Platforms & Tools Glossary

The exchanges, wallets, and infrastructure traders use to access prediction markets

10 terms

C2 terms

CFTC-Regulated Exchange

A CFTC-regulated exchange is a trading venue that has been approved and registered by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a Designated Contract Market, granting it the legal authority to offer derivatives and event contracts to US retail participants. Prediction market platforms like Kalshi and the relaunched Polymarket US operate under this framework.

A crypto wallet is a software application or hardware device that stores the private keys used to sign blockchain transactions, enabling users to hold, send, and receive digital assets such as USDC. On decentralized prediction markets like Polymarket, a connected wallet serves as the account, collateral vault, and identity of the trader.

D1 term

Decentralized Prediction Market

A decentralized prediction market is a blockchain-based trading platform where event contracts are created, traded, and settled by smart contracts rather than a central intermediary, with collateral typically held in a cryptocurrency stablecoin. Polymarket is the most prominent example, running on the Polygon network with USDC as collateral.

K2 terms

Kalshi is a US-based prediction market exchange regulated by the CFTC as a Designated Contract Market, allowing traders to buy and sell event contracts on real-world outcomes. It was the first exchange to receive CFTC approval specifically for event contracts, launching its first markets in 2021.

KYC, or Know Your Customer, is the identity verification process that regulated financial platforms use to confirm a user's identity before allowing them to trade. On CFTC-regulated prediction market exchanges like Kalshi, KYC is mandatory and includes submission of a government-issued ID, Social Security Number, and a selfie matched by facial recognition software.

L1 term

A leaderboard in prediction markets is a ranked list of traders ordered by performance metrics such as profit and loss (PnL), return on investment, or win rate over a defined time period. Both Kalshi and Polymarket feature native leaderboards, and third-party analytics platforms aggregate rankings across multiple venues.

P2 terms

Polymarket is the world's largest decentralized prediction market platform, built on the Polygon blockchain, where users trade binary outcome shares on real-world events using USDC as collateral. Founded in 2020, it relaunched for US users in May 2026 after securing a CFTC operating license.

Prediction Market Aggregator

A prediction market aggregator is a tool or platform that collects and displays probability estimates, prices, or odds from multiple prediction market venues in a single interface, enabling traders to compare implied probabilities across platforms and identify discrepancies. Aggregators may also support direct trading across multiple markets through a unified API.

T1 term

A trading API is a programmatic interface that allows developers and algorithmic traders to interact with a prediction market exchange — submitting orders, retrieving market data, and managing positions — without using the platform's web or mobile interface. Both Kalshi and Polymarket publish public trading APIs with REST, WebSocket, and in Kalshi's case FIX protocol support.

U1 term

USDC Collateral

USDC collateral refers to the use of USD Coin — a US dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Circle — as the deposit, margin, and settlement currency on decentralized prediction market platforms. On Polymarket, all positions, profits, and payouts are denominated in USDC, shielding traders from cryptocurrency price volatility.