Musk's X 'joining forces' with prediction platform Polymarket

In what could prove to be the platform's biggest foray into crypto yet, the Elon Musk-owned X said Friday it will be working with prediction markets platform Polymarket.

"We’re joining forces with Polymarket as our official prediction market partner," The official X account said in a post to its social media platform used by hundreds of millions of users. On Polymarket, users can wager on the outcome of events by placing bets using cryptocurrency.

According to a release shared with The Block by Polymarket, the platform will use Grok and relevant X posts for real-time annotations on Polymarket

"Combining Polymarket’s accurate, unbiased, and real-time prediction market probabilities with Grok’s analysis and X’s real time insights will enable us to provide contextualized, data-driven insights to millions of Polymarket users around the world instantaneously," said Shayne Coplan, founder and CEO of Polymarket, in a statement.

Polymarket's vision

Musk has also previously sought to glorify the power of prediction markets, particularly Polymarket.

"Trump now leading Kamala by 3% in betting markets. More accurate than polls, as actual money is on the line," Musk posted to X last October during the lead-up to the U.S. presidential election. 

Ultimately, Polymarket users favored Trump winning the election, and those who bet on it were proven correct. Shortly after the election, Chainalysis estimated that a French Polymarket whale had profited nearly $80 million by betting on the U.S. elections, with a strong focus on the Trump-Harris race.

The creation of new markets on the platform reached an all-time high of over 7,000 new prediction markets launched in April. This represented a 20% increase from the previous month. On the heels of attracting a high volume of people interested in the U.S. presidential election, the platform's active users surpassed 450,000 during January, but have since experienced a steady decline.

"Fewer active addresses are trading on Polymarket even as market creation explodes, which could indicate a shift toward a more concentrated user base of market creators," The Block previously reported.

Musk and crypto

It remains to be seen what shape the X-Polymarket partnership will take and how much overlap there will be between crypto and the social media platform. But as X has long been the most popular social media platform among crypto users, traders, and thought leaders, there has long been speculation or belief that the company would eventually embrace crypto in some form.

Musk, although closely linked to Dogecoin, has so far steered clear of any direct involvement with crypto-related ventures. However, earlier this year, when X announced “X Money," a service that will allow users to transfer funds from digital wallets to bank accounts and peer-to-peer payments, some suggested that the initiative might eventually lead to the platform fully embracing crypto.