Underdog taps Zerohash to bring crypto funding to prediction markets

A fresh initiative by Underdog is making it much easier for customers to fund their prediction market accounts even outside banking hours.

On October 22, the company announced its collaboration with Zerohash to give qualified customers the ability to deposit stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies. The announcement was made at the NEXTPredict NYC Summit and is expected to be launched before the year comes to an end. Customers will be able to deposit funds into their accounts directly through the Underdog app no matter if it is evening or weekend.

“Stablecoins and onchain assets unlock greater choice and speed,” said Underdog payments head Arthik Adla. Zerohash revenue chief Adam Tesan also stressed the ability to move money globally, around the clock.

There is already an audience for it. According to IG Group’s October 2026 acquisition presentation, 46% of Underdog customers had traded crypto before. Another 42% said they liked funding Underdog wallets with crypto. Meanwhile, 58% had traded individual stocks.

The commercial case for crypto funding

IG decided to buy Underdog on July 30, 2026, for a total enterprise value of $1.1 billion, including an earnout of about $200 million. The crossover between sports fans and retail traders is one of the reasons for the deal.

From Underdog’s public dashboard, they achieved $7.88 billion in cumulative notional volume in prediction markets and 49.86 million trades until October 21, 2026. In total, the company reported $70.72 million in trades for October 20. These numbers are reported by the company.

Where this fits in a crowded market

Prediction markets have grown quickly. TRM Labs put monthly volume at roughly $1.2 billion in early 2025 and above $20 billion in January 2026. More than 800,000 unique wallets were active monthly.

A snapshot of Artemis data on October 23, 2026 showed that prediction market trading volume totaled around $400 billion in the past year. Sports contracts constituted 42.7% of the recorded volume, whereas crypto contracts accounted for 14.6%.

According to Cryptopolitan, Underdog had previously provided sports contracts by making use of Crypto.com’s CFTC-approved derivatives arm. But it launched its own prediction market platform on July 18, 2026.

Stablecoin demand and the caveats

Smaller transactions in cryptocurrencies are on the rise. According to Chainalysis, transfers of less than $100 into crypto services increased by 78.4% in the period July 2025-June 2026 compared to the previous year. However, the statistics are representative of cryptocurrencies in general rather than stablecoins or deposits in prediction markets.

Zerohash has already brought crypto funding to prediction markets. In July 2026, it introduced crypto and stablecoin deposits for ProphetX. Its partnership with Underdog would extend that option to another platform, giving existing crypto holders more opportunities to use their digital assets.

There are limitations, however. According to Zerohash’s disclosures, some services may be unavailable in New York. Crypto and stablecoin holdings in its accounts also lack FDIC and SIPC protection. Meanwhile, the regulatory treatment of event contracts continues to evolve. On October 9, 2026, the CFTC proposed explicitly including event contracts within its definition of swaps.

Underdog’s funding feature has yet to launch. The partnership could give cryptocurrencies a wider role in funding prediction-market accounts, but there is no evidence yet that it will attract new crypto users, increase token demand, or drive up prices.

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