How Hive tournaments work. Each tournament configures its own cap, prize, and schedule — what follows is the framework they all share.
01 · ELIGIBILITY
You need a Polymarket account. Tournaments with Force Hive referral turned on require a Polymarket account created via Hive's referral link — we reconcile referral status daily, and non-referred wallets are blocked from signing up.
02 · CAPITAL CAP
Each tournament sets a max cost basis on open positions at any moment. Your tournament PNL adjusts the allowance — winning trades grow the budget, losing trades shrink it. Going over the budget flags the entry for admin review; admins may readmit or disqualify depending on the cause.
03 · CLEAN BALANCE (optional per tournament)
Tournaments with this requirement on:
You must close all open Polymarket positions before registering.
Your pUSD balance must be at or below the cap at registration.
If your wallet isn't clean at the moment trading starts, the entry is auto-flagged for admin review.
When the requirement is off, your PNL baseline is captured from your wallet's lifetime state at trading start; only the change after that counts.
04 · PNL
Tournament PNL = current lifetime PNL − baseline lifetime PNL. Baseline is captured at the moment trading starts. Polymarket's per-position cashPnl + realizedPnl is the source. This formula stays correct whether your wallet was clean or held positions at start.
05 · MARKET SCOPE
All Polymarket markets count — politics, sports, crypto, geopolitics, anything. We don't whitelist or blacklist categories.
06 · ANTI-CHEAT
No wash trading, no orderbook manipulation, no bots that act on insider info, no multi-wallet collusion. Detection is automated where we can; reviewed by Hive admins otherwise. Reports are anonymous.
07 · PRIZES
Each tournament publishes its own prize pool and payout ladder on the tournament page. Payouts go out within 7 days of tournament end.
FORMATS
Simple Pool
One window. Best PNL wins.
·Single trading window with no phases — usually 24h to a weekend.
·Top finishers by tournament PNL win the prize pool when the window closes.
·Best for short, high-intensity tournaments.
·No advancement rounds; only the final standings matter.
Groups + Bracket
12 groups, then knockout. World-Cup-style.
·Multi-week event split into a group stage and a knockout phase.
·Group stage: 12 groups (A–L), ~8 traders each, all trading in parallel.
·Top N from each group + wildcards advance into a 16-player knockout bracket.
·Knockout matches are single-window head-to-heads with PNL reset between rounds.
FAQ
Do I need to deposit funds with Hive?
No. You trade on your own Polymarket wallet. We never custody your funds and can't move them. We read your wallet's public history to compute PNL.
What if I have open positions when I want to register?
Depends on the tournament. If clean balance is required, you'll see a warning in the registration modal listing what to close or withdraw. If it's not required, you can register as-is; your starting PNL is locked in from your wallet state at trading start.
When does my PNL baseline get captured?
Exactly at the moment trading starts, from a fresh snapshot of your wallet's lifetime PNL on Polymarket. Anything you trade before that doesn't count toward the tournament.
What gets my entry flagged?
Two things: (1) going over the capital cap budget — your open positions' total cost basis exceeds cap + tournament PNL; (2) for tournaments with clean balance required, having open positions or excess pUSD at the moment trading starts. Both flag the entry for admin review. Admins decide manually whether to readmit or disqualify.
How often is the leaderboard refreshed?
A snapshot job runs every few minutes and updates every tournament's leaderboard in one pass. The chart fills in a synthetic "now" point so the latest leaderboard value is always reflected.
What if Polymarket changes how it reports PNL?
We pull per-position cashPnl + realizedPnl from Polymarket's data API. If their formula changes, ours follows automatically. The baseline-diff method we use is robust to that.
Can I link multiple Polymarket wallets to one Hive account?
No. One Polymarket proxy wallet per Hive account. Multi-wallet collusion is a fast path to a permanent ban.
Where can I see all past and upcoming tournaments?