Melee Raises $3.5M to Power “Viral Prediction Markets”
Prediction markets are getting a new jolt of energy. Melee, a startup positioning itself at the intersection of crypto, social media, and speculation, announced it has raised $3.5 million to launch what it calls “Viral Markets.” The round was led by Variant, with participation from DBA and several angel investors.
Building the Next Wave of Prediction Platforms
Melee is entering a field already energized by the success of Polymarket, which became a breakout platform during recent U.S. election cycles. Other experiments, such as Clearmatics’ Forecast Markets built on Autonity, have also highlighted growing demand for speculative tools that blur the line between finance and online culture.
But while existing platforms typically depend on centralized market makers or curated teams, Melee’s pitch is different: it wants to make speculation as open and viral as conversation itself.
“We see prediction markets not as a winner-take-all market but as a burgeoning category, much like social networks, where there can be many winners,” Variant said in announcing the investment. “Social networks reshaped the way we create and consume information and media.”
How Viral Markets Work
Melee’s model rewards traders who are both early and correct, lowering the entry cost for those who jump in quickly. The idea is to align speculation with the same dynamics that fuel virality on the internet: rapid growth, asymmetric upside, and shared community focus.
For creators, the design opens new opportunities. Streamers, podcasters, or influencers can launch markets around events relevant to their audience such as whether a hotly anticipated video game hits its release date and generate revenue from trading activity without exposing themselves to reputational risk.
For traders, the payoff comes from timing. Those who identify outcomes early can lock in cheaper exposure and benefit as more participants pile into the market.
The startup’s founding team includes veterans of Solana, Avalanche, Monad, SIG, Microsoft, and Amazon, underscoring both its technical depth and its ties to financial engineering.
Melee frames its long-term vision in broad terms: to create a platform where millions of markets continuously track cultural sentiment. In its words, a place for “valuing beliefs” at internet scale.
Recommended