Polymarket
A venue for binary event contracts, fully collateralised in dollar stablecoins, with a US arm designated as a contract market by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The economic model
Polymarket earns fees on trading and settlement of binary event contracts. Positions are fully collateralised in dollar stablecoins, and because every market resolves to one or zero the venue runs a matched book: it takes no directional exposure and needs no capital against price moves. DefiLlama recorded $9.483bn of notional volume over the trailing 30 days to 25 July 2026, open interest of $425.76m, and annualised fees of $108.94m against annualised revenue of $64.79m, a business whose unit economics resemble an exchange's rather than a lender's.
The risk that matters is resolution risk, and it sits with traders. A contract pays out on the answer an oracle certifies, so a disputed or ambiguously worded market transfers value between counterparties on the strength of a process rather than a price. On the offshore venue that process is the UMA optimistic oracle; on the CFTC-designated venue it is the exchange rulebook and the surveillance obligations that came with the amended designation. Liquidity providers additionally bear inventory risk across thin, event-driven order books that can gap on news.
There is no token, so there is nothing for protocol value to accrue to. The economics accrue to equity, and the cap table now includes a listed exchange group: Intercontinental Exchange invested $1bn in October 2025 and a further $600m on 27 March 2026, taking its commitment to roughly $1.6bn plus up to $40m of secondary purchases, and did not disclose the valuation. Polymarket's chief marketing officer said in October 2025 that a POLY token and airdrop were intended once the US launch was complete, but none had been issued as of 25 July 2026. That distinction is worth holding onto, because a claimed future airdrop is not an entitlement.
How it is governed
A privately held company. There is no tokenholder governance and no DAO. The US venue holds an Order of Designation from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, amended on 25 November 2025 to permit intermediated access through brokerages and futures commission merchants, which subjects it to exchange surveillance, clearing and Part 16 reporting obligations. Intercontinental Exchange is a large shareholder.
Where it runs
Polygon, with the intermediated US venue operated by QCX LLC as a CFTC-designated contract market
The numbers
Each figure as published by the source named on the row. Protocol metrics are especially prone to double-counting; where a provider states a caveat, it is carried here.
| Metric | Value | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open interest | $426m | 25 July 2026 | DefiLlama: Polymarket |
| Notional volume, trailing 30 days | $9.48bn | 25 July 2026 | DefiLlama: Polymarket |
| Annualised fees | $109m | 25 July 2026 | DefiLlama: Polymarket |
| Annualised protocol revenue | $64.8m | 25 July 2026 | DefiLlama: Polymarket |
| Governance or fee-sharing tokens issuedA real zero rather than a missing figure. Polymarket has issued no token. Its chief marketing officer said in October 2025 that a POLY token and airdrop were planned after the US launch, but none existed on 25 July 2026. | 0 | 25 July 2026 | Decrypt via Yahoo Finance: Polymarket exec confirms token, airdrop |
Reading protocol metrics
Value locked, fees and volume are computed differently by every provider, and the same activity often appears in two of them. We publish the provider's own figure with its method attached rather than reconciling the difference into a number nobody published.