Why Prediction Markets Need Crypto-Native User Acquisition

Prediction markets had a moment, and then they had a year. What started as a niche corner of crypto, where early adopters placed bets on election outcomes, has evolved into a multi-billion-dollar category that Google Finance is now integrating directly into search results.

But here’s the question most prediction market teams haven’t answered yet: if your users live on-chain, why is your acquisition strategy still built for Web2?

That mismatch is costing platforms money, users, and momentum. Let’s break down why prediction markets can’t grow on traditional marketing playbooks, and what crypto-native user acquisition looks like in practice.

Prediction Markets Are Having a Real Moment With the Numbers to Prove It

In 2026, we can unquestionably see that prediction markets aren’t a fringe experiment anymore. They’re a genuine financial category. Combined monthly volume on Kalshi and Polymarket rose from under $5 billion in September 2025 to roughly $24 billion by April 2026, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from The Block. Kalshi alone closed May with $17.91 billion in notional volume, marking its ninth consecutive monthly record, per DeFi Rate’s tracker.

And the growth isn’t just about bigger numbers; it’s about broader use cases. Polymarket now hosts more than 5,400 active crypto markets, over 4,000 sports markets, and hundreds of geopolitical and financial contracts, based on figures compiled by MetaMask from Polymarket dashboards and Dune Analytics as of April 2026.

Institutional legitimacy has followed the volume: ICE, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, announced a strategic investment of up to $2 billion in Polymarket at an $8 billion valuation, according to TRM Labs.

And yet, user growth tells a more complicated story. Polymarket drew 678,342 unique users in April 2026, eight times Kalshi’s implied user base, per Dune data cited by Bitcoin.com.

But by May, Polymarket’s monthly active users had slumped to under 650,000 as volume declined for a second straight month, CNBC reported, even while Kalshi kept setting records.

That divergence is the whole story in miniature: volume can spike during news cycles and whale activity, but user acquisition determines whether a platform keeps growing once the headlines fade.

Why Traditional Marketing Playbooks Break Down Here

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: most prediction market teams are trying to acquire crypto-native users with tools that were never built for crypto.

Google and Meta don’t want your ad spend

Prediction markets sit at the intersection of finance and gambling, two categories that mainstream ad platforms heavily restrict or outright reject. Campaigns get flagged, accounts get suspended, and budgets get stuck in review queues, preventing them from reaching users.

Your users don’t convert at rates typical for fintech users

A prediction market signup isn’t a form fill; it’s a wallet connection followed by a funded account and, ideally, a first trade. Traditional analytics tools go dark the moment a user connects a wallet, leaving most of the acquisition funnel that matters in a blind spot for Google Analytics and similar tools.

Your audience already lives somewhere else

Crypto-native users discover new platforms on X, in Telegram groups, on crypto-native media sites, and through wallet integrations, not through search ads or Instagram Stories (or at least not that often). They trust on-chain data and pseudonymous analysts more than brand accounts. Marketing to them through generic channels is like advertising a DeFi protocol in a print newspaper: technically possible, functionally useless.

AI search is quietly draining the old funnel, too

Search referrals have dropped by 33% globally as AI-powered search experiences increasingly answer questions without ever sending users to a website. For prediction markets, that means fewer traders discovering you organically through search, and a growing incentive to meet users where they already spend time every day, like portfolio trackers and market apps, rather than waiting for them to search you out.

What Crypto-Native User Acquisition Looks Like

If the old playbook doesn’t work, what does? A few principles separate platforms that scale sustainably from ones that burn budget chasing impressions. And below we will present 5 of them:

Wallet-based targeting over demographic targeting – Reaching users based on what tokens they hold and which protocols they’ve used is becoming the standard for crypto advertising in 2026, replacing generic age-and-location targeting with actual on-chain behavior.

Distribution through crypto-native inventory – Crypto media sites, DeFi dashboards, wallet interfaces, and Web3 apps carry an audience that already understands wallets, gas fees, and event contracts, which means far less educational friction than cold traffic from a general ad network.

A full-funnel approach, not a single channel – Effective Web3 growth typically blends native advertising for awareness, performance campaigns for conversions, and community-driven engagement for retention. No single channel carries a prediction market platform on its own.

Trust before spend – Teams that build founder-led presence and publish original content before layering in paid campaigns consistently outperform those that try to buy their way to relevance from day one.

Presence inside the apps traders already use – The platforms where crypto investors track markets and manage portfolios daily are becoming some of the most valuable places to be seen, precisely because that attention no longer has to be won back from a search results page.

For a prediction market specifically, this translates into meeting traders where they already are: crypto news sites comparing Kalshi and Polymarket odds, finance-focused communities debating the next Fed decision, and platforms where users are already primed to fund a wallet and place a position.

How Coinzilla Helps Prediction Markets Acquire the Right Users

This is exactly one of those gaps Coinzilla was built to close.

As one of the largest crypto and finance advertising networks, Coinzilla connects advertisers with more than 2,000 premium crypto and finance websites and apps, delivering over 1 billion monthly impressions to an audience that’s already crypto-literate.

That matters enormously for prediction markets because, instead of paying to educate a cold, general audience about what a wallet or a USDC deposit even is, you’re putting your platform in front of people who already trade, hold, and transact on-chain.

A few reasons prediction market teams turn to Coinzilla specifically:

Niche-native inventory – Every publisher in the network is finance or crypto-focused, so your campaign sits next to content your target trader is already reading, not buried in irrelevant general-interest traffic.

Flexible campaigns – You can launch display, native, or popunder campaigns directly, with account managers available to help optimize targeting and creative when you need hands-on support. PR, sponsored, and organic articles placed through the Coinzilla Marketplace also build the kind of topical authority that helps both traditional SEO rankings and visibility in AI-driven search (GEO).

Brand-safe, vetted placements – Coinzilla’s publisher and advertiser vetting, combined with compliance built on frameworks like MiCA and FCA guidance, means your ads run in an environment designed for regulatory scrutiny, not against it.

Proven track record with exchanges and trading platforms – Coinzilla has worked with major crypto brands, including Bitget, KuCoin, and Crypto.com, giving prediction markets a network with real experience turning crypto-native attention into funded accounts.

Scale across premium partners – With reach across partners like CoinMarketCap and Blockchain.com, Coinzilla combines the breadth needed for awareness campaigns with an audience that’s already deep in the market research phase.

New: Coinzilla Now Powers Advertising on the CoinMarketCap Mobile App

As we mentioned, search referrals have dropped 33% globally as AI answers questions without sending users to a website, but that hasn’t made crypto investors less engaged; it’s just redirected their attention to the apps they open daily to track markets.

Recently, among other initiatives to overcome this barrier, Coinzilla has expanded its network to include advertising inventory directly within the CoinMarketCap App, one of the industry’s most trusted mobile destinations.

The CoinMarketCap App alone gives users a live view into more than 35,000 cryptocurrencies, and its audience checks in repeatedly throughout the day rather than landing once and leaving.

Through Coinzilla, that inventory is now available alongside the network’s existing 2,000+ premium crypto and finance publishers, giving prediction markets a single network that spans both web and app, all from one advertiser dashboard.

On the CoinMarketCap App (Android and iOS), 320×50 units run across the Markets, Portfolio, Watchlist, Overview, Trending, Bottom, and Search sections, putting your prediction market in front of users mid-research, not just on a homepage they’ll scroll past. On coinmarketcap.com, Coinzilla supports multiple ad formats, 320×50, 320×100, 728×90, 300×250, and 300×600, spread across the Portfolio, Search, and Watchlist sections, giving advertisers flexibility to run the right creative size in the right context.

For a prediction market fighting for attention against Kalshi, Polymarket, and a growing list of challengers, that combination, crypto-native reach across web and app, plus brand-safe, compliant execution, makes Coinzilla less an option among several and more the default choice, built for exactly this use case.

Read on: Crypto Marketing Guide: Strategies, Channels & Performance in 2026

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the minimum budget to start advertising a prediction market with Coinzilla?
You can open a Coinzilla account with a deposit of just €100, and campaigns run on a minimum daily budget of €50. That’s a meaningfully lower barrier than many crypto ad networks and PR platforms, which often require larger upfront commitments or longer minimum contract terms before a campaign even goes live. For a prediction market still testing which creative, placement, or audience converts best, that low floor means you can run a real test with real data instead of committing a large budget on assumptions.

How quickly can a campaign actually go live?
Once your account is funded, Coinzilla’s team typically reviews and approves campaigns within 1 business day, with a maximum of 48 hours on weekends or holidays.

Does Coinzilla work for prediction markets, given how sensitive ad platforms are about gambling-adjacent categories?
Yes. Coinzilla’s publisher network is built specifically for finance and crypto content, and its vetting process, along with compliance frameworks such as MiCA and FCA guidance, is designed for categories that mainstream ad platforms tend to avoid. Advertisers can also apply country- and device-level targeting, which is important for prediction markets navigating a patchwork of regulatory approvals across different jurisdictions.

Final Thoughts

Prediction markets have already proven that the demand is real: tens of billions of dollars are traded monthly, institutional capital is flowing in, and mainstream media are quoting live odds. What separates the platforms that keep growing from those that plateau after their first viral moment isn’t the product; it’s whether their acquisition strategy aligns with where their users live.

Crypto-native user acquisition isn’t a nice-to-have for prediction markets; it’s the only approach built for how these users discover, evaluate, and fund accounts on new platforms.

Partnering with a network built specifically for this audience, like Coinzilla, means you’re not translating a Web2 playbook for a Web3 audience. You’re speaking their language from the first impression.