Platform · Liquidity
Prediction market liquidity
from the first trade.
A prediction market without liquidity is a list of questions nobody can trade. Wide spreads and thin books make the first clients leave, and a book nobody trades stays empty. TIE solves the cold-start problem for brokers by quoting every book from launch.
01Why liquidity is the hard part
Building a matching engine is an engineering problem. Liquidity is a market problem: clients only trade where they can get a fair price, and market makers only quote where there is flow. A new venue starts with neither.
The symptoms are familiar: spreads of 10¢ or more, a few contracts at the top of the book, market orders that move the price, and limit orders that never fill. Each of those costs you clients in the first weeks, when first impressions decide whether the product survives.
02How market making works on a prediction market
On a central limit order book, a market maker posts bids and asks on both sides of each market, earning the spread when clients trade against them and adjusting quotes as information arrives. For binary contracts, YES and NO are two sides of one book: on TIE, buying NO executes as selling YES at 1 − price, so a single set of quotes serves both.
Good liquidity shows up as:
- Tight spreads: the gap between the best bid and the best ask.
- Depth: size available at and near the top of the book.
- Resilience: how fast the book refills after a large trade.
- Coverage: quotes on every listed market, not just the popular ones, around the clock.
03How TIE provides it
- A dedicated market-making partner quotes your book from launch. The partner trades more than $5B a month and has over ten years in CeFi and DeFi markets.
- A 24/7 desk behind the quotes. Crypto and global events don't keep office hours.
- Pre-open quoting. Markets are loaded into the book in a pre-open state before trading starts, so liquidity is in place when the first client arrives.
- A broad catalogue to quote. The Polymarket catalogue, high-frequency crypto markets in recurring series and custom events.
- No balance-sheet exposure for you. The book is peer-to-peer and fully collateralised. Your clients trade with the market, never with you.
04Seeing the book yourself
Your engineers and your clients see the same book. The /market-data WebSocket channel sends a full book snapshot when you subscribe to a market, then streams book diffs and trades. Every frame is sequenced, so your UI can show live depth without gaps. On the homepage you can see a sandbox order book streamed through the same API.
05What to measure before you launch
Use sandbox access to check the things your clients will notice:
- Spread and top-of-book size on the markets you plan to feature.
- How the book behaves around news and scheduled events.
- Round-trip latency from your servers, using the benchmark harness that ships with sandbox access.
Then scope your launch catalogue around the markets your clients care about most.
06FAQ
Where does liquidity on TIE come from?
A dedicated market-making partner quotes each broker's book from launch, backed by a 24/7 desk. The partner trades more than $5B a month.
Is the broker the counterparty to client trades?
No. The book is peer-to-peer and fully collateralised. Clients trade with the market, never with the broker.
Are markets quoted before they open?
Yes. Markets enter a pre-open state where liquidity can be placed before trading starts.
Can we stream the order book into our app?
Yes. The market-data WebSocket channel sends a snapshot on subscribe, then sequenced book diffs and trades.
Do we need to bring our own market maker?
No. Liquidity from TIE's market-making partner is part of the platform.
Want to see a live book? Request a sandbox key and we'll reply within one business day with access and integration notes.