Hedgehog Markets Raises $3.5M in Funding Round

The company is testing what will be the first predictions platform on Solana's blockchain.

AccessTimeIconJul 27, 2021 at 2:31 p.m. UTC
Updated May 9, 2023 at 3:22 a.m. UTC

Hedgehog Markets has raised $3.5 million in a funding round that included the Solana Foundation and Sam Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research. (Bankman-Fried is a 29-year-old billionaire who founded the FTX crypto exchange.)

The Hedgehog Markets site, which is in a testing phase with more than 6,000 registered users, will be the first prediction market platform to go live on Solana’s blockchain. 

  • What Do EigenLayer's Outflows of $2.3B Signal?
    00:57
    What Do EigenLayer's Outflows of $2.3B Signal?
  • What Do TradFi Crypto Moves Mean for Decentralization?
    04:20
    What Do TradFi Crypto Moves Mean for Decentralization?
  • Marathon Digital Buys $100M BTC; India's Special Task Force for Crypto-Related Drug Trafficking
    02:02
    Marathon Digital Buys $100M BTC; India's Special Task Force for Crypto-Related Drug Trafficking
  • Ether Slides as Grayscale's ETHE Outflows Ramp Up
    00:53
    Ether Slides as Grayscale's ETHE Outflows Ramp Up
  • Decentralized prediction markets like Augur, Gnosis and Polymarket have gained some traction, but the team behind Hedgehog believes there’s still plenty of market share to capture, especially on Solana. These products allow users to open a betting market on blockchain-based platform.

    According to George Yu, the founder of Hedgehog, the company’s decision to launch on Solana was based on the blockchain’s fast transaction speeds and low gas fees, which Yu believes is integral to Hedgehog’s goal of being the most user-friendly prediction platform for newcomers to the crypto sector. 

    Yu told CoinDesk that Hedgehog’s most popular markets in beta testing have been sports, politics, crypto and COVID-19.

    Yu said the money raised in the seed round will be used to hire additional engineers, expand the platform’s product features and increase its user base.

    Disclosure

    Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information has been updated.

    CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. In November 2023, CoinDesk was acquired by the Bullish group, owner of Bullish, a regulated, digital assets exchange. The Bullish group is majority-owned by Block.one; both companies have interests in a variety of blockchain and digital asset businesses and significant holdings of digital assets, including bitcoin. CoinDesk operates as an independent subsidiary with an editorial committee to protect journalistic independence. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive options in the Bullish group as part of their compensation.