World.xyz went live July 1 as a fully on-chain, non-custodial prediction market inside Phantom wallet, listing Bitcoin direction and World Cup contracts with no disclosed protocol fee.
On July 1, 2026, World (world.xyz) launched as a fully on-chain prediction market on Solana, embedded directly inside the Phantom wallet. The platform lists two categories at launch: short-duration Bitcoin direction contracts and 2026 FIFA World Cup outcome markets. All settlement runs automatically through Chainlink Data Streams, which confirm outcomes and trigger payouts in CASH, Phantom's native stablecoin pegged to USD.
World operates as a non-custodial protocol. Positions are standard Solana SPL tokens held directly in the user's wallet. World does not custody funds. Orders route to on-chain liquidity providers rather than a traditional central limit order book. As of July 3, World has not published a protocol fee schedule.
That absence of a disclosed trading fee is the headline for quantitative traders. The only confirmed cost for using World is the Solana network transaction fee.
Every Solana transaction pays a base fee of 5,000 lamports. There are one billion lamports in one SOL, so the dollar cost scales linearly with the SOL price:
| SOL price | Base fee per transaction |
|---|---|
| $100 | $0.0005 |
| $150 | $0.00075 |
| $200 | $0.001 |
Priority fees, which traders add to accelerate confirmation during high-demand periods, typically add another 0 to 500,000 lamports. At 500,000 extra lamports and $150 SOL, that is $0.075 additional. For most normal-traffic conditions on Solana, the realistic ceiling is well under $0.05 per trade including priority fees.
Gas cost per trade is effectively flat. It does not scale with position size. A $5,000 trade costs the same in gas as a $50 trade.
Kalshi is a CFTC-registered Designated Contract Market. Its published taker fee formula is:
fee per contract = 0.07 × price × (1 − price)
At a 50-cent price, that works out to 0.07 × 0.50 × 0.50 = $0.0175 per contract. Each contract pays $1 at settlement.
Take a position of 100 contracts at $0.50 (you spend $50, you stand to collect $100 if correct). Kalshi charges $1.75 in taker fees. At 1,000 contracts ($500 trade), the fee is $17.50. The fee is a percentage of trade value, not a flat dollar amount, so it grows with every dollar added to size. Use the fee calculator to see the exact drag on any specific position before you enter.
Polymarket's fee structure as of mid-2026 depends on market type:
| Polymarket market category | Taker fee (peak at 50-cent price) |
|---|---|
| 15-min and 5-min crypto direction | 1.8% of contract price |
| Sports (NCAAB, Serie A launched Feb 18, 2026) | 0.75% of contract price |
| Politics, economics, most other markets | 0% |
World's two launch categories land directly against the two highest-fee Polymarket categories: Bitcoin direction contracts (1.8% tier) and soccer/World Cup markets (comparable to the sports 0.75% tier).
On a 100-share position at $0.50 per share (cost: $50):
| Platform | Trade cost at 50-cent price, $50 spend |
|---|---|
| World (Solana, no protocol fee) | Under $0.05 in gas |
| Polymarket — crypto direction market | $0.90 (1.8% × $50) |
| Polymarket — sports/World Cup market | $0.38 (0.75% × $50) |
| Kalshi — equivalent event market | $1.75 ($0.0175 × 100 contracts) |
If World maintains zero protocol fees, gas-only trading costs fall two orders of magnitude below every alternative for small trades. At larger sizes, Kalshi's percentage structure means the absolute gap widens: a $5,000 Kalshi position generates $175 in taker fees. The same position on World generates roughly $0.05 in gas.
For a detailed breakdown of Polymarket's fee formula and how the 50-cent peak works mathematically, see the Polymarket fees guide. Kalshi's volume tier structure is covered in the Kalshi 2026 fee guide. To compare all-in costs across platforms at your exact position, the arbitrage calculator shows when fee differences between platforms create exploitable spreads.
The fee comparison above is straightforward on paper. Two practical caveats apply.
Regulatory access. Kalshi is a US-regulated DCM. Every contract it lists is reviewed under CFTC Rule 40.11. Exchange rules must be fair and enforced under CFTC oversight. World is a DeFi protocol on Solana. It is not registered with the CFTC as a DCM or Swap Execution Facility. The CFTC's June 2026 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on event contracts, with a public comment deadline of July 27, 2026, is still in the process of defining which event contracts can legally trade on registered exchanges. Whether unregistered on-chain prediction markets fall under CFTC jurisdiction is an open question that the rulemaking has not yet resolved. The regulatory framework and what is at stake in the comment period is detailed in the CFTC prediction market rules guide.
Polymarket occupies a similar position: on-chain, technically US-restricted by terms of service, but accessible globally through DeFi infrastructure with no KYC required. World follows the same structural pattern at launch.
Settlement risk. Kalshi settlements are backed by exchange-level compliance rules and CFTC oversight. On World, settlement is automated by Chainlink Data Streams. If an oracle feed produces an incorrect result, the dispute resolution path is smart-contract governance, not a regulated exchange compliance team. Chainlink is an industry-standard oracle infrastructure, but on-chain settlement still carries different risk characteristics than a federally regulated venue.
For traders where regulatory protection and US access certainty matter, Kalshi remains the only regulated path. For traders who already operate in DeFi prediction markets and are comfortable with on-chain settlement risk, World's gas-only cost structure is worth tracking as it releases a full fee schedule and expands its market catalog beyond the July 1 launch set.