The cryptocurrency industry predicts the development potential of the market

Since last year, the prediction market in the crypto ecosystem has become increasingly popular. Among many competitors, the most well-known to our crypto ecosystem followers is Polymarket.

Regarding Polymarket, although I have occasionally introduced it in previous articles, I have always treated it as a kind of betting game without paying much attention to the impact of such applications on our lifestyle and their potential for disruption.

However, recently, as the out-of-the-box effect of such applications has become more apparent, people seem to have begun to understand its potential significance differently.

On one hand, there have been multiple cases that are highly suspected of monetizing insider information, which has even raised concerns among regulatory bodies. But overall, people tend to believe that when participants use real money to predict the future, the value of that information is higher.

This is a characteristic that existing information monetization channels do not possess.

Recently, Dow Jones and Polymarket reached an agreement to introduce real-time prediction market data into the Wall Street Journal, Barron's, and others.

This means that the information provided on the Polymarket platform will no longer be simply viewed as bets and games on various rumors, but rather as pricing for various information that may appear in real life. This priced information will have a significant impact on information consumption platforms, especially various news platforms.

There is another viewpoint online that I find even more profound:

In the traditional world, news media often hold sway over public opinion, guiding the emotional direction of the masses, and to some extent, play the role of a third power in society.

However, now, with the rise of prediction platforms like Polymarket, they are gradually encroaching on the power and influence held by existing news media, to the extent that traditional news media can no longer ignore their impact on the public and are forced to collaborate with them.

Whoever can grasp this influence will likely hold the discourse power of future information.

In the past development of the crypto ecosystem, there have been some out-of-the-box applications (like NFTs), but many of them are entertainment applications that provide emotional value. The emergence of prediction markets that inversely influence traditional serious applications seems to be a first. The audience and coverage affected by this reverse influence are clearly incomparable to those previous entertainment applications.

This track no longer needs to debate whether it is a real application; it will undoubtedly produce giants in the future.

Many people have seen this trend and influence, so entrepreneurial teams are continuously rushing in to start businesses. However, so far, it seems that only Polymarket and Kalshi occupy leading positions. Most other applications can only attract speculators with the expectation of issuing tokens, but after that, their popularity quickly declines.

Although Polymarket has been established for six years, its growth seems to have only entered the fast lane in 2024 and 2025.

Moreover, since Trump took office, the crypto ecosystem has been greatly deregulated, and Polymarket, which originally could not reach U.S. users, will soon be available to them. Therefore, Polymarket will quickly return to this largest market.

With such a development speed, the Polygon that originally supported it can no longer meet its expansion rate, so the team has decided to establish a second-layer expansion based on Ethereum, ultimately migrating the entire application to its own second-layer expansion.

It can be imagined that in 2026, Polymarket's development will only accelerate further.

Recently, while checking some tokenized sales platforms for private equity, I accidentally discovered that Polymarket's equity is also for sale.

Combined with previous rumors that Polymarket might issue tokens, it is likely that the future equity of Polymarket will include both stocks and tokens. Moreover, the listing and token issuance may happen this year or at the latest next year.

This will be another great moment for crypto applications to break through.