Bitcoin: what Polymarket prices imply, against what happened
What we measured
What then happened — on the 5-minute and 15-minute windows kept, the variance the mid-window price implied for the remaining half-window was 1.00 × the variance that then happened (95% CI 0.96–1.04) and 1.01 × the variance that then happened (95% CI 0.91–1.11) — the interval contains 1 in every case. This comparison does not depend on the law used to invert the price.
Across 3 Bitcoin markets, the mid-window implied volatility (normal inversion) is 0.80 × realized on the 5-minute market (95% CI 0.79–0.80, n = 10,139), 0.89 × realized on the 15-minute market (95% CI 0.88–0.90, n = 4,152) and 0.94 × realized on the hourly market (95% CI 0.93–0.96, n = 1,138). The three durations sit within 0.15 of each other.
Through the Student-t (ν = 4) inversion the same Bitcoin prices read 1.02 × (5-minute), 1.15 × (15-minute) and 1.22 × (hourly) — at or above realized.
In levels: implied 22.6% (5-minute), 24.7% (15-minute) and 25.9% (hourly) against trailing realized 27.8%, 27.2% and 27.5%, annualized 24/7.
Stability: ratio on the first and second halves of the period — 0.82 / 0.77 (5-minute), 0.91 / 0.88 (15-minute) and 0.94 / 0.95 (hourly).
Highest and lowest nightly ratios — 5-minute: 0.90 on Sep 2, 2026 (n = 114), 0.53 on Oct 3, 2026 (n = 111), 15-minute: 1.12 on Sep 13, 2026 (n = 58), 0.78 on Oct 28, 2026 (n = 53) and hourly: 0.99 on week 2026-W41 (n = 112), 0.87 on week 2026-W34 (n = 74).
Share of windows with Bitcoin price and spot on opposite sides of the price to beat (excluded as "side"): 1.0% (5-minute), 0.8% (15-minute) and 0.2% (hourly); above 50% in 26% of 5-minute windows, 35% of 15-minute windows and 40% of hourly windows the implied σ exceeded the trailing realized σ.
Variance ratio on the two halves — 1.01 / 0.98 (5-minute) and 0.99 / 1.06 (15-minute); realized-vs-realized check (resolution series against 1-minute candles) 0.99 and 0.99.
Windows kept by the price band: 47% of 21,436 (5-minute), 58% of 7,136 (15-minute) and 63% of 1,799 (hourly); the rest sat too close to 50¢ or too close to 0 or 1 for a stable inversion.
| market | kept | normal [95% CI] | Student-t | first half | second half | variance ratio, what followed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5-minute | 10,139 | 0.80 [0.79; 0.80] | 1.02 | 0.82 (n 4,981) | 0.77 (n 5,158) | 1.00 [0.96; 1.04] |
| 15-minute | 4,152 | 0.89 [0.88; 0.90] | 1.15 | 0.91 (n 2,061) | 0.88 (n 2,091) | 1.01 [0.91; 1.11] |
| hourly | 1,138 | 0.94 [0.93; 0.96] | 1.22 | 0.94 (n 539) | 0.95 (n 599) | — |
Over time
By hour of the day
By hour of the day (UTC, window open): the ratio differs between hours on 5-minute, 15-minute and hourly (Kruskal–Wallis p < 0.001). 5-minute: highest at 13:00 (0.90), lowest at 2:00 (0.72), 15-minute: highest at 0:00 (1.10), lowest at 15:00 (0.77) and hourly: highest at 13:00 (1.46), lowest at 15:00 (0.72).
Questions
How many Bitcoin windows feed these figures?
10,139 of 21,436 5-minute windows, 4,152 of 7,136 15-minute windows and 1,138 of 1,799 hourly windows — those whose mid-window price sat in the 15%–45% or 55%–85% band, over 75 nights. One minute before the close only 14%, 10% and 8% would remain: that reading is not published.
Are Bitcoin levels (implied 23% against realized 28%) published?
Yes for 5-minute, 15-minute and hourly: the two-decimal spot in the collector's logs rounds to 0.01% of a typical half-window move at Bitcoin's price (about $80689), under the 1% tolerance set in advance.
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Paper results · not financial advice · 18+. Data analytics on Polymarket crypto markets.