June 15 – July 19, 2026

RULES

The official rules of the Hive World Cup — our prediction-market tournament running alongside the 2026 World Cup.

Group stageKnockout duelsChampion

Core rules

Eligibility

You need a Polymarket account made through Hive's referral link. Just follow the steps when you sign up.

Flat start

No open positions the moment a round opens — every round, not just the first. You can hold positions through a round and into the clearing window, but walk into the next round holding any position, at any size, and you forfeit that round.

Start with 500$

Each round, you can start with up to 500$ in cash. The same starting budget for everyone, no top-ups.

Clearing period

A 24-hour window between rounds to close every position and return to $500 cash. When the next round opens, any open position — at any size — or more than $500 cash bans you from that round. No exceptions.

How you score

Your profit ranks you within your group each round, and you are awarded points for placement — trade at least 1 market in a round to score it. Points table below →

Almost every market counts

Politics, sports, crypto, geopolitics — nearly everything on Polymarket counts. The one exception is below.

No Up/Down markets

Crypto “Up or Down” markets — the coin-flips on BTC, ETH and the like — are banned at every duration: 5-minute, hourly, and any other that may appear. Trading them will get you flagged and possibly disqualified.

Prizes

A cash pool paid out down a placement ladder, within 7 days of the end. See the prize ladder →

Fair play

No wash trading, orderbook manipulation, automated bot trading, or multi-wallet collusion — one Polymarket wallet per account. Anything off, like cap overshoots or a non-flat start, gets flagged for an admin to review.

Format

Group Stage → Knockout

A group stage to find the standouts, then single-elimination duels down to one champion.

The draw

When registration closes, everyone is drawn at random into groups — around 12 of them. You only ever compete against your own group, and groups are kept equal in size.

Group stage · 3 rounds

The group stage runs over three rounds. You start every round with a fresh $500 and are ranked against your group by that round's profit. Where you finish earns points — top 10 score, everyone else gets 0:

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

6th

7th

8th

9th

10th

Your group score is the sum of your three rounds. Ties are broken by total PNL across the three rounds. Between rounds, a 24-hour clearing period to close every position and return to $500 cash. Open the next round holding any position, or more than $500, and you forfeit that round.

Advancing

The top 2 of each group advance, plus the 8 best third-placed traders across all groups — 32 finalists into the duels.

Knockout duels

Finalists go 1v1, seeded by group score. Both traders reset to $500 for a short head-to-head window; whoever makes more profit advances. Single elimination, until one champion is left.

Group count and bracket size scale with turnout — the exact format is subject to change.

Prizes

💰 Total prize pool

$10,000+

Paid to the top 32
within 7 days of the end

Champion

1st place

$2,500

2nd×1$1,000

3rd – 4th×2$500

5th – 8th×4$250

9th – 16th×8$150

17th – 32nd×16$100

Amounts are carried over from our first tournament — the pool and ladder are subject to change.