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Polymarket wants more money. The prediction markets platform is in talks to close a new funding round that would push its valuation above $20 billion — a big jump from where it sat just months ago. The round is expected to bring in roughly $1 billion, per people familiar with the discussions.
It’s not the company’s first time at this. Back in April 2026, Polymarket wrapped up a $1 billion raise anchored by a $600 million commitment from Intercontinental Exchange, the company behind the New York Stock Exchange. That round also pulled in D.E. Shaw, the quant trading giant that basically helped invent algorithmic investing, plus G Squared. Existing backers SV Angel and Dragonfly put in more too. ICE’s anchor role in that round valued Polymarket at $8 billion — which itself was a step up from where things stood in October 2025, when the valuation run started. Now the company is pushing well past that.
The business has grown fast since April.
Revenue Past $1.2 Billion, New Hires from Wall Street and Silicon Valley
Polymarket’s annualized revenue has surged past $1.2 billion since the April close. That’s a serious number for a platform that most people outside crypto circles barely knew existed two years ago. Prediction markets have been kind of a niche corner of finance forever — but the interest from institutional names like D.E. Shaw suggests that’s changing pretty fast.
The company has been building out its team hard. Travis VanderZanden, who held senior roles at both Uber and Lyft, joined as chief growth officer. And Hayk Mkrtchyan — who worked on the New York Stock Exchange’s Pillar trading platform — is now leading the build-out of Polymarket’s U.S. exchange. Those aren’t random hires. VanderZanden knows how to scale consumer platforms under pressure, and Mkrtchyan brings real exchange infrastructure experience. Polymarket clearly wants people who’ve done this before.
The U.S. platform launch is probably the biggest operational move the company has made. For the first time, domestic users can access Polymarket directly. That’s a meaningful shift — previously, U.S. users faced friction or outright restrictions depending on how regulators treated the product. Getting American retail traders onto the platform opens up a massive market, assuming the legal picture clears up.
And that’s the catch.
CFTC Investigation and the Classification Fight
Polymarket is under investigation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over allegations tied to misleading social media promotions. The company hasn’t disputed that an investigation is underway. In response, it launched an internal review of its promotional content — basically an audit of how it’s been marketing itself online. No details on what that review has found so far. Unclear whether the CFTC has indicated a timeline.
But the CFTC probe isn’t the only regulatory headache. There’s a broader legal fight playing out over how prediction markets should be classified in the first place. The core question: are these products federal derivatives, falling under CFTC jurisdiction, or are they gambling products that states get to regulate? That distinction matters enormously. If states can regulate prediction markets as gambling, Polymarket faces a patchwork of different rules across 50 jurisdictions. If the CFTC has exclusive authority, the path is harder but at least clearer.
The outcome of that classification fight will probably shape whether Polymarket’s U.S. exchange ever reaches its full potential. Right now, the company is operating while that question remains open. That’s a real risk investors are pricing in — or choosing to look past, given the fundraising appetite.
Prediction markets have grown sharply across global user bases in recent years, driven partly by high-profile political events and sports outcomes that attracted new types of bettors and traders. The sector sits in an odd space: not quite finance, not quite gambling, and regulators in multiple countries are still figuring out where exactly it belongs. Polymarket is the biggest name in the space right now, which makes it the obvious target for regulatory attention.
The April round’s investor mix — an exchange operator, a quant fund, a growth equity firm, and crypto-native VCs — says something about how the market sees Polymarket’s future. It’s not a pure crypto bet anymore. D.E. Shaw doesn’t do crypto-native bets. ICE runs regulated financial infrastructure. Their presence signals that serious institutional money sees prediction markets as a legitimate asset class, not a speculative side project.
VanderZanden’s hire fits that framing too. Growth at Uber and Lyft meant navigating regulatory fights in dozens of cities while scaling user numbers fast. Polymarket’s situation rhymes with that — build fast, deal with the legal fights as they come, don’t slow down.
Whether the new round closes at the $20 billion figure or somewhere near it, Polymarket’s annualized revenue of $1.2 billion gives investors a real number to anchor on.
Frequently Asked Questions
What valuation is Polymarket targeting in its new funding round?
Polymarket is seeking a valuation above $20 billion, with the new round expected to raise approximately $1 billion.
Who anchored Polymarket’s April 2026 funding round?
Intercontinental Exchange committed $600 million to anchor the April 2026 round, which also included D.E. Shaw, G Squared, SV Angel, and Dragonfly.
