According to reports from CoinDesk, Blockchain.com announced the launch of SnapMarkets on Wednesday, a platform that allows users to wager on whether bitcoin's price will rise or fall in 30-second windows. The platform features stakes starting at $1, with the company describing it as a skill-based version of prediction markets. Unlike traditional event forecasting platforms, SnapMarkets focuses exclusively on rapid-fire BTC price calls rather than contracts tied to election results, sports outcomes, or macroeconomic events.
As reported by CoinDesk, the prediction markets sector has experienced significant growth, with market leaders Polymarket and Kalshi seeing a combined notional trading volume close to $24 billion in April. The overall prediction markets market reached $29 billion in volume that month, according to Dune data. This surge comes as the prediction markets sector faces regulatory challenges from both federal and state authorities.
According to CoinDesk, prediction markets have spent years fighting the CFTC, including Kalshi's court battle over election contracts and Polymarket's 2022 settlement with the agency. However, the regulatory environment has shifted over the past year, with the CFTC dropping its appeal in the Kalshi election-contract case in May 2025. The agency has since turned into a former foe now giving prediction markets more tailored guidance, though this has opened new fights between federal and state regulators.
As reported by CoinDesk, SnapMarkets includes live chat, real-time price feed, streak tracking, and a global leaderboard. Users can connect a Blockchain.com wallet or another DeFi wallet, with new users receiving a non-custodial wallet by default. The platform is not available to users in the U.S. or U.K. due to regulatory restrictions. A Blockchain.com spokesperson stated the company does not see SnapMarkets as comparable to binary options, describing it as a simple, transparent way to engage with short-term crypto price movements.
According to CoinDesk, the launch represents a broader push by crypto firms into prediction-style products, with Robinhood Predictions, Crypto.com's OG.com, and Kalshi all leaning into the category over the past year. SnapMarkets pushes this trend into faster territory, with the format making it closer to short-term trading than traditional event forecasting. Users pick a direction, choose a stake, and wait for the round to settle, with BTC price moves being difficult to forecast consistently over such short windows.
