Prediction markets are having a moment. According to Kaito their mindshare grew 4x in August, with 97 protocols live today. @Footballdotfun, a new protocol in this space saw a TVL over $10M and generated over $650K in fees in one day. What was once a niche experiment is now seeping into entertainment, discourse, and even identity. - Twitter is rumored to integrate Polymarket directly into feeds. - Polymarket itself now has a news feed section, making it one of the best places to consume real-time news alongside the markets that interpret it. - Top markets aren’t only about politics anymore, they are about AI breakthroughs, sports, celebrity drama, and cultural flashpoints. At first glance, prediction markets look like speculation engines. But look closer, and they start to resemble something deeper: collective storytelling devices. Culture, after all, is the stories we share. It’s priceless because it creates belonging a substrate of shared sentiment that makes life feel denser. In Web3 substrates take shape in the memes on PumpFun, or in the heated discussions on Polymarket. These aren’t just transactions they’re cultural signals forming in real time. And compared to memes, prediction markets feel less zero-sum. With memes, value often depends on selling to someone else at a higher price even if both people believe in the same joke, one wins and the other loses. Prediction markets work differently. As more participants join, they don’t cancel each other out they add to the collective signal. Each new trade contributes another layer of sentiment, another data point in the unfolding story. Speculation gets people in the door. Culture keeps them coming back. The protocols that manage to embed culture into their products that make prediction markets feel like more than a bet will be the ones that outlast hype cycles. To know more about how culture matters in crypto - read our latest (link below)