Venue Health
The health of the platform every market on it depends on. In plain terms: what structural features of the venue — its KYC, fees, incentive design, listing controls, and regulatory regime — make manipulation easier or harder, plus the standing of its settlement infrastructure.
How we score it
This is a platform-wide signal applied to every market on the venue. A stable settlement currency, clean regulatory standing, real listing controls, and a regulated/enforcement-capable regime raise the score; stablecoin peg instability, acute regulatory pressure, no-KYC plus zero-fee plus volume-rewarded incentive design (which invites fake volume), or no listing controls (which let harmful or illicit markets exist) lower it. The contrast anchor is a regulated venue that has actually disciplined insider trading.
How to read your score
Higher means a healthier venue. A lower score reflects platform-level stress or structural enablers of manipulation that affect every market on the platform, not this market alone. This axis is scored 0-100; the composite weights it at 10%.
No meaningful risk signal on this axis. Nothing here that warrants extra scrutiny before taking a position.
A clean read with only minor or ambiguous signals. Reasonable to proceed with normal due diligence.
A moderate signal worth a second look. Read the evidence on the market page before sizing a position.
A pronounced structural signal on this axis. Understand exactly what is driving it before participating.
A strong structural signal. This axis is the kind of thing a careful trader would resolve before trusting the market's price.
Signals we look for
Structural enablers of fake volume: no KYC, zero fees, and volume-weighted reward / airdrop incentives.
Weak or absent listing controls that let harmful or illicit markets be created.
Peg instability in the platform's settlement stablecoin.
Acute regulatory pressure or enforcement action against the venue.
Settlement-infrastructure stress or an unaccountable resolution regime.
References
The academic, industry, and regulatory sources that ground how this dimension is scored. Each note states what the source backs.
Polymarket wash-trading study — structural enablers (no KYC, zero fees, volume-rewarded airdrop)
Sirolly et al. (Columbia), SSRN 5714122 · 2025
Identifies the venue-level enablers behind the ~25% wash rate: no-KYC + zero-fee + volume-rewarded design invites fake volume.
The first Augur assassination markets have arrived
CoinDesk (permissionless-listing failure mode) · 2018
Backs the listing-controls signal: a venue with no listing gate can host harmful or illicit markets.
Kalshi political insider-trading enforcement update
Kalshi (regulated-venue contrast) · 2026
Demonstrates venue regime as a real health differentiator: a CFTC-regulated venue disciplined candidates trading their own races.
Statistical signals, not allegations. Every dimension measures a structural property of a market — the shape of its flow, the clarity of its question, the trustworthiness of its resolution source. A low score flags where a careful trader should look harder. It is never a claim that a specific account, or the market itself, has broken a rule.