NYSE Owner ICE Invests $2B in Polymarket

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), a leading global provider of technology and data, has unveiled a huge investment in prediction market platform Polymarket. This comes as the platform prepares to return to the US and capitalize on emerging opportunities in this lucrative market.

ICE Makes an Unprecedented Investment

ICE, which is a Fortune 500 company that owns the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), announced that it will invest up to $2 billion in Polymarket. The former company added that this reflects a valuation of $8 billion of Polymarket’s business prior to the investment.

ICE clarified that the investment will be in cash. The company noted that it doesn’t expect the arrangement to have a material impact on its financial results or expected capital return plans.

In addition to its significant investment in the prediction markets platform, ICE said that it will become a global distributor of Polymarket’s event-driven data. As a result, it will provide customers with certain sentiment indicators on topics of market relevance.

ICE added that it will partner with Polymarket on future tokenization initiatives.

ICE promised to reveal more details about its plans during its Q4 earnings call on October 30.

Bringing Prediction Markets into the Mainstream

Jeffrey C. Sprecher, ICE’s chair & CEO, commented on the investment, saying that it will blend his company with Polymarket, which he described as a “revolutionary company pioneering change within the decentralized finance space.” Sprecher hailed the Polymarket team for cementing the prediction market as a leader in its sector by focusing on constant product improvement and strong distribution.

There are opportunities across markets which ICE together with Polymarket can uniquely serve and we are excited about where this investment can take us.

Jeffrey C. Sprecher, chair & CEO, ICE

Shayne Coplan, Polymarket’s founder & CEO, was likewise pleased about the deal, calling it a major step in bringing prediction markets into the “financial mainstream.” He said that the investment will create many new opportunities to expand how people use probabilities to understand and price the future.

By combining ICE’s institutional scale and credibility with Polymarket’s consumer savvy, we will be able to deliver world-class products for the modern investor.

Shayne Coplan, founder & CEO, Polymarket

In the meantime, the Michigan gaming regulator continued to oppose prediction markets, slamming them as unlicensed sports betting. The authority warned that existing licensees who venture into this emerging sector will risk having their licenses revoked.