Morning Minute | Polymarket Ponders $50M Token Launch

TylerD's Market Summary

💸 Polymarket Considers $50M Token Launch

Polymarket has had tremendous success in the prediction market space this year.

Their 60,000+ monthly active users combined with mainstream media penetration has many calling it the breakout crypto app of this cycle.

And now, those early active users might be getting rewarded.

What Happened:
Polymarket is considering launching a token to raise more than $50M, according to reports from The Information.

This decision comes after the platform raised $45 million in a Series B funding round in May 2024, led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and supported by prominent investors like Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

The potential token launch would support the operation of its prediction market platform, allowing users to validate outcomes of real-world events using tokens.

Investors in the fundraising round will receive token warrants, providing them the right to purchase tokens, if Polymarket decides to launch them.

Why It Matters:
Polymarket has gained significant traction, with $1B now wagered on the Presidential Election Winner market alone.

But many have questions on how Polymarket will maintain volume and users post-election.

A fundraise here would give the team additional runway to figure that out.

Raising at this time makes sense, with prediction markets as hot as ever.

As for how the token would perform, that's a different story.

Tokens tied to crypto betting platforms struggle to trade over 1x annual revenue - a problem products with actual revenue face. Any negative performance of the token would likely be an "anchor" to the platform as well and impact users.

So there are downsides to a token launch.

But $50M in runway is hard to turn down...

🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?

Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:

• Bitcoin led NFT trading volume with $4.9M on the day (+74%); ETH was next with $3.4M, and then Solana with $1.9M
• BTC NFT leaders were very green up 15-25%; NodeMonkes +19% at 0.216 BTC, Puppets +24% at 0.133 BTC, OMB +22% at 0.195, Quantum Cats +16% at 0.272
• NodeMonkes listings have reached a level not seen since March at just above 1200 (12%)
• The Runes leaders were also green with DOG +3% at $262M mc, RSIC +4% at $62M mc, PUPS +20% at $38M, and BILLION DOLLAR CAT +14% to $24.5M
• ETH NFT leaders were slightly red; Punks -1% at 28.4 ETH, Pudgy -1% at 10.69, BAYC -2% at 11.69 ETH, Azuki +1% at 5.79
• GOU (+90%) and CEDEN Nodes (+40%) were notable top movers
• Solana NFTs were also red; Mad Lads -4% at 51 SOL, SMB Gen 2 -2% at 25.8, DeGods -12% at 18 SOL, Claynos -2% at 14
• Beeple memorialized Threadguy's Trump "interview" with an Everyday called "American Dream"

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

Here's a rundown of major token, protocol and/or airdrop news from the day:

🌎 Around Crypto and Web3

A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

• Crypto majors are slightly green this morning; BTC +0.5% at $63,500; ETH even at $2,640, SOL +2% at $146; TIA led alts up 10% to a $1.3B mc
• Memecoin majors were green with DOGE +1%, PEPE +2%, WIF +12%, BONK +3%, MOG +3%, POPCAT -1%; MOODENG, MOTHER, MICHI outperformed
• Two federal judges battered the SEC in a hearing on Monday regarding their lack of clarification on rulemaking for crypto
• The DTCC (Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation) shared results from its latest U.S. Treasuries tokenization pilot, finding "significant" improvements to liquidity and collateral optimization
• Citibank reported that the number of family offices bullish on crypto has doubled in the past year from 8% to 17%
• The Celestia Foundation has raised $100M in funding in a round led by Bain Capital, with funds to be used for scaling blockspace
• Telegram's CEO Pavel Durov said that Telegram will cooperate with law enforcement following his arrest, meaning that user details will be shared with authorities in case of rule violations and more
• China is gearing up for a liquidity boom by cutting its reserve requirement by 50 bps and injecting 1T yuan into its economy

🚀 Memecoin Movers 

• $MOODENG (+50%, $66M market cap, SOL)
• $GME (+44%, $11M market cap, ETH)
• $TERMINUS (+38%, $39M market cap, ETH)
• $MOTHER (+29%, $89M market cap, SOL)
• $MICHI (+26%, $107M market cap, SOL)

📈 NFT Floor Price Increase (ETH)

• GOU (90%, 0.06 ETH Floor)
• Lasogette (60%, 0.08 ETH)
• Impostors UFO (55%, 0.08 ETH)
• CryptoCitizens (29%, 0.31 ETH)
• TinFun (15%, 0.15 ETH)

🗓 Upcoming Mints and Events

Today is another busier day of drops, mostly focused on Ordinals.

With attention fully back on Bitcoin NFTs, expect more attention on these drops across Geo Ordinals, AngelsBTC and the Nat Cats Blockdrop.

See the full list and dive in for more details with Swizzy's daily mint monitor. 

• Vhils x Avant Arte - Blur & Dissipate (9:00 a.m. ET)
• Br8tties(10:00 a.m. ET)
• Geo Ordinals (11:00 a.m. ET)
• Natcat - Blockdrop (3:00 p.m. ET)
• Fuzey100 - AngelsBTC (1:00 p.m. ET)

Enjoy this write-up and/or want to sponsor the Morning Minute? Follow along with me on Twitter @tyler_did_it or reach out via email to tyler.d.warner@gmail.com.