FTX could rake in about $1 million from election betting, insiders say

The nail-biter of a 2020 U.S. presidential election is one for the history book — and it's technically not even over.

Reflecting the intensity of the battle was the action on crypto-native prediction markets, including Polymarket and FTX. Both offer a spot for traders to place bets on whether President Donald Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden will be the one to clinch an electoral victory. 

Volumes for these markets surged over the course of the last several trading days ahead of the election. Polymarket, which offers information markets for the election as a whole and well as for specific state results, saw cumulative volumes for its Trump market jump above $8 million, as per data compiled by The Block.

Daily volumes for the FTX U.S. 2020 election — which spans contracts tied to both Trump and Biden — soared above $10 million on November 4, according to data pulled from TradingView. 

Traders engaging with this market naturally have to pay a fee to participate. For FTX, specifically, the addition of the political market added an additional revenue stream for the Hong Kong-based firm, a high-up source at the company told The Block.

The source, who declined to speak on the record, said that the company was still dealing with limited data given the official election results are still pending.

Still, the person estimates that when all is said and done, the firm could rake in approximately $1 million in fees from its election-related trading products.