Polymarket Quietly Introduces Taker Fee on 15-Minute Crypto Markets

**January 6th** Prediction market platform Polymarket recently updated its official documentation, revealing it has introduced a taker-only fee for its 15-minute crypto price markets—marking a shift from its longstanding zero-fee trading model. The fee is designed to support liquidity incentives for market makers: all taker-paid fees are reimbursed daily to liquidity providers in USDC, rather than being retained by the platform. This adjustment only applies to 15-minute crypto markets; most other markets still have zero fees. Fee levels vary by market probability: they peak when prices are near 50%, and drop toward zero as probabilities approach 0% or 100%. Per an official example, trading 100 contracts at $0.50 each incurs a ~$1.56 fee—roughly 3% of the transaction value at the fee curve’s peak. The change was not formally announced, but the document’s revision history shows the terms are new. The community generally views this as a market structure tweak (not a platform-wide fee hike) targeting high-frequency bots and wash trading, aimed at improving liquidity quality and narrowing spreads. Polymarket noted long-form event markets, political markets, and non-crypto prediction markets remain unaffected, with limited overall impact on regular users.