Polymarket Closes Another Round, Sees Funding Surpass $70 Million

Polymarket is known as the world’s largest prediction market, which offers trading on highly debated topics, including politics, sports, crypto, current events and many others. The markets offered address a growing demand for wagers not only on popular sports events but real-world events. Such wagers are recognized across the United States as “event contracts.”

Despite its popularity across the globe, Polymarket isn’t permitted to offer services to US residents. This is because of a settlement between the company and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the independent government agency in charge of investigating commodities fraud, hedge fund fraud and other activities, dating back to 2022.

Despite being cut off from the US market, Polymarket recently closed another investment round with its funding now surpassing $70 million. As announced by CoinDesk, the company closed a series B funding round that saw investments from Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin, as well as Peter Thiel, the famous billionaire, venture capitalist and political activist. Thiel’s Founders Fund was recognized among the leading investors of the latest funding round that raised $45 million.

As noted, with the latest round, the funding for Polymarket now surpasses $70 million. The round follows a series A round which was led by General Catalyst and raised $25 million, a sum that was previously not released publicly, according to Shayne Coplan, Polymarket’s founder.

Uncertain Time for Betting on Political Events in the US

The latest funding round comes at a time when the future of political betting is uncertain, at least across the US. Earlier this month, the CFTC announced its intentions to ban derivative betting on sports and elections. Upon announcing its plans, the agency issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, considering changes to the text about events contracts falling under the Commodity Exchange Act.

Currently, the CFTC already prohibits wagering derivatives and event contracts on events such as terrorism, assassinations and war. Additionally, the Commission doesn’t permit placing bets on events that may be “contrary to the public interest.”

Currently, Kalshi remains the only prediction market platform that is regulated by the CFTC. A rival company, offering similar services is PredictIt. The two have previously filed lawsuits against the Commission. While the potential CFTC ban may affect the duo, it is unlikely to impact Polymarket, considering that the platform is already banned from the US.