The trading volume of the market platform Polymarket has dropped for the first time in eight months, with technical malfunctions and increased competition pressure leading to a slowdown in growth.

Predictions show that the trading volume of the market platform Polymarket has seen its first decline in nearly eight months, reflecting pressure on the company in terms of technological upgrades, product stability, and industry competition. At the same time, its main competitor, Kalshi, continues to expand its market share. According to data compiled by users on Dune Analytics, Polymarket's offshore trading platform and the U.S. application saw a nominal trading volume of approximately $10.3 billion in April, a decrease of about 9% from the previous month. In contrast, Kalshi's trading volume during the same period grew by 13%, reaching $14.8 billion. This is the first time Polymarket has seen a monthly decline in trading volume since August 2025. Previously, the start of the National Football League (NFL) regular season attracted a large number of new users to the platform, and major sports events like the "March Madness" college basketball tournament in March also set historical trading volume records for Polymarket. Regarding the decline in trading volume in April, a spokesperson for Polymarket stated that the main reason was the company undergoing a large-scale technical infrastructure upgrade to meet future high trading demands. This upgrade was originally scheduled to be implemented earlier but was eventually launched on April 28. The company mentioned that several updates will be rolled out in the coming weeks to improve trading speed and stability, promising the "largest speed improvement in Polymarket's history." For the past few years, Polymarket has been one of the largest prediction market platforms globally in terms of trading volume, but it was overtaken by Kalshi starting from September last year. Additionally, Polymarket faces challenges such as trading system failures, product launch delays, and regulatory scrutiny of the platform's betting types and insider trading issues. Despite this, as the prediction market industry grows rapidly overall, Polymarket's valuation continues to rise. Previously, the New York Stock Exchange invested $600 million in Polymarket, raising the company's valuation to $15 billion. Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan recently publicly acknowledged that the company had management and communication issues during its rapid expansion. During an industry event on April 28, he said, "The way the company operated at certain stages was not ideal, and I admit that." However, he also emphasized that the company has made significant progress in product promotion and brand expansion. Furthermore, Polymarket introduced transaction fees for the first time in almost all markets at the end of March, and the large-scale infrastructure upgrade at the end of April mainly addressed long-standing trading failures and technical vulnerabilities. Josh Stevens, the Vice President of Engineering at Polymarket, also admitted before the upgrade that the company had previously "let users down." He said, "The next few months will prove everything, please continue to trust us." On the other hand, Polymarket recently lifted the U.S. user registration waiting list system. Previously, since its soft launch in December last year, U.S. users had to join a waiting list when registering for their application, a restriction that was officially lifted in early May.