Original article | Odaily Odaily( @OdailyChina )
Author｜Golem ( @web3_golem )
At present, "raising crayfish" is no longer a difficult task, but how to master OpenClaw and actually make money directly from it still troubles many crayfish farmers.
Last week, I spoke with some experienced OpenClaw users in the crypto. Some said that OpenClaw's heartbeat mechanism and scheduled tasks could improve the efficiency of news trading, but most respondents felt that making money through OpenClaw trading was still difficult. (Related reading: Odaily Editorial Team Tea Party )
But where there's a will, there's a way. With the assistance of OpenClaw, a trader named Kevin quadrupled his initial investment of $30,000 in 10 days, achieving a net profit of $100,000 (currently slightly backtested at $82,000). Kevin himself stated that it was initially just an experiment, but he never expected to actually make money.
So how exactly did Kevin transform OpenClaw from a toy that only burned tokens into a money-making machine? Odaily Odaily spoke with Kevin, who shared his personal crypto experience and how he mastered OpenClaw in the prediction market, hoping readers can gain some inspiration.
The Transformation from "Scientist" to "Prophet"
Kevin's early career primarily involved designing ERP architectures for companies. He later joined one of China's top three internet giants, building a sports betting software system from scratch. This experience laid the foundation for his current success in the prediction market. After 2018, Kevin worked at Web3's investment arm, primarily incubating and accelerating startups.
However, Kevin's first real fortune came five years after entering the crypto world. In 2023, Ordi burst onto the scene, ushering in the "Summer of Inscription" for the crypto market. Kevin, with his computer and coding background, became one of the "scientists" highly sought after at the time (Odaily note: "scientists" refers to a group of people who can write programs and code to quickly launch new inscription assets) .
"The period when Ordi was listed on Binance was when my account assets were at their highest value, and I ended up with a profit of about 2 million RMB," Kevin said. He was also among the first to participate in the Ordi initial coin offering (ICO), with a cost of less than 1 RMB per coin, and subsequently benefited from a price increase of over a thousand times .
After Inscription completely failed, Kevin began looking for other opportunities, and finally started seriously studying and participating in the prediction market Polymarket in the summer of 2025. "I had played Polymarket before, but the liquidity was very poor, so I ignored it." For Kevin, who had worked in the traditional sports betting business, the early Polymarket did not meet the requirements in terms of trading depth at all .
But after Polymarket successfully predicted Trump's inauguration as the 47th President of the United States in 2025, Kevin's attention returned to Polymarket. "After 2025, Polymarket's reputation had grown, and it could handle large orders in terms of liquidity. More importantly, deposits and withdrawals were very convenient," so Kevin began to try running algorithms on Polymarket, becoming a "prophet."
Kevin's journey into prediction markets can be divided into two phases: before and after using OpenClaw. For clarity, Odaily has condensed Kevin's sharing session below. Enjoy!
How to play prediction markets before using OpenClaw
Odaily Odaily: How much money did you invest after you started playing Polymarket in the summer of 2025, and what was your final return?
Kevin: I invested about $100,000 in total at the time, and so far this year, the total return is about double the principal .
Odaily Odaily: What strategies do you mainly employ?
Kevin: I don't gamble myself; I make money through automated arbitrage by writing programs . I was involved in designing order book betting systems when I worked at a Web3 internet company. This experience was very helpful in understanding Polymarket's order book betting, so I used programs to profit from the spreads between betting odds , especially in sports events, where I could do a lot of sentiment arbitrage.
Odaily Odaily: Do you have a dedicated team, and is someone providing you with funding?
Kevin: I 'm doing this all by myself, with AI assistance being sufficient. Initially, I was worried that Polymarket would have issues with withdrawals, so I ran dozens of accounts. However, I later found that the deposit and withdrawal processes were very smooth, so I reduced the number of accounts. I mainly use my own money to run the strategies, although some people do provide funds for me to run strategies, but this is just one way of making money.
How to play prediction markets after using OpenClaw
Odaily Odaily: When did you start using OpenClaw to play with prediction markets?
Kevin: At the end of February, this was an experiment to see how much money OpenClaw could make on the trading level, but I didn't expect it to actually work. For example, with the account KevinChe202603, I made up to $100,000 with a cost of $30,000 in just 10 days.
Odaily Odaily: So what exactly is your strategy?
Kevin : To put it bluntly, this account's strategy is hybrid. Currently, 60% is still running the previous automated arbitrage algorithm, and 40% is using "Lobster" for subjective betting . Compared to market-making arbitrage, betting is a very complex decision, requiring consideration of smart money in the market, public opinion, lineups, player performance, etc. OpenClaw's role here is to actively collect various factors that determine the outcome of the match, and then turn them into an indicator. After several training sessions, it can also find other influencing factors that I couldn't focus on, saving me a lot of time and thinking effort.
Odaily Odaily: But isn't this just AI predicting matches? Conversational AI can do that too, and some developers have even created AI match prediction tools. What makes OpenClaw special?
Kevin : Having an information advantage is only one of OpenClaw's strengths. It can also discover new strategies on its own, conduct backtesting, and automate betting in tournaments. If the strategy is good, we only need to give OpenClaw the money; everything else is automated, which AI prediction tools can't do. For example, it can proactively discover smart money addresses and fool addresses, either betting with the smart money or using fool addresses as inverse indicators.
This is also why Polymarket integrates well with OpenClaw among all prediction markets, because Polymarket's API is the most AI-friendly, making it very convenient for AI to access data.
Odaily Odaily: In which areas does OpenClaw currently place bets, and has it achieved full automation?
Kevin : Based on my area of expertise, OpenClaw is currently mainly being tested in the field of sports competitions, but if it matures, we will consider expanding OpenClaw to other fields. Right now, I allocate a small amount of funds to OpenClaw for automated betting, about $1,000, but I still don't dare to put too much money in the fully automated account.
Odaily Odaily: Is your strategy replicable, or will you write a Skills application for the market in the future?
Kevin : We're still experimenting, because there are indeed users with this need. We're seeing if we can combine my methodology to allow everyone to build a profitable lobster-themed platform. Later, I also plan to package some skills for the market, which will definitely be a paid service.
