{
  "schemaVersion": "vultax-public-research-data-v1",
  "articleUrl": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-copy-trading-costs-and-tools",
  "datasets": [
    {
      "title": "The tools",
      "columns": [
        {
          "name": "Tool",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "How copying works",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "Custody",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "Fees",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "Stated latency",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "Free tier",
          "unit": null
        }
      ],
      "rows": [
        [
          "[Polycopy](https://polycopy.app/pricing)",
          "Follow traders; Copy Score on every profile; Premium runs \"Real Trading bots\" that place live orders and \"Auto-close positions\" when the leader exits",
          "Non-custodial: \"You maintain full ownership of your wallet and funds at all times\"",
          "0.5% flat on executed real trades; none on paper trades",
          "Not stated",
          "Follow unlimited traders, full feed, up to 10 paper-trading bots running 7 to 14 simulated days; Premium $30/mo with 7-day trial"
        ],
        [
          "Laika Labs",
          "Leaderboard with alerts when a tracked wallet opens or closes; execution is manual",
          "Your wallet",
          "Not stated",
          "\"within 60 seconds\" per third-party guides; the vendor site blocked automated reading",
          "Free account per third-party guides"
        ],
        [
          "[LuckyLobster](https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/02/23/3242532/0/en/LuckyLobster-Launches-AI-Native-Execution-Layer-for-Autonomous-Trading-on-Polymarket.html)",
          "A built-in \"Copy Trade\" strategy that mirrors \"top-performing wallets\" inside an autonomous agent",
          "\"managed wallets\"",
          "Not stated; a paid tier is announced as upcoming",
          "\"sub-50ms latency\" (press release, 23 February 2026)",
          "Not stated"
        ],
        [
          "[Alphascope wallet tracker](https://www.alphascope.app/tools/polymarket-wallet-tracker)",
          "Wallet lookup and a local watchlist for copy research; no execution",
          "n/a",
          "Free",
          "Not stated",
          "Yes"
        ],
        [
          "Vultax paper trading",
          "Simulated fills against live Polymarket prices; labelled lag on the desk",
          "No funds",
          "None",
          "Printed on the surface",
          "Free to browse; paid plans on [pricing](https://vultax.com/pricing)"
        ]
      ],
      "measurementContext": "Verified 5 September 2026. \"Not stated\" means the vendor's public pages do not say. A latency claim in a press release is a claim, not a measurement.",
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Polymarket trading fees",
          "url": "https://docs.polymarket.com/trading/fees.md",
          "note": "Formula, per-category rates, maker exemption; read 2026-09-05"
        },
        {
          "label": "Polycopy pricing",
          "url": "https://polycopy.app/pricing",
          "note": "Free and Premium tiers, 0.5% execution fee, paper-trading bots; read 2026-09-05"
        },
        {
          "label": "Polycopy copy trading",
          "url": "https://polycopy.app/copy-trading",
          "note": "Non-custodial model"
        },
        {
          "label": "LuckyLobster launch release",
          "url": "https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/02/23/3242532/0/en/LuckyLobster-Launches-AI-Native-Execution-Layer-for-Autonomous-Trading-on-Polymarket.html",
          "note": "\"sub-50ms\" copy trade, managed wallets; 23 February 2026"
        },
        {
          "label": "Alphascope wallet tracker",
          "url": "https://www.alphascope.app/tools/polymarket-wallet-tracker",
          "note": "Free lookup and watchlist"
        },
        {
          "label": "Polymarket data API — trades",
          "url": "https://data-api.polymarket.com/trades",
          "note": "Public trade records underlying Vultax's trade record"
        },
        {
          "label": "Polycopy — State of copy trading (Q1 2026)",
          "url": "https://polycopy.app/research/state-of-copy-trading-q1-2026",
          "note": "A copy-trading vendor's own research"
        },
        {
          "label": "Vultax: Best Polymarket Traders",
          "url": "https://vultax.com/research/best-polymarket-traders-leaderboards",
          "note": "Month-over-month persistence and concentration of realised gains"
        },
        {
          "label": "Vultax: 1.6% of Polymarket wallets never sleep",
          "url": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-wallets-that-never-sleep-trading-cadence",
          "note": "Who the busiest leaders are"
        },
        {
          "label": "Vultax: Polymarket's up-or-down crypto markets",
          "url": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-bitcoin-up-or-down-5-minute-markets",
          "note": "The market class measured separately here"
        },
        {
          "label": "Gizmodo — Study finds around a quarter of Polymarket trades are fake (Columbia, Nov 2025)",
          "url": "https://gizmodo.com/study-finds-around-a-quarter-of-polymarket-trades-are-fake-2000683231",
          "note": "About 25% of Polymarket volume over three years flagged as wash trading by counterparty structure, peaking near 60% in December 2024; roughly one wallet in seven flagged; many flagged wallets made no profit."
        },
        {
          "label": "CFTC — Enforcement Division issues Prediction Markets Advisory (25 Feb 2026)",
          "url": "https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/9185-26",
          "note": "Insider trading, fraud and manipulation, wash sales and pre-arranged trading, and disruptive trading named as conduct the Commission polices on any designated contract market; cites a candidate trading his own race and a video editor trading on non-public channel information."
        },
        {
          "label": "Coinpaprika — Polymarket expands beyond prediction markets with 20x leverage perps (Sep 2026)",
          "url": "https://coinpaprika.com/news/polymarket-expands-beyond-prediction-markets/",
          "note": "Perpetual futures launched 3 September 2026 with up to 20x leverage; 67 markets within hours; U.S. traders barred. Kalshi's bitcoin perpetuals went live 3 June 2026."
        },
        {
          "label": "DefiRate — Prediction markets top $11B in contract volume as sports, combos drive Kalshi growth (week of 24–30 Aug 2026)",
          "url": "https://defirate.com/news/volume-report-top-11b-contracts-sports-combos/",
          "note": "Kalshi at about 90% of combined contract volume in late August, driven by sports and multi-leg combos; the share is contract volume, not dollars at risk."
        }
      ],
      "measurement": {
        "kind": null,
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      },
      "id": "section-the-tools-table",
      "kind": "published-table",
      "description": "What copying a Polymarket trader costs, measured and worked. Behind buys by the 1,000 most profitable wallets, a follower 30 seconds late paid 1.43¢ a share more in event markets; fees and fill put a copier of a $50 crypto trade down about 6% before the market moves. Four tools compared.",
      "articleUrl": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-copy-trading-costs-and-tools",
      "sectionUrl": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-copy-trading-costs-and-tools#section-the-tools",
      "publishedAt": "2026-09-12",
      "modifiedAt": "2026-09-16",
      "version": "b9408b43b679417b285461c2594a4d68008a41c74a5c53faff5ff5d90b823d02",
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      "limitations": "Published research snapshots and calculations; these exports do not contain current quotes or live account data. Observation windows and populations are stated in the source captions and methodology. Missing metadata is unknown, not zero. Tool facts were read from vendor pages on the stated date and can change. The fee arithmetic is illustrative and uses published rates; actual fills differ. The delay figures describe what the next buyer of the same outcome paid after trades by high-profit wallets over 31.8 hours in September 2026 and are not a forecast of any copier's results. Nothing here is a recommendation to copy any wallet, and nothing here is financial advice.",
      "downloads": {
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    },
    {
      "title": "The three costs, worked",
      "columns": [
        {
          "name": "Cost",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "Crypto (rate 0.07)",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "Politics (rate 0.04)",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "Geopolitics (no fee)",
          "unit": null
        }
      ],
      "rows": [
        [
          "Taker fee on your entry, 100 × rate × 0.5 × 0.5",
          "$1.75",
          "$1.00",
          "$0.00"
        ],
        [
          "Platform fee at 0.5% of stake (Polycopy)",
          "$0.25",
          "$0.25",
          "$0.25"
        ],
        [
          "Fill one cent worse than the leader's",
          "$1.00",
          "$1.00",
          "$1.00"
        ],
        [
          "Total, and share of a $50 stake",
          "$3.00 (6.0%)",
          "$2.25 (4.5%)",
          "$1.25 (2.5%)"
        ]
      ],
      "measurementContext": "The one-cent fill assumption is conservative for a $50 order in a liquid market and optimistic for a $5,000 order in a thin one; the leader's own order is what moved the price, so the larger the leader, the worse your fill. No tool states its detection lag as a measured number; the next section measures what the price move behind the top 1,000 wallets actually was.",
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Polymarket trading fees",
          "url": "https://docs.polymarket.com/trading/fees.md",
          "note": "Formula, per-category rates, maker exemption; read 2026-09-05"
        },
        {
          "label": "Polycopy pricing",
          "url": "https://polycopy.app/pricing",
          "note": "Free and Premium tiers, 0.5% execution fee, paper-trading bots; read 2026-09-05"
        },
        {
          "label": "Polycopy copy trading",
          "url": "https://polycopy.app/copy-trading",
          "note": "Non-custodial model"
        },
        {
          "label": "LuckyLobster launch release",
          "url": "https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/02/23/3242532/0/en/LuckyLobster-Launches-AI-Native-Execution-Layer-for-Autonomous-Trading-on-Polymarket.html",
          "note": "\"sub-50ms\" copy trade, managed wallets; 23 February 2026"
        },
        {
          "label": "Alphascope wallet tracker",
          "url": "https://www.alphascope.app/tools/polymarket-wallet-tracker",
          "note": "Free lookup and watchlist"
        },
        {
          "label": "Polymarket data API — trades",
          "url": "https://data-api.polymarket.com/trades",
          "note": "Public trade records underlying Vultax's trade record"
        },
        {
          "label": "Polycopy — State of copy trading (Q1 2026)",
          "url": "https://polycopy.app/research/state-of-copy-trading-q1-2026",
          "note": "A copy-trading vendor's own research"
        },
        {
          "label": "Vultax: Best Polymarket Traders",
          "url": "https://vultax.com/research/best-polymarket-traders-leaderboards",
          "note": "Month-over-month persistence and concentration of realised gains"
        },
        {
          "label": "Vultax: 1.6% of Polymarket wallets never sleep",
          "url": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-wallets-that-never-sleep-trading-cadence",
          "note": "Who the busiest leaders are"
        },
        {
          "label": "Vultax: Polymarket's up-or-down crypto markets",
          "url": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-bitcoin-up-or-down-5-minute-markets",
          "note": "The market class measured separately here"
        },
        {
          "label": "Gizmodo — Study finds around a quarter of Polymarket trades are fake (Columbia, Nov 2025)",
          "url": "https://gizmodo.com/study-finds-around-a-quarter-of-polymarket-trades-are-fake-2000683231",
          "note": "About 25% of Polymarket volume over three years flagged as wash trading by counterparty structure, peaking near 60% in December 2024; roughly one wallet in seven flagged; many flagged wallets made no profit."
        },
        {
          "label": "CFTC — Enforcement Division issues Prediction Markets Advisory (25 Feb 2026)",
          "url": "https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/9185-26",
          "note": "Insider trading, fraud and manipulation, wash sales and pre-arranged trading, and disruptive trading named as conduct the Commission polices on any designated contract market; cites a candidate trading his own race and a video editor trading on non-public channel information."
        },
        {
          "label": "Coinpaprika — Polymarket expands beyond prediction markets with 20x leverage perps (Sep 2026)",
          "url": "https://coinpaprika.com/news/polymarket-expands-beyond-prediction-markets/",
          "note": "Perpetual futures launched 3 September 2026 with up to 20x leverage; 67 markets within hours; U.S. traders barred. Kalshi's bitcoin perpetuals went live 3 June 2026."
        },
        {
          "label": "DefiRate — Prediction markets top $11B in contract volume as sports, combos drive Kalshi growth (week of 24–30 Aug 2026)",
          "url": "https://defirate.com/news/volume-report-top-11b-contracts-sports-combos/",
          "note": "Kalshi at about 90% of combined contract volume in late August, driven by sports and multi-leg combos; the share is contract volume, not dollars at risk."
        }
      ],
      "measurement": {
        "kind": null,
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      },
      "id": "section-the-three-costs-worked-table",
      "kind": "published-table",
      "description": "What copying a Polymarket trader costs, measured and worked. Behind buys by the 1,000 most profitable wallets, a follower 30 seconds late paid 1.43¢ a share more in event markets; fees and fill put a copier of a $50 crypto trade down about 6% before the market moves. Four tools compared.",
      "articleUrl": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-copy-trading-costs-and-tools",
      "sectionUrl": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-copy-trading-costs-and-tools#section-the-three-costs-worked",
      "publishedAt": "2026-09-12",
      "modifiedAt": "2026-09-16",
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      "limitations": "Published research snapshots and calculations; these exports do not contain current quotes or live account data. Observation windows and populations are stated in the source captions and methodology. Missing metadata is unknown, not zero. Tool facts were read from vendor pages on the stated date and can change. The fee arithmetic is illustrative and uses published rates; actual fills differ. The delay figures describe what the next buyer of the same outcome paid after trades by high-profit wallets over 31.8 hours in September 2026 and are not a forecast of any copier's results. Nothing here is a recommendation to copy any wallet, and nothing here is financial advice.",
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    },
    {
      "title": "What a copier pays on a $50 trade at 50 cents, by market category",
      "columns": [
        {
          "name": "Category",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "Cost as share of stake",
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      ],
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        [
          "Crypto",
          6
        ],
        [
          "Politics",
          4.5
        ],
        [
          "Geopolitics",
          2.5
        ]
      ],
      "measurementContext": "Taker fee at the published rate + 0.5% platform fee + a one-cent worse fill. Share of stake.",
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Polymarket trading fees",
          "url": "https://docs.polymarket.com/trading/fees.md",
          "note": "Formula, per-category rates, maker exemption; read 2026-09-05"
        },
        {
          "label": "Polycopy pricing",
          "url": "https://polycopy.app/pricing",
          "note": "Free and Premium tiers, 0.5% execution fee, paper-trading bots; read 2026-09-05"
        },
        {
          "label": "Polycopy copy trading",
          "url": "https://polycopy.app/copy-trading",
          "note": "Non-custodial model"
        },
        {
          "label": "LuckyLobster launch release",
          "url": "https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/02/23/3242532/0/en/LuckyLobster-Launches-AI-Native-Execution-Layer-for-Autonomous-Trading-on-Polymarket.html",
          "note": "\"sub-50ms\" copy trade, managed wallets; 23 February 2026"
        },
        {
          "label": "Alphascope wallet tracker",
          "url": "https://www.alphascope.app/tools/polymarket-wallet-tracker",
          "note": "Free lookup and watchlist"
        },
        {
          "label": "Polymarket data API — trades",
          "url": "https://data-api.polymarket.com/trades",
          "note": "Public trade records underlying Vultax's trade record"
        },
        {
          "label": "Polycopy — State of copy trading (Q1 2026)",
          "url": "https://polycopy.app/research/state-of-copy-trading-q1-2026",
          "note": "A copy-trading vendor's own research"
        },
        {
          "label": "Vultax: Best Polymarket Traders",
          "url": "https://vultax.com/research/best-polymarket-traders-leaderboards",
          "note": "Month-over-month persistence and concentration of realised gains"
        },
        {
          "label": "Vultax: 1.6% of Polymarket wallets never sleep",
          "url": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-wallets-that-never-sleep-trading-cadence",
          "note": "Who the busiest leaders are"
        },
        {
          "label": "Vultax: Polymarket's up-or-down crypto markets",
          "url": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-bitcoin-up-or-down-5-minute-markets",
          "note": "The market class measured separately here"
        },
        {
          "label": "Gizmodo — Study finds around a quarter of Polymarket trades are fake (Columbia, Nov 2025)",
          "url": "https://gizmodo.com/study-finds-around-a-quarter-of-polymarket-trades-are-fake-2000683231",
          "note": "About 25% of Polymarket volume over three years flagged as wash trading by counterparty structure, peaking near 60% in December 2024; roughly one wallet in seven flagged; many flagged wallets made no profit."
        },
        {
          "label": "CFTC — Enforcement Division issues Prediction Markets Advisory (25 Feb 2026)",
          "url": "https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/9185-26",
          "note": "Insider trading, fraud and manipulation, wash sales and pre-arranged trading, and disruptive trading named as conduct the Commission polices on any designated contract market; cites a candidate trading his own race and a video editor trading on non-public channel information."
        },
        {
          "label": "Coinpaprika — Polymarket expands beyond prediction markets with 20x leverage perps (Sep 2026)",
          "url": "https://coinpaprika.com/news/polymarket-expands-beyond-prediction-markets/",
          "note": "Perpetual futures launched 3 September 2026 with up to 20x leverage; 67 markets within hours; U.S. traders barred. Kalshi's bitcoin perpetuals went live 3 June 2026."
        },
        {
          "label": "DefiRate — Prediction markets top $11B in contract volume as sports, combos drive Kalshi growth (week of 24–30 Aug 2026)",
          "url": "https://defirate.com/news/volume-report-top-11b-contracts-sports-combos/",
          "note": "Kalshi at about 90% of combined contract volume in late August, driven by sports and multi-leg combos; the share is contract volume, not dollars at risk."
        }
      ],
      "measurement": {
        "kind": "illustrative",
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        "methodology": "A $50 trade at 50 cents: taker fee at the article's published rate, plus a 0.5% platform fee and a one-cent worse fill, expressed as a share of stake."
      },
      "id": "section-the-three-costs-worked-chart",
      "kind": "published-chart",
      "description": "What copying a Polymarket trader costs, measured and worked. Behind buys by the 1,000 most profitable wallets, a follower 30 seconds late paid 1.43¢ a share more in event markets; fees and fill put a copier of a $50 crypto trade down about 6% before the market moves. Four tools compared.",
      "articleUrl": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-copy-trading-costs-and-tools",
      "sectionUrl": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-copy-trading-costs-and-tools#section-the-three-costs-worked",
      "publishedAt": "2026-09-12",
      "modifiedAt": "2026-09-16",
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    },
    {
      "title": "The cost of arriving late, measured",
      "columns": [
        {
          "name": "Market and delay",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "Buys measured",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "Average extra paid",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "Median, share of leader's price",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "Follower paid more",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "Same price",
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        },
        {
          "name": "Follower paid less",
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      ],
      "rows": [
        [
          "Event markets, 30 seconds",
          "17,088",
          "+1.43¢",
          "+1.41%",
          "57.9%",
          "7.8%",
          "34.3%"
        ],
        [
          "Event markets, 2 minutes",
          "15,908",
          "+1.43¢",
          "+1.59%",
          "56.2%",
          "4.9%",
          "38.9%"
        ],
        [
          "Event markets, 10 minutes",
          "12,641",
          "+1.29¢",
          "+1.69%",
          "53.8%",
          "3.0%",
          "43.3%"
        ],
        [
          "Up-or-down markets, 30 seconds",
          "12,979",
          "+0.42¢",
          "+1.92%",
          "52.9%",
          "1.2%",
          "46.0%"
        ]
      ],
      "measurementContext": "Buys by the 1,000 wallets with the highest observed profit in Vultax's Polymarket cohort, 15:06 UTC 12 September to 22:55 UTC 13 September 2026, at prices from 3 to 97 cents. Extra paid is the next other buyer's price minus the leader's price.",
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Polymarket trading fees",
          "url": "https://docs.polymarket.com/trading/fees.md",
          "note": "Formula, per-category rates, maker exemption; read 2026-09-05"
        },
        {
          "label": "Polycopy pricing",
          "url": "https://polycopy.app/pricing",
          "note": "Free and Premium tiers, 0.5% execution fee, paper-trading bots; read 2026-09-05"
        },
        {
          "label": "Polycopy copy trading",
          "url": "https://polycopy.app/copy-trading",
          "note": "Non-custodial model"
        },
        {
          "label": "LuckyLobster launch release",
          "url": "https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/02/23/3242532/0/en/LuckyLobster-Launches-AI-Native-Execution-Layer-for-Autonomous-Trading-on-Polymarket.html",
          "note": "\"sub-50ms\" copy trade, managed wallets; 23 February 2026"
        },
        {
          "label": "Alphascope wallet tracker",
          "url": "https://www.alphascope.app/tools/polymarket-wallet-tracker",
          "note": "Free lookup and watchlist"
        },
        {
          "label": "Polymarket data API — trades",
          "url": "https://data-api.polymarket.com/trades",
          "note": "Public trade records underlying Vultax's trade record"
        },
        {
          "label": "Polycopy — State of copy trading (Q1 2026)",
          "url": "https://polycopy.app/research/state-of-copy-trading-q1-2026",
          "note": "A copy-trading vendor's own research"
        },
        {
          "label": "Vultax: Best Polymarket Traders",
          "url": "https://vultax.com/research/best-polymarket-traders-leaderboards",
          "note": "Month-over-month persistence and concentration of realised gains"
        },
        {
          "label": "Vultax: 1.6% of Polymarket wallets never sleep",
          "url": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-wallets-that-never-sleep-trading-cadence",
          "note": "Who the busiest leaders are"
        },
        {
          "label": "Vultax: Polymarket's up-or-down crypto markets",
          "url": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-bitcoin-up-or-down-5-minute-markets",
          "note": "The market class measured separately here"
        },
        {
          "label": "Gizmodo — Study finds around a quarter of Polymarket trades are fake (Columbia, Nov 2025)",
          "url": "https://gizmodo.com/study-finds-around-a-quarter-of-polymarket-trades-are-fake-2000683231",
          "note": "About 25% of Polymarket volume over three years flagged as wash trading by counterparty structure, peaking near 60% in December 2024; roughly one wallet in seven flagged; many flagged wallets made no profit."
        },
        {
          "label": "CFTC — Enforcement Division issues Prediction Markets Advisory (25 Feb 2026)",
          "url": "https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/9185-26",
          "note": "Insider trading, fraud and manipulation, wash sales and pre-arranged trading, and disruptive trading named as conduct the Commission polices on any designated contract market; cites a candidate trading his own race and a video editor trading on non-public channel information."
        },
        {
          "label": "Coinpaprika — Polymarket expands beyond prediction markets with 20x leverage perps (Sep 2026)",
          "url": "https://coinpaprika.com/news/polymarket-expands-beyond-prediction-markets/",
          "note": "Perpetual futures launched 3 September 2026 with up to 20x leverage; 67 markets within hours; U.S. traders barred. Kalshi's bitcoin perpetuals went live 3 June 2026."
        },
        {
          "label": "DefiRate — Prediction markets top $11B in contract volume as sports, combos drive Kalshi growth (week of 24–30 Aug 2026)",
          "url": "https://defirate.com/news/volume-report-top-11b-contracts-sports-combos/",
          "note": "Kalshi at about 90% of combined contract volume in late August, driven by sports and multi-leg combos; the share is contract volume, not dollars at risk."
        }
      ],
      "measurement": {
        "kind": "observed",
        "temporalCoverage": "2026-09-12T15:06Z/2026-09-13T22:55Z",
        "population": "54,828 buys by 195 of the top 1,000 cohort wallets",
        "methodology": "For each leader buy, the price of the first buy of the same outcome by another wallet at or after the delay and within five minutes of it, minus the leader's price."
      },
      "id": "section-the-cost-of-arriving-late-measured-table",
      "kind": "published-table",
      "description": "What copying a Polymarket trader costs, measured and worked. Behind buys by the 1,000 most profitable wallets, a follower 30 seconds late paid 1.43¢ a share more in event markets; fees and fill put a copier of a $50 crypto trade down about 6% before the market moves. Four tools compared.",
      "articleUrl": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-copy-trading-costs-and-tools",
      "sectionUrl": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-copy-trading-costs-and-tools#section-the-cost-of-arriving-late-measured",
      "publishedAt": "2026-09-12",
      "modifiedAt": "2026-09-16",
      "version": "cc32150a3ae96c872e2ce7090859146703ff35e3971ce46e53c3a6907e6e060b",
      "isLive": false,
      "limitations": "Published research snapshots and calculations; these exports do not contain current quotes or live account data. Observation windows and populations are stated in the source captions and methodology. Missing metadata is unknown, not zero. Tool facts were read from vendor pages on the stated date and can change. The fee arithmetic is illustrative and uses published rates; actual fills differ. The delay figures describe what the next buyer of the same outcome paid after trades by high-profit wallets over 31.8 hours in September 2026 and are not a forecast of any copier's results. Nothing here is a recommendation to copy any wallet, and nothing here is financial advice.",
      "downloads": {
        "json": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-copy-trading-costs-and-tools/data.json?dataset=section-the-cost-of-arriving-late-measured-table",
        "csv": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-copy-trading-costs-and-tools/data.csv?dataset=section-the-cost-of-arriving-late-measured-table"
      }
    },
    {
      "title": "Average extra paid by a follower, by the leader's rank",
      "columns": [
        {
          "name": "Category",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "Top 100 wallets",
          "unit": "¢"
        },
        {
          "name": "Wallets ranked 101 to 1,000",
          "unit": "¢"
        }
      ],
      "rows": [
        [
          "30 seconds",
          1.97,
          1.2
        ],
        [
          "2 minutes",
          1.94,
          1.22
        ],
        [
          "10 minutes",
          2.39,
          0.8
        ]
      ],
      "measurementContext": "Cents per share in event markets, 12–13 September 2026",
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Polymarket trading fees",
          "url": "https://docs.polymarket.com/trading/fees.md",
          "note": "Formula, per-category rates, maker exemption; read 2026-09-05"
        },
        {
          "label": "Polycopy pricing",
          "url": "https://polycopy.app/pricing",
          "note": "Free and Premium tiers, 0.5% execution fee, paper-trading bots; read 2026-09-05"
        },
        {
          "label": "Polycopy copy trading",
          "url": "https://polycopy.app/copy-trading",
          "note": "Non-custodial model"
        },
        {
          "label": "LuckyLobster launch release",
          "url": "https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/02/23/3242532/0/en/LuckyLobster-Launches-AI-Native-Execution-Layer-for-Autonomous-Trading-on-Polymarket.html",
          "note": "\"sub-50ms\" copy trade, managed wallets; 23 February 2026"
        },
        {
          "label": "Alphascope wallet tracker",
          "url": "https://www.alphascope.app/tools/polymarket-wallet-tracker",
          "note": "Free lookup and watchlist"
        },
        {
          "label": "Polymarket data API — trades",
          "url": "https://data-api.polymarket.com/trades",
          "note": "Public trade records underlying Vultax's trade record"
        },
        {
          "label": "Polycopy — State of copy trading (Q1 2026)",
          "url": "https://polycopy.app/research/state-of-copy-trading-q1-2026",
          "note": "A copy-trading vendor's own research"
        },
        {
          "label": "Vultax: Best Polymarket Traders",
          "url": "https://vultax.com/research/best-polymarket-traders-leaderboards",
          "note": "Month-over-month persistence and concentration of realised gains"
        },
        {
          "label": "Vultax: 1.6% of Polymarket wallets never sleep",
          "url": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-wallets-that-never-sleep-trading-cadence",
          "note": "Who the busiest leaders are"
        },
        {
          "label": "Vultax: Polymarket's up-or-down crypto markets",
          "url": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-bitcoin-up-or-down-5-minute-markets",
          "note": "The market class measured separately here"
        },
        {
          "label": "Gizmodo — Study finds around a quarter of Polymarket trades are fake (Columbia, Nov 2025)",
          "url": "https://gizmodo.com/study-finds-around-a-quarter-of-polymarket-trades-are-fake-2000683231",
          "note": "About 25% of Polymarket volume over three years flagged as wash trading by counterparty structure, peaking near 60% in December 2024; roughly one wallet in seven flagged; many flagged wallets made no profit."
        },
        {
          "label": "CFTC — Enforcement Division issues Prediction Markets Advisory (25 Feb 2026)",
          "url": "https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/9185-26",
          "note": "Insider trading, fraud and manipulation, wash sales and pre-arranged trading, and disruptive trading named as conduct the Commission polices on any designated contract market; cites a candidate trading his own race and a video editor trading on non-public channel information."
        },
        {
          "label": "Coinpaprika — Polymarket expands beyond prediction markets with 20x leverage perps (Sep 2026)",
          "url": "https://coinpaprika.com/news/polymarket-expands-beyond-prediction-markets/",
          "note": "Perpetual futures launched 3 September 2026 with up to 20x leverage; 67 markets within hours; U.S. traders barred. Kalshi's bitcoin perpetuals went live 3 June 2026."
        },
        {
          "label": "DefiRate — Prediction markets top $11B in contract volume as sports, combos drive Kalshi growth (week of 24–30 Aug 2026)",
          "url": "https://defirate.com/news/volume-report-top-11b-contracts-sports-combos/",
          "note": "Kalshi at about 90% of combined contract volume in late August, driven by sports and multi-leg combos; the share is contract volume, not dollars at risk."
        }
      ],
      "measurement": {
        "kind": "observed",
        "temporalCoverage": "2026-09-12T15:06Z/2026-09-13T22:55Z",
        "population": "Event-market buys by the top 1,000 cohort wallets: 4,989, 4,667 and 3,894 behind the top 100; 12,099, 11,241 and 8,747 behind ranks 101 to 1,000",
        "methodology": "Mean of the next other buyer's price minus the leader's price at each delay."
      },
      "id": "section-the-best-wallets-are-the-most-expensive-to-follow-chart",
      "kind": "published-chart",
      "description": "What copying a Polymarket trader costs, measured and worked. Behind buys by the 1,000 most profitable wallets, a follower 30 seconds late paid 1.43¢ a share more in event markets; fees and fill put a copier of a $50 crypto trade down about 6% before the market moves. Four tools compared.",
      "articleUrl": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-copy-trading-costs-and-tools",
      "sectionUrl": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-copy-trading-costs-and-tools#section-the-best-wallets-are-the-most-expensive-to-follow",
      "publishedAt": "2026-09-12",
      "modifiedAt": "2026-09-16",
      "version": "c76a8e8f781ef1b8ed8eab87e47efd1af03081b0a18356753c4cf2663ef67056",
      "isLive": false,
      "limitations": "Published research snapshots and calculations; these exports do not contain current quotes or live account data. Observation windows and populations are stated in the source captions and methodology. Missing metadata is unknown, not zero. Tool facts were read from vendor pages on the stated date and can change. The fee arithmetic is illustrative and uses published rates; actual fills differ. The delay figures describe what the next buyer of the same outcome paid after trades by high-profit wallets over 31.8 hours in September 2026 and are not a forecast of any copier's results. Nothing here is a recommendation to copy any wallet, and nothing here is financial advice.",
      "downloads": {
        "json": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-copy-trading-costs-and-tools/data.json?dataset=section-the-best-wallets-are-the-most-expensive-to-follow-chart",
        "csv": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-copy-trading-costs-and-tools/data.csv?dataset=section-the-best-wallets-are-the-most-expensive-to-follow-chart"
      }
    }
  ]
}