Polymarket to integrate TWAP for crypto markets after manipulation losses
Polymarket confirmed it will integrate time-weighted average price (TWAP) resolution for its 5-minute crypto contracts. The change follows $7.6 million in manipulation losses and sustained user criticism about the platform's pace of improvements. The new mechanism is intended to make crypto market outcomes harder to distort near settlement. Polymarket announced the update on Sunday, July 12, 2026. The platform has faced months of pressure to strengthen safeguards after traders exploited thin windows in short-duration crypto contracts.
The $7.6 million manipulation figure gives competitors a concrete trust deficit to exploit as they pitch institutions. Kalshi and others can now point to a hard loss total when arguing that their own settlement layers are more robust. For Polymarket, TWAP is a defensive rebuild: the mechanism spreads the price sample across the contract window, making last-second spoofing less profitable.
Traders considering 5-minute crypto bets will watch whether the first post-TWAP contracts settle cleanly; another manipulation event would compound the reputational damage. Combo bundles in sports show the same urgency — closing experience gaps before Congress acts on sports event contract bans. The platform is racing to prove it can self-police before regulators or rivals define its reliability.
Polymarket's TWAP crypto fix becomes the second product maneuver in a matter of days — after its Combo sports launch — aimed at shoring up market integrity amid heightened manipulation scrutiny and legislative threats.