- On Monday, Drift Protocol launched a new prediction market, and its own token has seen a sharp increase in value.
Following the debut of BET on Monday, the Solana-based decentralized exchange Drift Protocol, the growing interest in blockchain-based prediction platforms among cryptocurrency enthusiasts, surged.
Abbreviated as BEA (Bearish on Everything), Drift’s product is expected to rival Polymarket as a contentious US election season generates enormous amounts of wagers on the top exchange. As Drift’s program reached alpha testing stage, customers began preparing for two political wagers. And that was sufficient to give the newcomer strong first-day performance numbers.
Drift co-founder Cindy Leow tweeted, “We’ve achieved more than $3.5 million total orderbook liquidity in the first 24 hours after Drift’s BET prediction markets launch.”
One significant distinction is that BET and Drift are based on Solana, but Polymarket is located on Polygon, an Ethereum scaling solution. Drift claims that Solana’s cheap pricing and quick speed when compared to other blockchain networks are advantageous to BET.
Users have bet $124,000 through Drift on the likelihood that former President Donald Trump would win the 2024 presidential election, with a 48% chance as of this writing. Users on Drift have wagered $186,00 on whether Vice President Kamala Harris would prevail in the popular vote; the odds now favor the Democratic contender by 71%.
In less than a day, Drift has garnered $310,000 in open interest for two contests; nevertheless, this amount pales in comparison to Polymarket tournaments, which have been ongoing for several months. Speculators have so far wagered $74 million and $82 million on Harris and Trump, respectively, to win the 2024 election. Trump had a slight advantage against Harris as of this writing, with a 50% probability to win the presidency as opposed to her 49% odds.
Harris is given the same odds by both Drift and Polymarket to win the public vote. Nonetheless, $111 million in total bets have been placed in the competition that gives Harris a 71% chance on Polymarket, with roughly $9.3 million of those bets placed behind Harris.
Drift is inaccessible to people in the United States and other restricted territories, just like Polymarket. With an open interest of over $80 million across all bets, Polymarket’s outstanding bet value exceeds that of Drift’s two active markets by a factor of more than 250.
Another significant distinction between the two platforms is that, per a blog post, Drift takes bets in thirty different cryptocurrencies, but Polymarket only takes bets in USDC, the second-largest stablecoin in cryptocurrency. Furthermore, according to Drift, customers can employ structured bets to hedge their positions and earn interest while they are in position through lending.
The value of Drift’s governance token skyrocketed as the company ventured into the prediction space. DRIFT closed Tuesday’s trading at $0.42, up 24% from the previous day.
Although Polymarket’s primary focus is politics, the site also allows user-generated marketplaces in other niches, such as pop culture, cryptocurrency, and sports. Users can anticipate similar betting pools shortly as Formula 1, Solana, and sports markets are being developed, according to Drift’s website.
Disclaimer : This article was created for informational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice. An asset’s past performance does not predict its future returns. Before making an investment, please conduct your own research, as digital assets like cryptocurrencies are highly risky and volatile financial instruments.
