According to a study by Bitget Wallet, prediction markets are becoming a gateway for new users into the world of cryptocurrency. The research revealed that 60% of active traders on Polymarket had never previously engaged with blockchain protocols before participating in event-based trades.
The analysis focused on the on-chain activities of 857,000 active users on Polymarket over a 90-day span. It was found that many individuals entered the cryptocurrency space through prediction markets, rather than starting with digital asset purchases or decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.
Bitget Wallet noted, “Prediction markets are increasingly serving as an entry point into crypto, moving beyond a niche trading segment. Users are now engaging in on-chain activities directly through application interfaces instead of relying on decentralized exchanges or DeFi protocols.”
Trading surged with the commencement of the 2026 FIFA World Cup on June 11, with Dune reporting that the executed volume on prediction markets hit $713 million on Saturday, marking a new record. This figure represents the total value of contracts traded through existing orders.
The heightened interest in World Cup markets has led to significant trading volumes on Polymarket, where contracts for the FIFA World Cup winner have generated over $3.1 billion in trading activity.
Earlier estimates from Bernstein projected that the tournament could inject more than $3 billion into the sports betting market, alongside an additional $5 billion to $10 billion in user volume across prediction markets. Current trading trends suggest that these forecasts are starting to come to fruition.
In the last 30 days, sports contracts have dominated activity on major prediction market platforms. Kalshi reported over $8.5 billion in sports-related trading volume, making it the platform’s largest segment, while Polymarket generated more than $4.9 billion in sports trading during the same timeframe, according to Defirate.
The research indicates that prediction markets are lowering the entry barriers for users with limited blockchain experience.
Bitget Wallet found that surveyed users engaged in nearly 1,200 prediction market interactions over the 90 days, compared to around 12 trades on standard decentralized exchanges (DEX) in the same period.
The report also highlighted that Polymarket has surpassed $1 billion in annualized revenue. The platform operates on the Polygon network, although much of its liquidity is derived from Ethereum-based chains.
Elvin Kan, COO of Bitget Wallet, stated that previous attempts to attract new users to crypto focused on simplifying wallets and enhancing interfaces, but these changes still necessitated a basic understanding of blockchain technology.
“Prediction markets have fundamentally transformed this approach. Users are drawn not by cryptocurrencies but by their desire to make predictions on events of interest,” Kan explained.
Bitget Wallet concluded, “This indicates that prediction markets are not merely a new trading vertical in crypto, but rather an application-driven onboarding mechanism where users start with real-world inquiries before engaging with the underlying financial systems.”
“Consequently, prediction markets seem to be evolving into one of the first scalable consumer onboarding layers for crypto, where blockchain technology becomes less visible, and user interactions are shaped by real-world outcomes rather than financial concepts,” the company added.
The growth of sports-related prediction markets has also attracted regulatory scrutiny in the United States, with several state gambling regulators asserting that prediction market operators are providing sports betting services without the necessary licenses. Legal actions have been initiated against prediction market operators in at least 17 states.