Polymarket revives staking activity in May, back to $1B monthly volumes

Polymarket broke back above $1B after setting up a four-month growth streak. The prediction platform remains a leader, finding new markets for its post-election recovery. 

The Polymarket prediction platform is on a four-month expansion streak. In May, volumes on the platform once again crossed the $1B threshold for the first time since January. It remains a staple in the crypto space, with organic growth despite the lack of an airdrop. 

Compared to one of its competitors, Kalshi, Polygon is on an expansion arc. Kalshi’s monthly volumes are still around $14M, with a downward trend. Kalshi offers a similar mix of events and sports meetings as Polymarket, though it is still trying to grow its audience. 

The platform has only vaguely hinted at an airdrop, but has left the betting markets to recover and find their niche. The current volume expansion does not match the new wallet inflows, but reflects higher-value bets and more appealing market pairs. As of May, it retains around 30K daily active users, with closely watched whales and top traders.

Despite not returning to October 2024 levels, Polymarket volume remains at a higher baseline, with over 10X the activity compared to Q2 2024. The app aims for organic growth and development, recently tapping Kevin Shay, former lead designer for Coinbase and Lyft.

Polymarket returns to political bets

The initial post-election recovery of Polymarket came from large-scale sports events taking the forefront. In 2025, the platform gradually returned to politics, election results, and current events. 

The NBA Championship pair still has $2B in volumes, leading all markets. However, election markets run up volumes as high as $85M in the case of the Polish presidential election market. 

Polymarket also created a newly active Breaking News section, where bet volumes range between $20K and $3M, depending on the weight of the issue. The Breaking News section also boosts the platform’s social media strategy, as the betting pairs often successfully front-run some of the news.

Recently, even Ethereum’s founder Vitalik Buterin mentioned he checks Polymarket on the potential resolution of current events. 

Some of the growth comes from highly speculative odds with low volumes and higher volatility of the ‘yes’ and ‘no’ tokens. 

The additional success of Polymarket stems from its adoption of Solana, accepting USDC from the growing supply on the Solana chain. The effect of USDC may be felt in the coming months as the token is more widely adopted. 

Currently, Polymarket carries around $127M in total value locked, with $37.53M in DEX trading volume for its betting tokens. It is the main app still keeping the Polygon chain active, as the network carries under $1B in total value locked. 

Interest in prediction markets is generally rising, though Polymarket has only a few competitors. The integration of AI with prediction markets is still in its early stages, or just an idea. Even X has hinted at integrating some form of prediction pairs, though not giving specific names or a timeline. 

Despite the general demand for predictions, crypto betting markets are one of the smallest sectors. Prediction tokens have a total market cap under $700M, with most trading at extremely low volumes. Polymarket has chosen to remain tokenless for years, while relying on volumes and real demand for its growth.

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