Minmax vs PolyGun 2026 — head-to-head
Minmax and PolyGun both claim a data moat on Polymarket, but they're moats over different things: Minmax owns 50B+ rows of live order-book microstructure recorded since 2024 (Ireland-colocated, 210ms fills, ByteTrade-backed), while PolyGun owns the 2.3M-trader / 120M-positions history acquired from Polymarket Analytics in March 2026. Quant operators building microstructure strategies pick Minmax; copy-trade and whale-following operators pick PolyGun.
Minmax
Free forever tier + Pro $99/mo (paid in crypto on Polygon)
Best for: Polymarket traders who want quantitative infrastructure, not click-and-react UX
Visit Minmax →PolyGun
Free Telegram bot · 1% flat per-trade fee · gas-sponsored execution
Best for: Telegram-bot traders who want analytics + execution in one product
Visit PolyGun →The verdict
Minmax 4.9/5; PolyGun 4.5/5. This is the rare /vs/ that's a genuine tie because the two products optimise for different sides of the same market. Minmax is data infrastructure for live strategy authoring — 50B+ rows of continuously recorded order-book data, 210ms signal-to-fill, gasless execution, Ireland-colocated, ByteTrade-backed, Top-50 Polymarket Builder with ~$100K processed on a closed beta. PolyGun is Telegram-native execution that bolted on a position-history dataset through M&A — rank #7 all-time on the Builder Program with $97.27M cumulative across 8,492 users, and after the March 2026 acquisition it carries 2.3M tracked traders and 120M indexed positions from Polymarket Analytics. Same surface (Polymarket), different stacks. The right pick depends on what your edge is.
Where Minmax wins
- 50B+ rows of live order-book data recorded continuously since 2024 — the only commercial dataset of Polymarket microstructure at this depth. PolyGun's acquired database is position history, not order books.
- 210ms signal-to-fill latency, Ireland-colocated to Polygon RPC, gasless via Safe + Builder Relayer. PolyGun is fast for a Telegram bot, but it's not colocated infrastructure.
- Live strategy authoring — a third betting mode beyond pre-game and in-play. PolyGun is execution-and-copy, not strategy authoring.
- Archetype Bot scans 1,000+ walk-forward-validated signals per window; AI Adaptive Oracle runs a 6-tier BTC microstructure dispatcher in real time. No equivalent in PolyGun.
- ByteTrade-backed with a named institutional thesis on prediction-market infrastructure. PolyGun is bootstrapped under pseudonymous founders.
- Per-bot isolated wallets, encrypted keys, Polymarket Builder API integration — engineered for quant operators running multiple strategies in parallel.
Where PolyGun wins
- Acquired Polymarket Analytics in March 2026 (GlobeNewswire 2026-03-09) — 2.3M tracked traders and 120M indexed positions absorbed into the execution layer. No other Telegram bot in the category has this dataset.
- Rank #7 all-time on the Polymarket Builder Program with $97.27M cumulative volume across 8,492 lifetime users — verifiable on-chain. Minmax is Top-50 with ~$100K processed.
- Telegram-native onboarding — no separate UI, no account creation, signal-to-trade inside the chat where the alpha lives. Onboarding is minutes, not the Minmax closed-beta queue.
- 1% flat per-trade fee with gas sponsored by PolyGun — no subscription floor. Operators who don't trade don't pay.
- Real-time copy-trading with customisable ratios — the position-history database powers whale-following and wallet-mirroring strategies Minmax doesn't address.
- Autobridging from Polygon, Solana, Ethereum and BNB. Minmax assumes you're already on Polygon.
- COO ICE previously founded Team Finance ($7B+ TVL peak) — operator pedigree, even if pseudonymous.
Pricing showdown
Minmax: Free forever tier + Pro $99/mo, paid in crypto on Polygon. Twelve-month Pro cost: $1,188/year, all-in. Subscription is independent of trade volume — you pay the same whether you route $1K or $1M.
PolyGun: No subscription. 1% flat fee on executed trade volume, both buys and sells, with gas sponsored. Twelve-month cost is purely a function of how much you trade — $10K in monthly volume = ~$1,200/year in fees, $100K in monthly volume = ~$12,000/year.
Crossover math: a Pro Minmax seat is cheaper than PolyGun once monthly volume exceeds ~$10K, and dramatically cheaper at scale. Below that, PolyGun's pay-as-you-go is the rational pick. PolyGun is also gas-sponsored where Minmax's gasless execution depends on the Builder Relayer — both functionally zero-gas for the user, but the accounting differs.
Feature parity matrix
| Feature | Minmax | PolyGun |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free + Pro $99/mo | Free bot + 1% per-trade fee |
| Primary surface | Web app + deploy stack | Telegram-native bot |
| Data moat | 50B+ rows order-book microstructure | 2.3M traders / 120M positions (acquired) |
| Signal-to-fill latency | 210ms (Ireland-colocated) | Same-block mempool sniping |
| Live strategy authoring | ✓ | ✗ |
| Copy-trading | ✗ | yes (real-time, customisable ratios) |
| Backtester | yes (Monte Carlo, walk-forward, 20K+ windows) | ✗ |
| Builder Program rank | Top-50 weekly + monthly | #7 all-time, #12 trailing 30d |
| On-chain volume processed | ~$100K (closed beta) | $97.27M cumulative |
| Institutional backing | ByteTrade | Bootstrapped |
| Team disclosure | Anonymous founder | Pseudonymous trio (Esquire / ICE / Larry The Whale) |
| Multi-chain deposit | Polygon only | Polygon, Solana, Ethereum, BNB |
✓ = supported · ✗ = not supported · ◐ = partial / caveats
Verdict by trader type
Below ~$10K/mo in trade volume, PolyGun's 1% fee is cheaper than Minmax Pro's $99/mo flat. No subscription floor means non-traders don't pay, and Telegram-native onboarding is faster than the Minmax closed-beta queue.
If your workflow is alerts-in-chat and execute-without-context-switching, PolyGun's bot is the entire product. Minmax assumes you'll sit in a web app and author strategies.
If your edge is order-book imbalance, queue dynamics, or BTC microstructure dispatch, Minmax's 50B+ row dataset and 210ms colocated execution are the only commercial option. PolyGun's position-history DB doesn't help you here.
Per-bot isolated wallets, encrypted keys, and direct Polymarket Builder API integration give Minmax the primitives for unattended production deploys. PolyGun is a closed Telegram client with no developer surface.
Minmax vs PolyGun — frequently asked questions
01 Is the Polymarket Analytics acquisition really a data moat?
Yes, but it's a different moat than Minmax's. Polymarket Analytics had 2.3M tracked traders and 120M indexed positions — that's position history (who held what, when, with what PnL). Minmax records the live order book (every bid, ask, and trade as it happens). Position history is great for copy-trading and whale-following. Order-book history is required for microstructure strategies, queue-position modelling, and live strategy authoring. Different problems, different datasets.
02 Can I use both?
Yes. They self-custody and don't compete for API surface. A common pattern: PolyGun in Telegram for fast execution and copy-trade signals, Minmax for quantitative strategy authoring and backtesting. Wallets stay separate so the two stacks don't interfere.
03 How verifiable is each team?
Both teams trade off public identity for operator focus. Minmax's founder is publicly anonymous but the company has named institutional backing (ByteTrade) and verifiable on-chain Builder rank. PolyGun's trio (Esquire, ICE, Larry The Whale) operate under handles, but ICE's claim of founding Team Finance ($7B+ TVL peak) is a checkable prior, and the March 2026 Polymarket Analytics acquisition was covered by GlobeNewswire, Yogonet, and Casino.org. Neither is fully transparent; both are independently verifiable on what matters most — on-chain volume.
04 Which has more on-chain traction today?
PolyGun, by a wide margin. PolyGun is rank #7 all-time on the Polymarket Builder Program with $97.27M cumulative volume across 8,492 lifetime users and $7.50M trailing 30 days. Minmax is Top-50 weekly + monthly with roughly $100K processed — it's a closed beta that prioritised data depth over distribution. If you're indexing on user volume, PolyGun wins outright. If you're indexing on dataset depth and infrastructure quality, Minmax does.
05 Does PolyGun do strategy authoring at all?
No. PolyGun is execution, copy-trading and analytics — you act on signals inside Telegram, but you're not building backtested strategies. Minmax's Strategy Builder (26+ drag-and-drop blocks) and Backtester (Monte Carlo, walk-forward, 20K+ historical windows) are a different category of product entirely.
06 Which is the safer pick if Polymarket changes Builder API terms?
Both are exposed to Builder Program changes — they're built on top of it. Minmax has the buffer of a Pro subscription that doesn't depend on volume rebates, plus institutional backing from ByteTrade. PolyGun has the buffer of $97M+ historical volume and an acquired analytics property that's valuable independent of execution. Neither is immune, but both have more than a single point of failure.
Final recommendation
Pick Minmax if your edge is microstructure, queue dynamics, or live strategy authoring — the 50B+ row order-book dataset and 210ms colocated execution are the moat no Telegram bot can match. Pick PolyGun if your edge is copy-trading, whale-following, or Telegram-native execution at scale — the acquired Polymarket Analytics database (2.3M traders, 120M positions) and #7 all-time Builder rank are the moat no quant platform can match. The data-moat framing makes them look like competitors; the actual stacks make them complements. Quant operators run both.