Polymarket is reportedly in advanced talks to raise about $1 billion at a valuation of approximately $21 billion post-money. That would more than double the roughly $9 billion price tag it carried after Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) invested in 2025.
The money comes with some pointed advice attached. ICE and Founders Fund have both urged CEO Shayne Coplan to hire a chief operating officer. As of mid-October 2026, nobody holds that job.
The round, the backers, and the stake
The new round is expected to be led by 1789 Capital. The firm already has skin in the game: it previously put roughly $200 million into the blockchain-based prediction market.
ICE remains the heavyweight on the cap table. The New York Stock Exchange’s parent company has invested $1.6 billion in Polymarket across several funding tranches. Its total commitments approach $2 billion.
That capital has bought ICE an estimated 22% of the company.
Still, nothing is final. The deal is being negotiated, and the figures reflect what the round is expected to look like rather than a closed transaction.
Governance, expenses, and a growing executive bench
Coplan has faced scrutiny over personal expenses charged to the company. Founders Fund required him in 2025 to repay those costs. The amount involved was less than a software engineer’s annual salary, and he has since made the repayments, which cleared the way for investment talks to continue.
ICE has also attached conditions to its money. In September 2026, Polymarket hired Warren Jenson as chief financial officer, a move that satisfied one of ICE’s requirements for its investment.
The company has been filling out its leadership ranks beyond the CFO seat. Polymarket has recruited senior executives from Goldman Sachs, DoorDash, and Robinhood. It has also brought on a former FBI official.
Coplan has acknowledged that the company faces significant growth challenges as he reshuffles the executive team. He has emphasized the need for stronger management structures to scale.
The Kalshi problem
Polymarket is not raising money in a vacuum. Kalshi controlled the majority of US prediction market volume by mid-October 2026.
Prediction markets work a bit like a crowd-sourced odds board. Traders buy and sell contracts tied to real-world outcomes, such as elections or economic data. The prices reflect what the crowd thinks will happen. The more traders a platform has, the tighter and more useful those prices become.
Kalshi is a regulated player, which matters for how it reaches US customers. Polymarket, built on blockchain rails, has a different structure and a different path to market.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Estefano Gomez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.