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Polymarket Bets on Degens

Olivia Capozzalo & Squiffs _
January 08, 2026

gm Defiers!

Today’s big story:

  • Polymarket just added fees for the first time, which it’s using to make options-like trading more efficient — apparently to attract more degens

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Today’s Big Story

Polymarket Adds Fees — To Woo Degens From Perps?

Following its newest partnership with Dow Jones and WSJ, Polymarket is fully entering its mainstream era in 2026. With its newfound success, the leading decentralized prediction market is slowly beginning to implement fees on its platform — but while many assume this is to nerf MEV bots, it may actually be Polymarket’s bid to bring micro-dated options to crypto.

The Polymarket US app in particular will have a straightforward fee structure, with single basis point (0.01%) taker fees, which will serve as Polymarket’s first official revenue stream since it sunset fees following the 2020 Presidential Election.

However, on the legacy Polymarket app that crypto users have come to know, the prediction market is implementing a fee curve on its 15-minute crypto markets. Instead of keeping fees as revenue, Polymarket says it will use all fees from takers to incentivize makers.

Polymarket users on social media are assuming that this feature is intended to stunt automated bots, which flourish on these markets via arbitrage opportunities, sandwich moves, and the ability to quickly buy and sell crypto volatility with zero fees.

From a company standpoint however, bot activity is, if anything, beneficial to the market’s infrastructure as it closes arbitrage opportunities. Bots function similarly to MEV on-chain, which typically increases market efficiency and volume, which is an easy metric for Polymarket to pitch to investors.

While it’s possible that Polymarket would like to disincentivize rampant bot trading activity, there is a more realistic chance that Polymarket is using this fee model to improve liquidity on 15-minute crypto markets in order to capture more of the degen crypto market on its platform. 

The whole point of running zero fees is to onboard users by making Polymarket the cheapest place to predict. But if users are subject to MEV abuse and liquidity constraints, then the idea of zero fees becomes moot — which explains the introduction of maker fee rebates. The docs themselves specifically say, “Maker Rebates incentivize consistent, competitive quoting so everyone gets a better trading experience.”

There is no publicly available history of liquidity on these markets, but users in the Polymarket comments are at least claiming to notice a difference already. While Polymarket comments sections are far from a reliable source of information, it’s worth noting that one user, dubbed NEman, who has a history of betting on the “Bitcoin Up or Down” market, said in the comments earlier today: “Volume up 10x tf.”

So yes, while it makes it less likely the average retail degen is getting abused by a MEV sandwich, it also opens up the door to a more efficient, high-return trading method on Polymarket.

In addition to the fee rollout, Polymarket also added UI improvements to its live crypto markets, further suggesting that this isn’t just a move to trap bots, but more to entice low timeframe degen traders from perpetual markets and DeFi options platforms.

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15-minute BTC price market on Polymarket. Source: Polymarket

Through these live markets, users can make significant returns on small crypto moves, as the user isn’t betting on a price percentage move like they would on perpetuals, but on a move relative to its opening price over a set amount of time, which is essentially a repackaging of leverage through micro-timeframe options.

So while the Polymarket affiliates on X continue to post about “how Polymarket killed bots with this one simple trick” the prediction market is actually setting itself up to onboard more degen crypto traders and compete with 2025’s leverage meta.

Squiffs, resident degen at The Defiant

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