Polymarket surges up fee generation charts with $7M day, Tether maintains lead

According to data available on DeFiLlama’s fees page, which tracks fees across various DeFi protocols, there was a huge spike in fees on the Polymarket platform. 

The surge in fee generation could be attributed to a rise in user activity or transaction volume on the platform. Historically, the Polymarket prediction market platform records increased engagement during high-profile events, such as elections, major sports outcomes, or significant global developments, as punters scramble to place bets or speculate on outcomes.

Polymarket goes off in April

On a monthly scale, the DefiLlama data shows that April has been Polymarket’s most profitable month in terms of fees. This is just the fifth day in the month, but the platform appears to have already amassed more than half of its all-time fees.

It sounds ridiculous, but it’s true. The data appears even more interesting on the weekly and daily fee charts. The weekly data shows that there was only average activity on the platform between January and March, but that changed in April, which is still in its first week at the time of this publication.

The daily fee data revealed even more. It showed that Polymarket fees did not really spike until April 3, when it recorded $7.33M. It has since maintained a value above $7M on a daily basis, reinforcing the platform’s recent spike.

Polymaket may be one of the rare winners of the “Liberation Day” tariff announcements by Donald Trump on April 2, 2025. The announcement saw him unveil a sweeping tariff plan targeting goods from nearly all countries, and it sent shockwaves through the traditional financial markets.

The Dow reflected this, reportedly dropping 3,700 points between April 2 and 3, while Polymarket’s recession odds jumped from 51% to 60% by April 4.

This reflects a frenzy of activity from punters who scrambled to wager on the economic outcomes directly tied to the tariff news. Public sentiments on X from April 3 align with this, showing Polymarket’s recession odds rose from 33% to 47% and inflation bets above 4% jumped from 17% to 48% within 48 hours, alongside a $2 trillion wipeout in US stock market value.

The spike in activity and fees aligns with Polymarket’s historical pattern of fee spikes during high-stakes events—like the 2024 US presidential election, which saw election bets push fees to notable heights.

The tariff announcement is expected to drive economic chaos with traders flooding markets like “US recession in 2025?” or “Will the NYSE hit a circuit-breaker?”—both of which saw sharp probability shifts on Polymarket.

An increased amount of trades equates to more USDC flowing into the platform, pumping the fee totals tracked by DeFiLlama, even if Polymarket has stated that it doesn’t pocket them directly.

Another rationale for the spike is a change in Polymarket’s operations—for example, a change in its fee structure. However, the platform claims it has not changed its fee structure in a significant way that introduces trading, deposit, or withdrawal fees as a primary revenue model.

Polymarket has always operated with a no-fee model. Its official documentation and statements from CEO Shayne Coplan highlight the platform’s focus on growth over monetization, so while it may charge fees in the future, there is no timeline of when they may be implemented yet.

The platform has, in the past, generated revenue indirectly through spreads on trading and liquidity provision rather than directly imposing fees on users.

Why does Tether lead Circle so much in profit margin?

Even though Polymarket saw a huge spike in income, according to DefiLlama, it still falls behind Tether with its cumulative revenue. Tether’s rival, Circle took the final top-three spot in terms of cumulative fees and revenue.

Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC) are stablecoin issuers whose incomes are linked mainly to the interest earned on the reserves backing their stablecoins, even though some additional revenue comes from redemption or issuance fees.

Both companies operate identical business models, and their primary revenue comes from investing their reserves in interest-bearing instruments, such as US Treasury bills, which have yielded 3.5%-5% annually in recent years thanks to elevated interest rates.

Nevertheless, data shows that Tether makes more profit than Circle, with recent estimates suggesting the USDT issuer earned over $18 million in revenue in the last 24 hours, while Circle reported $6.35 million. This is even though USDT’s circulating supply is only about 2.3 times greater than USDC’s. In fact, on a per-unit basis, Tether reportedly generates roughly 20 times more profit per stablecoin than Circle.

Another reason for this huge difference could be Tether’s affinity for taking on riskier or higher-yield investments. Meanwhile, Circle, regulated as it is, has said its reserves are held in safe assets like Treasuries and cash, which yield a predictable but modest return.

Tether is less transparent about its reserves only listing “secured loans” and other non-transparent assets which suggests it could be chasing higher returns not minding the added risk.

There is also the fact that Circle is at a structural disadvantage because of its inability to keep more of its revenue in-house. This is because of its deal with Coinbase, which gives it a cut of USDC’s economics, diluting Circle’s per-unit profit.

Tether has no such major partner and retains full control over its issuance and redemption process, which allows it to keep more of its revenue in-house. It also charges a 0.1% redemption fee for converting USDT back to fiat, providing a small but steady revenue stream, especially with high-volume users.

Circle, on the other hand, offers users fee-free redemptions, leading to what has been tagged “vampire attacks,” an arbitrage process where users swap USDT for USDC to cash out cheaper.

Overall, Tether has more market dominance than Circle, which allows its reserves to grow faster, thereby compounding interest earnings.

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