The typical Polymarket user placed 46 trades over a six-week period and spent a little more than $600, finishing with a net loss of less than $2, according to a Pew Research Center analysis.
Pew examined the publicly available activity of nearly 12,000 accounts that traded on 10 high-volume events from May 7 through June 19. The median trade was $6.50.
Most gains and losses were modest: 58% of accounts finished within $100 of breaking even. Seven percent recorded profits above $1,000, while 9% lost more than $1,000.
Trading frequency varied sharply. Twenty-four percent of accounts made fewer than 10 trades, while 11% made at least 1,000 trades during the six weeks.
The typical user concentrated about three-quarters of trades on one topic, and 24% traded on only one topic. Sports-focused users were the most active, with a median of 69 trades, followed by cryptocurrency traders at 59 and politics traders at 13.
Among the most active accounts, 33% lost more than $1,000 and 27% made more than $1,000. Those users traded on an average of 39 of the 42 days studied.
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