Unlike the industry leader Polymarket, Limitless is taking a different approach by not focusing on elections. Instead, it’s establishing a niche with fast-expiring bets and user-generated markets.
Limitless Labs, a rising star in the prediction market industry, has secured $3 million in a pre-seed round led by the prominent venture fund 1confirmation.
The round also saw participation from Paper Ventures, Collider, and Public Works, according to CJ Hetherington, co-founder and CEO of Limitless Labs. The company is building its innovative market on Base, the layer-2 blockchain network developed by Coinbase (COIN).
This funding comes at a time when election betting, especially in cryptocurrency, is surging in popularity, with Polymarket leading the way, handling nearly $1 billion in wagers on the U.S. presidential race. However, Hetherington emphasized that Limitless Labs isn’t chasing elections.
Instead, the company specializes in fast-expiring markets, often focused on stock or cryptocurrency prices at the close of a trading day. On Monday, for instance, the platform’s most active market asked traders to bet on whether Coinbase stock would close above $175 at 4 p.m. Eastern. Hetherington compared these markets to the zero-day-to-expiration (0DTE) options popular in traditional finance.
“Traders love our daily markets because they don’t have to lock up capital for long periods only to see modest returns,” Hetherington said. “The rapid turnover keeps engagement high and traders coming back.”
According to Hetherington, the platform’s average trader spends around four hours per week, with a strong retention rate: “38% of users who join on the first day are still active by the seventh day, based on our latest data.”
While Limitless is still small compared to Polymarket, processing over $200,000 in daily transactions compared to Polymarket’s tens of millions, the company is preparing to engage with external market-makers. “We’re about to begin those conversations,” Hetherington added.
Another key differentiator for Limitless is its user-generated markets. Users with sizable social media followings can propose markets, and if these suggestions make it to the homepage and generate trades, the creator earns a percentage of the volume as a reward.
“A lot of our most popular markets weren’t created by us,” Hetherington said. “They were built by our community, and the creators have been earning from it.”
At least one other platform, Hedgehog Markets, is developing a similar feature.