1789 Capital leads funding round for Polymarket, valuing it at $21B

Polymarket, the crypto-native prediction market that became a household name during the 2024 US presidential election, is now valued at $21 billion following a funding round led by 1789 Capital. To put that number in perspective, Polymarket was worth roughly $300 million not long ago.

From regulatory limbo to $21 billion

1789 Capital, the venture firm co-founded by Omeed Malik and Chris Buskirk, first invested in Polymarket in August 2025. At that point, the platform carried a post-money valuation of $1.2 billion. That was already a significant jump from the roughly $300 million figure it had been pegged at earlier.

By October 2025, the Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, participated in a round that valued Polymarket at approximately $9 billion. By April 2026, that figure had climbed to somewhere between $14 billion and $15 billion.

Now the platform is raising at a $21 billion valuation, with 1789 Capital leading the charge. The firm counts Donald Trump Jr. as a strategic adviser.

Cumulatively, Polymarket has raised over $2 billion across its various funding rounds. ICE alone has committed up to $2 billion to the platform.

What changed: the CFTC factor

Polymarket previously operated in a regulatory gray zone in the United States. The platform had settled with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and was effectively barred from serving US users for a period.

That changed when the CFTC granted Polymarket a US operating license in 2025. The regulatory green light removed legal risk, unlocked an entirely new addressable market, and gave institutional investors the comfort they needed to write large checks.

Prediction markets go mainstream

During the 2024 election cycle, Polymarket’s odds became a real-time counterpoint to traditional polling, frequently cited by major news outlets and political analysts.

ICE’s involvement is particularly telling. Its willingness to commit billions to a prediction market platform signals that the category has crossed a threshold from experimental to investable.

The platform runs on Polygon, an Ethereum layer-2 network, and uses USDC for settlements. Market observers have been watching for signals that Polymarket is moving toward an IPO as a potential liquidity event.

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