A trader's remarkable move on Polymarket caught attention recently—turning a mere $12 into $100,000. The odds of such an outcome are astronomically low, almost surreal when you actually do the math. What makes this particularly striking is the comparison with traditional perpetual futures markets. In perps, you simply can't engineer gains of this magnitude from such a tiny capital base. The leverage and mechanics just don't align to produce such extreme returns. Prediction markets operate on a fundamentally different principle—they're essentially betting on specific outcomes happening, not on continuous price movements. This structural difference means opportunities exist in Polymarket that futures traders could never access, no matter how aggressive their positions. It's a stark reminder of how diverse crypto trading vehicles have become, each with their own risk profiles and potential payoffs.