to only 184.2 million USD.

The reason for the obvious decline is not too difficult to guess, when most of the interest in Polymarket throughout 2024 came from the 2024 US presidential election, with this contract alone accumulating a trading volume of up to 3.6 billion USD.

Coin68 previously reported on the “whales” who won big by betting on Mr. Trump on Polymarket, including a French investor who earned nearly $80 million after spending $45 million to participate in markets predicting that the Republican candidate would return to the White House.

Polymarket founder Shane Coplan has repeatedly asserted that his prediction platform provides faster and more accurate results than mainstream media channels. He also believes that betting on a prediction platform will separate inherent biases and prejudices, as investors will be forced to make decisions based on the most accurate information to reap financial benefits. However, there are still criticisms of Polymarket's model when the prediction rate can be easily manipulated by players who spend large sums of money.

However, the fact that users are leaving the platform is not a good sign for Polymarket after the presidential election, forcing them to come up with new strategies to retain and maintain interest.

One of these may have been “hidden” in the message posted by Polymarket after users entered to close their US President prediction bets. Accordingly, the project website said that “airdrops are predicted in the future”, and invited “users who reinvest their winnings into other prediction markets will receive additional rewards”.

Many have called this a confirmation that Polymarket will launch its own token in the near future, although the project has not officially confirmed it.

In September, there was information confirming that Polymarket was looking to raise an additional $50 million and did not rule out the possibility of issuing a token, using it as a springboard to attract interested investment funds. In 2024, the project raised a total of $70 million in two funding rounds in January and May, with participation from billionaire Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin.

Having its own token also means that Polymarket will charge transaction fees to make the coin useful, as prediction markets have so far had no way to profit from the huge trading volume on their platform when it is free for users.