How to trade Polymarket's timed crypto markets

Polymarket runs short "Up or Down" markets on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and more — you're betting whether the coin finishes the round above or below a fixed strike. Desk gives these rounds their own crypto panel: three chart views that each answer a different question, quick one-click entry, and the full ladder when you want tools and hedging.

What a timed crypto market is

Each market is a countdown round — most commonly 5 minutes — on a single coin: "Will Bitcoin be Up or Down at the close?" You buy Up if you think it finishes higher, Down if lower. At settlement the winning side pays $1 a share.

"Higher or lower" is measured against the strike — Polymarket calls it the Price to Beat. It's the Chainlink 60-second TWAP (time-weighted average price) captured at the exact second the round opened. The round then resolves on the same Chainlink TWAP at the close: above the strike → Up wins, below → Down wins. Knowing the strike is fixed at the open is the whole game — everything on the panel is really telling you "are we above or below it, and will we stay there?"

The three chart views

The crypto panel has a view switcher in its top bar — PRICE · ODDS · DEPTH. They look at the same round through three different lenses. A shared header sits above all of them with the live readouts: current odds, the coin price, the strike/target, the difference, and the round countdown.

PRICE — the coin itself

The underlying asset's price, so you can see who's winning right now. It layers five source worms — Binance, Coinbase, CL Spot (Chainlink spot), TWAP 30s and TWAP 60s — over 1-minute candles, with the strike (Price to Beat) drawn as a line and a live countdown. Because settlement uses the Chainlink 60-second TWAP, the TWAP 60s worm is the one that actually decides the round — watch it against the strike, not just the spot price, which can be above the line while the TWAP hasn't caught up.

ODDS — what the market is pricing

The market's own view: the Up/Down token price over the round, read as a probability. This is what you pay and what the crowd believes, not the coin price. A token at 70¢ means the market puts that side at roughly 70%. Use it to see how each side is priced, how fast it's moving, and whether the market agrees with what you're seeing on the PRICE view.

DEPTH — the order book

A Bookmap-style heatmap of the token's order book. It shows resting liquidity as heat (bright bands are walls — large resting orders), aggressive trades as bubbles sized by how big they were, the live best bid and ask, and a full-height volume ladder (COB / SVP) down the side, with an optional CEX trade tape. Use it to see where the size is and which way order flow is leaning before you commit.

In short

PRICE = is the coin above or below the strike. ODDS = what the market charges for each side. DEPTH = where the liquidity and flow are. Flip between them as the round develops.

Trading it: quick buttons vs the ladder

The crypto panel has quick BUY UP and BUY DOWN buttons for fast, one-click market entry. When a round is moving and you just want in (or out) at market, they're the quickest way — one tap and you're filled at the touch.

But the quick buttons are only a speed layer — plain market entry and exit. The moment you want to trade with tools or hedge, open the ladder for the market:

Exits & automation — stop-loss and take-profit, trailing stops, auto-entries, the chaser, drip and scale orders all live on the ladder.
Hedging & reducing — cross-market hedging and position reduction are ladder tools; the quick buttons can't shape or de-risk a position.
Precision — rest an order at a chosen price, read the depth and P&L per level, and see exactly what each price does to your position.

A common workflow: watch the round on PRICE/ODDS/DEPTH, take a fast entry with BUY UP / BUY DOWN, then manage the position — stop, target or hedge — from the ladder.

Before the countdown ends

Timed rounds settle automatically at zero. If you don't want to ride a position to resolution, trade out from the ladder before the countdown expires — the header countdown on every view tells you how long is left.

A round, start to finish

Say a 5-minute Bitcoin market opens. Here's how the panel reads through it:

The strike is set. Bitcoin's Chainlink 60-second TWAP at the opening second is $78,400 — that's the Price to Beat. Up wins if the TWAP is above $78,400 at the close; Down wins if it's below.
PRICE view — who's ahead. The worms sit near $78,430 — a touch above the strike line at $78,400 — but the TWAP 60s worm is still catching up from below. Spot being green doesn't settle it; the TWAP does.
ODDS view — what it costs. Up is trading around 58¢ — the market puts Up at roughly 58%.
DEPTH view — the flow. A wall of resting bids sits just under the Up token's touch, and a run of aggressive buys prints through — order flow is leaning Up.
Fast entry. You tap BUY UP and fill 100 shares at 0.58 = $58.
Manage it on the ladder. You open the ladder and set a stop — if Up falls to 0.45, close automatically — so a reversal is capped. (You could just as easily hedge with Down if you changed your mind.)
The close. With 30 seconds left the TWAP 60s is $78,470, clear of the strike, and Up is bid 0.80. Two choices: let it ride — if Up wins, your 100 shares pay $1 each ($100, a +$42 profit) — or trade out now on the ladder, selling 100 at 0.80 for +$22 locked with no settlement risk.

Same round, three lenses: PRICE told you the coin was (just) ahead, ODDS told you the price of that, and DEPTH told you flow agreed — then the quick button got you in and the ladder let you protect and exit.