Polymarket US has hit a $8.7 billion milestone. The engine behind that number is less about elections and more about football.
In a separate development, Coinbase and Nasdaq-listed Roundtable are working on a way to pay media companies with blockchain rails.
Sports are doing the heavy lifting
Polymarket US is the CFTC-regulated version of the prediction market. It runs separately from Polymarket’s international platform.
Research compiled for this story puts the platform’s 30-day notional volume at $11.8 billion as of mid-October 2026. That is a measure of the total face value of contracts traded over the period.
Monthly trading volume reached $8.8 billion in September 2026.
Sports contracts make up 98% of recent trading activity on Polymarket. NFL and college football events have been major drivers of participation. Polymarket also rolled out parlay-style contracts in August 2026, which let users bundle multiple outcomes into a single position.
Weekly trading volumes have recently landed between $2.7 billion and $3.1 billion. Early in 2026, the platform was averaging just $60 million per week.
Full access for American users arrived in May 2026, according to the research.
Coinbase and Roundtable want to speed up media payments
Roundtable (Nasdaq: RTB) has partnered with Coinbase on a real-time payments platform for media advertising. The system went live on September 23, 2026. It allows advertising revenue to settle instantly in USDC, a stablecoin, rather than waiting through traditional fiat payment cycles.
The partnership was first announced at Cannes Lions in June 2026. Nearly 200 publishers have been involved in the effort so far.
Roundtable plans to migrate approximately $100 million in annual ad business onto the platform. That revenue comes from 21 media brands under a 10-year agreement.
The launch also came with a notable boardroom addition. Former UK Prime Minister Liz Truss joined Roundtable’s board as the payments platform went live.
What this means
For Polymarket, the 98% sports figure is both the strength and the open question. NFL and college football provide a dense schedule of events in the fall.
A prediction market that is almost entirely sports starts to look a lot like a sportsbook, even if it is regulated as an exchange by the CFTC rather than by state gaming authorities.
For Roundtable and Coinbase, Roundtable plans to migrate approximately $100 million in annual ad revenue onto stablecoin rails. The 10-year agreement covering 21 media brands gives the platform a long runway to prove itself.
For Coinbase, the deal extends its reach beyond trading into business payments.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Estefano Gomez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.