Cross-Side Matching

On Mettle Market, matching isn’t limited to straightforward bid-ask pairs like on most exchanges. If you do not know how matching works between bid-ask pairs, refer to this documentation:

How to Read Our Order Book

We also allow cross-side matching between buyers of opposing outcomes—YES and NO. This enables deeper liquidity and faster fills without requiring sellers to always be present.

What Does This Mean?

Let’s say:

  • Alice submits a BUY YES order at $0.40.

  • Bob submits a BUY NO order at $0.60.

These two orders can match with each other, even though both are bids—because they represent opposing beliefs:

  • Alice is willing to pay $0.40 for YES.

  • Bob is willing to pay $0.60 for NO.

  • Together, their prices sum to $1.00, which is the full value of the binary outcome.

Why This Works

Prediction markets are zero-sum: If YES wins, NO loses (and vice versa). So when two users are willing to buy opposite outcomes at prices that add up to $1 or more, Mettle Market can:

  1. Match them

  2. Lock collateral from both sides

  3. Mint both YES and NO tokens on-chain

This creates a self-contained pair trade—no seller needed.

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