Blockchain.com, a crypto wallet and exchange founded in 2011, revealed 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 and isn’t available to customers in the U.S. or U.K. 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 stated 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.”
The European Union’s ESMA prohibited binary options and restricted contracts for difference for retail investors in 2018. The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority permanently banned binary options for retail users in 2019. In the U.S., retail binary options can only be offered through CFTC-regulated venues.
The CFTC has applied similar scrutiny to crypto-native event markets before. In January 2022, it fined Polymarket $1.4 million and ordered it to wind down U.S. markets, classifying its event contracts as unregistered binary options.
Polymarket later acquired a CFTC-licensed exchange and clearinghouse for $112 million, creating a regulated path back into the U.S. SnapMarkets is not available to users in the U.S. or U.K.
SnapMarkets also includes live chat, a real-time price feed, streak tracking and a global leaderboard. Users can connect a Blockchain.com wallet or another DeFi wallet. New users get a non-custodial wallet by default.
The launch fits a broader push by crypto firms into prediction-style products. Robinhood Predictions, Crypto.com’s OG.com and Kalshi have all leaned into the category over the past year. SnapMarkets pushes that trend into faster territory.
