Blockchain.com launches SnapMarkets as prediction markets move into faster crypto bets

Blockchain.com, a crypto wallet and exchange founded in 2011, announced the launch of SnapMarkets, a platform that lets users wager on whether bitcoin’s price will rise or fall in 30-second windows, on Wednesday.

Stakes start at $1 in what the company calls a skill-based version of prediction markets. The launch comes as prediction markets surge, with market leaders Polymarket and Kalshi seeing a combined notional trading volume close to $24 billion in April.

The market as a whole saw $29 billion in volume that month, Dune data shows. That includes event markets across categories such as sports, politics and finance.

SnapMarkets has a different offering for now. Instead of contracts tied to election results, sports outcomes or macroeconomic events, the app offers rapid-fire BTC price calls that resolve every 30 seconds. A Blockchain.com spokesperson told CoinDesk additional market formats are planned.

The format makes SnapMarkets closer to short-term trading than traditional event forecasting. Users pick a direction, choose a stake and wait for the round to settle. Over such short windows, BTC price moves can be difficult to forecast consistently.

Prediction markets’ regulatory backdrop

Prediction markets spent years fighting the CFTC, including Kalshi’s court battle over election contracts and Polymarket’s 2022 settlement with the agency. But the U.S. posture has changed over the past year.

The CFTC dropped its appeal in the Kalshi election-contract case in May 2025, and the agency has since turned into a former foe now giving prediction markets more tailored guidance.

That shift has opened a new fight between federal and state regulators. State gambling authorities have challenged platforms including Kalshi, Robinhood, Crypto.com, Polymarket and Coinbase, while the CFTC has moved to defend its authority over event-contract markets.

CFTC Chair Mike Selig rebuked state efforts to block prediction markets, and in April the agency sued Wisconsin as part of a broader campaign to defend its jurisdiction.

Still, yes-or-no financial products have faced stricter treatment.

A Blockchain.com spokesperson said the company does “not see SnapMarkets as comparable to binary options,” describing the product as a “simple, transparent” way to engage with short-term crypto price movements, “not as traditional derivatives products.”