Polymarket changed its documentation to show that short-term crypto markets only charge taker costs. The money from these fees is then given back to market makers as liquidity rebates.
Polymarket, a prediction market platform, changed its documentation to reflect that 15-minute bitcoin up/down markets now charge taker fees. This is a big change from the platform’s previous policy of not charging any costs for trading.
The site’s documentation has been modified to say that the prediction markets platform now provides taker-only fees for 15-minute crypto markets. This is to help market makers get more liquidity.
The protocol does not keep the fees that takers pay. Instead, they are sent to liquidity providers every day in USDC USDC$1 stablecoin. This move only affects these short-term crypto markets. Most of Polymarket’s markets still don’t have fees.
How the new fee structure works
The costs change based on the odds in the market. The largest fees happen when prices are close to 50%. But it becomes closer to zero when the probability get closer to 0% or 100%. According to the examples in the document, a taker deal of 100 shares at $0.50 would cost around $1.56, which is little over 3% of the trade’s value at the curve’s top.
There was no official statement about the update, but looking at older versions of the documents shows that the fee language is new.
A tax on the whole platform, not a liquidity incentive
The silent rollout got people talking on social media, where they framed the change as a change to the market structure instead of just a charge increase.
X user 0x_opus argued that the adjustment will “increase protection from wash trading.” They also said that Polymarket is not “starting to charge users in the classic sense,” because the costs go to market makers instead.
Another trader, who goes by the name kiruwaaaaaa, said that the measure was “directed against high-frequency bots.” They said that refunds paid by fees would encourage tighter spreads and more stable liquidity.
User Tawer955 gave a more in-depth explanation, saying that the headline was “scary, but not as bad as it sounds.” He claimed that the method makes it easier for liquidity providers to get cash flow that lasts and makes it less appealing for bots that used to take advantage of free liquidity.
Limited impact on most users
For most Polymarket users, the effect won’t be big. There will still be no fees for longer-term event markets, political markets, or non-crypto predictions.
Even in markets with fees, the structure makes minor or directed trades less important. Fees drop substantially at the ends of the probability range and are rounded down for very tiny deals.