Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, is weighing participation in Polymarket’s next funding round as the prediction market platform seeks fresh capital at a valuation above $20 billion, according to Bloomberg.
ICE has already built a $1.64 billion stake in Polymarket through March, including a $600 million investment disclosed earlier this year as part of a previously announced commitment of up to $2 billion. ICE CEO Jeff Sprecher told Bloomberg Television that the exchange operator would consider joining the new round if its involvement could help Polymarket complete it.
“We’ll look at it, if it would help the round in order to have our imprimatur on it, we are always interested,” Sprecher said.
Sprecher stressed that ICE is not acting as a typical venture investor. “The reality is we’re not a venture firm,” he said, describing the Polymarket relationship as centered on the “transfer of information and expertise.” The distinction matters because ICE operates some of the world’s largest financial exchanges and clearing businesses and is not building a portfolio of startup investments.
Polymarket’s new valuation target is more than twice the valuation attached to the company in October. Bloomberg reported that prediction markets have continued to draw investor interest as they expand across sports, politics, geopolitics and other event-based contracts. The sector has attracted more institutional capital since the 2024 U.S. presidential election, with rivals such as Kalshi also completing major fundraising rounds.
Robinhood Markets has also become a significant participant in the prediction market space. CEO Vlad Tenev said in the same Bloomberg coverage that prediction markets should remain under federal supervision through the Commodity Futures Trading Commission rather than individual state regulators. Several states have challenged sports and election-linked contracts, arguing they should fall under state gambling or gaming laws.
North Carolina took a different route, with Governor Josh Stein signing legislation recognizing CFTC authority over prediction markets and allowing federally registered platforms including Kalshi and Polymarket to operate in the state from 2027. That law also imposed a 6% state tax on trading fee revenue generated by the platforms.
The regulatory picture is still fragmented. Lawsuits and enforcement actions elsewhere have challenged sports-related contracts offered through federally regulated platforms. Tenev said he expects event contracts to remain a viable business even if the jurisdictional fight reaches the U.S. Supreme Court and the court gives states more control over some products.
On perpetual futures, Sprecher said ICE is not currently pursuing the products. He argued that ICE’s core derivatives customers primarily use futures for hedging, and that perpetual futures do not create the forward pricing curve that traditional futures provide. “Our client base is really a hedging client base, and there’s no forward pricing curve that is created by a perpetual future,” Sprecher said. He described perpetual futures as “really a speculative” product that does not fit ICE’s distribution or client base.
The CFTC has also started allowing new forms of crypto derivatives into regulated U.S. venues. In May, Kalshi received approval to launch the first regulated Bitcoin perpetual futures in the United States, while Coinbase received a no-action letter allowing certain crypto perpetual futures products to use Bitcoin, Ether and stablecoins as collateral.
