The owner of the New York Stock Exchange is apparently bullish on prediction markets, buying into Polymarket with an investment of up to $2 billion.
The investment by Intercontinental Exchange – ICE on the NYSE – reflected an approximate $8 billion valuation on Polymarket, ICE said in the Tuesday release.
“Our investment blends ICE, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, which was founded in 1792, with a forward-thinking, revolutionary company pioneering change within the Decentralized Finance space,” ICE CEO Jeffrey Sprecher said. “Shayne Coplan has assembled a team at Polymarket to create a user-driven company relentlessly focused on product, building usage and 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.”
ICE shares opened Tuesday at $161.47, 1.5% higher than Monday’s close. The investment will be paid in cash – ICE had $1.0 billion in unrestricted cash as of June 30 – and is not expected to have a material impact on its 2025 results.
‘Major step’ for predictions
Polymarket founder and CEO Shayne Coplan shared excitement over the future products the two could create.
“Our partnership with ICE marks a major step in bringing prediction markets into the financial mainstream,” Coplan said. “Together, we’re expanding how individuals and institutions use probabilities to understand and price the future. Jeff and his team have redefined how modern markets operate, establishing ICE as the gold standard for trusted financial infrastructure.
“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. Realizing the potential of new technologies, such as tokenization, will require collaboration between established market leaders and next-generation innovators. We couldn’t be more excited to build together.”
For now, ICE offer events that can provide its customers with “sentiment indicators” on relevant markets.
Polymarket US launch pending
There is still no date for when Polymarket will return to the US, which could be delayed with the current federal shutdown.
Last week, Polymarket had self-certifications for three sports prediction types and election markets listed on QCX’s website. Those originally said the markets would be offered no sooner than Oct. 7 only to later change the date to Oct. 2.
Polymarket bought QCX for $112 million in July to re-enter the US after it was blocked in 2022. The announcement came just a week after the US Department of Justice closed its investigations into whether Polymarket violated that 2022 settlement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission when it advertised to US residents on Facebook.
