CoinDesk
Blockchain.com launched SnapMarkets on Wednesday, a prediction-style app that lets users wager on whether bitcoin's price will rise or fall in 30-second windows, with stakes starting at $1. The company frames the product as a skill-based market, not a derivative, though the format — pick a direction, stake an amount, wait for the round to settle — is structurally close to short-window binary options, which are banned for retail users in the EU and UK and tightly restricted in the US.
The launch lands inside a sector that has gone from niche to mainstream in under a year. Prediction-market leaders Polymarket and Kalshi posted a combined notional volume near $24 billion in April, with the broader category hitting roughly $29 billion for the month across sports, politics and finance markets, per Dune data. Blockchain.com is taking a different angle for now: SnapMarkets offers only BTC price calls, not election or macro contracts, though a company spokesperson said additional market formats are planned.
Why it matters
The product sits at the exact intersection regulators have spent years trying to police. The CFTC fined Polymarket $1.4 million in January 2022 and ordered it to wind down US markets, classifying its event contracts as unregistered binary options. ESMA prohibited retail binary options in the EU in 2018, and the FCA followed with a permanent UK ban in 2019. A Blockchain.com spokesperson explicitly rejected the comparison, calling SnapMarkets a "simple, transparent" way to engage with short-term BTC price moves, "not as traditional derivatives products." That framing will be the first thing the CFTC and state gambling regulators look at.
Market impact
SnapMarkets is not available in the US or UK, which narrows the immediate regulatory blast radius but also caps the addressable market. The product leans into a trend Robinhood, Crypto.com's OG.com and Kalshi have already pushed this year: shrinking the prediction-market format from event-length horizons to minutes or seconds, betting that speed and gamification pull in a different retail cohort.
Frequently asked questions
-
What is Blockchain.com's SnapMarkets?
SnapMarkets is a Blockchain.com app launched on Wednesday that lets users wager on whether bitcoin's price will rise or fall in 30-second windows, with stakes starting at $1. A company spokesperson said additional market formats beyond BTC are planned.
-
Is SnapMarkets available in the US and UK?
No. SnapMarkets is not available to users in the US or UK. The product is positioned as a skill-based market rather than a derivative, and the restricted availability limits both the addressable market and the immediate regulatory exposure.
-
How does SnapMarkets compare to binary options?
Structurally close: users pick a direction, stake an amount and wait for the round to settle. Blockchain.com explicitly rejects the binary-options label, but ESMA banned retail binary options in the EU in 2018, the FCA did the same in the UK in 2019, and the CFTC fined Polymarket $1.4M in 2022 on the same…
-
How big is the prediction-market sector right now?
Dune data shows roughly $29B in total prediction-market volume in April, with market leaders Polymarket and Kalshi posting combined notional volume near $24B across sports, politics and finance contracts.
-
Why are prediction markets fighting state regulators?
State gambling authorities have challenged platforms including Kalshi, Robinhood, Crypto.com, Polymarket and Coinbase, while the CFTC has moved to defend federal jurisdiction over event-contract markets. CFTC Chair Mike Selig rebuked state efforts, and the agency sued Wisconsin in April as part of that broader…
Crypto Rank News
WatcherGuru
CryptoSlate
Glassnode
Lookonchain
TheBlock
Crypto News