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Magyar27 Oct 2026
Polymarket has switched on 5-minute up/down markets for Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and XRP in its CFTC-regulated US app. The launch completes a fast rollout: US users only got 15-minute Bitcoin contracts on September 22, and ETH, SOL and XRP followed in 15-minute, hourly and daily form on October 15.
Markets TradeReviewed News Desk
Polymarket has launched 5-minute up/down markets for BTC, ETH, SOL and XRP on its US app. The company announced it in a post on X on Tuesday evening (20:28 UTC): “5 minute crypto up/downs are now live in the Polymarket US app.” Watcher.Guru picked up the news shortly afterwards.
How the 5-minute contracts work
An up/down market asks one question: will the asset’s price at the end of the window be higher or lower than at the start? Traders buy “Up” or “Down” shares priced between 1 and 99 cents, and the winning side pays out $1 per share. On Polymarket’s global platform, the short-duration Bitcoin markets settle on a Chainlink price feed, and a new window opens straight after the previous one closes. With a 5-minute window, that means 288 separate markets per asset every day.
A fast rollout in the US
The US launch follows a quick sequence. Polymarket’s global site added 5-minute Bitcoin markets back in February 2026 and later extended them to Ether, Solana and XRP. In the US, where Polymarket runs under CFTC oversight, users only got 15-minute Bitcoin markets on September 22. On October 15, the company added ETH, SOL and XRP in 15-minute, hourly and daily formats. Tuesday’s step brings the shortest 5-minute window to all four coins for US users.
The competition for this kind of product is heating up. Coinbase has launched its own 15-minute crypto markets, and Robinhood reported on the same day that prediction markets brought in $173 million of revenue in the third quarter, more than six times the year-earlier figure, according to CoinDesk. Polymarket itself is also under scrutiny: earlier on Tuesday, reports said the company is reviewing its controls amid a CFTC inquiry.
What it means for traders
5-minute up/down contracts are close to a coin flip with fees. Over such short windows, price moves are dominated by noise, so the edge usually goes to fast, automated traders who watch order books on major exchanges. For retail users, the product works more like a high-frequency bet than an investment, and losses can stack up quickly. The launch does show where volume is moving: short-duration crypto price bets are now one of the main battlegrounds between prediction markets and brokers.
If you want direct exposure to BTC, ETH, SOL or XRP with proper risk tools such as stop-losses, a regulated crypto exchange is the more flexible route. See our crypto exchange comparison and how we test exchanges. In our rankings, BingX is #1 and OKX is #2.
This article is for information only and is not financial advice.
Related reviews
Sources
- Polymarket on X: 5 minute crypto up/downs are now live in the Polymarket US app
- Watcher.Guru: Polymarket launches 5-minute BTC, ETH, SOL and XRP up/down markets on its US app
- Prediction News: Polymarket expands short-duration crypto contracts to ETH, SOL, and XRP
- CoinDesk: Robinhood's crypto revenue fell 55% from last year, but topped Street forecasts
News is for information only and is not financial advice. More crypto news
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