Mark Zuckerberg eyes another billion-dollar market

Mark Zuckerberg eyes another billion-dollar market Mark Zuckerberg eyes another billion-dollar market · TheStreet · Getty Images Anand Sinha Wed, June 24, 2026 at 12:46 AM GMT+2 2 min read POLA. PVT USDC-USD BTC-USD CRCL Since its launch in 2020, Polymarket  has grown into the world's largest prediction market. The platform lets traders predict events, from future  Bitcoin  prices and election results to government shutdowns, using cryptocurrency as collateral.

Traders can deposit Circle's USDC stablecoin, a type of digital dollar, and trade shares that represent the likelihood of specific future outcomes. In April, Polymarket  announced  plans to migrate from USDC to Polymarket USD, a new collateral token backed 1:1 by USDC. Related: Economist who predicted 2008 recession walks back his biggest conviction The platform has not been without controversy.

Polymarket faced legal scrutiny over election-related contracts during the 2024 U. S. presidential race, though Donald Trump  eased the norms  for the industry once he took office.

Several high-value trades have also drawn scrutiny for alleged insider trading. When the U. S.

detained Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in January, a newly created Polymarket account  profited  over $400,000 by betting on the outcome. The Department of Justice  charged  a Google employee in May for allegedly using insider information to profit more than $1. 2 million across several Google-related trades on the platform.

Yet, the prediction market platform remains very popular. Prediction markets posted trading volumes of approximately $60 billion during January and mid-April this year. The investment firm Bernstein estimated in April that volumes could hit roughly $1 trillion by 2030.

Now, as per the  latest report by The New York Times,  Meta Platforms  (Nasdaq: META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants a piece of the pie. Trending on TheStreet Roundtable: Wall Street analyst predicts 400% upside for MicroStrategy stock Billionaire reveals jaw-dropping proposal for Satoshi's Bitcoin AI stock surges amid multi-million-dollar lawsuit Meta plans Arena app, NYT reports The NYT reported on June 23 that Zuckerberg recently dispatched a small team at Meta to create a smartphone app similar to Polymarket, as per two employees familiar with the matter. The app, internally referred to as "Arena," would function independently from Meta's social networking apps such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.

But the company would depend on users on these networks to grow the Arena app, the employees claimed, as per NYT. For now, users would most likely trade event contracts using points instead of money, but Meta could allow money eventually, as per the report. As far digital asset payments are concerned, Meta has taken a cautious approach so far.

Story Continues Back in 2019, its Libra stablecoin project, later rebranded Diem, collapsed under regulatory pressure before launch. In April this year, Meta rolled out  a plan letting select creators in Colombia and the Philippines to receive payments in Circle's USDC stablecoin. It would require the creators to link the app to third-party crypto wallets.

TheStreet Roundtable reached out to Meta to confirm if the NYT report is true and did not receive a response by the time of publication. Related: Wall Street giant delivers blunt verdict on Bitcoin's sell-off This story was originally published by TheStreet on Jun 23, 2026, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.