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Polymarket recently secured a $45 million financing from major investors, including Founders Fund by Peter Thiel and Ethereum creator, Vitalik Buterin.
The company is therefore experiencing intense activity in anticipation of the upcoming US presidential elections. Below we see all the details.
Summary
Founders Fund and Vitalik Buterin among the investors of Polymarket
As anticipated, Polymarket has recently closed a $45 million Series B financing round, with a list of prominent investors.
We remind you that Polymarket is a prediction platform based on cryptocurrencies that is experiencing a year of great success in view of the US presidential elections.
The main investor is the Founders Fund of billionaire Peter Thiel, as confirmed by Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan via a Telegram message.
Among the other participants are the creator of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin, 1confirmation, ParaFi, and Dragonfly Capital. However, Coplan did not disclose the company’s valuation related to this transaction.
This round follows a previous Series A round of $25 million, led by General Catalyst, as stated by Coplan.
Including a $4 million seed round in 2020, Polymarket has raised a total of nearly $75 million.
The company also announced the hiring of Richard Jaycobs as the head of market expansion, preparing for its next growth phase.
Jaycobs has extensive experience in the telecommunications sector, having held prominent roles such as president of Cantor Exchange and CEO of The Clearing Corporation.
Successes and challenges in the world of crypto prediction markets
Polymarket represents one of the most successful attempts to build prediction markets using cryptographic infrastructure.
In these markets, traders bet on real-world events that can be verified within a certain period of time, ranging from sports games to celebrity engagements to geopolitical events.
Despite its success, Polymarket faces a significant obstacle: it is excluded from the United States, the world’s largest economy.
Based on a 2022 agreement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), residents in the United States are prohibited from doing business with Polymarket. This has paved the way for Kalshi, the only prediction market platform regulated by the CFTC.
However, the CFTC’s imprimatur is a double-edged sword. The commission has recently proposed a ban on election-related betting, which would affect Kalshi and PredictIt, but not the already banned Polymarket.
Bets on SEC approval of an Ethereum spot ETF by May
On the Polymarket platform, recently the question was raised whether the United States Securities and Exchange Commission will approve a spot exchange-traded fund for Ethereum’s ether (ETH) by Ethereum by May 31st.
Currently, the “Yes” shares are trading at 16 cents, indicating a 16% probability according to the market. Each share guarantees a payout of $1 in case the forecast comes true, otherwise zero.
These markets go beyond mere gambling, offering benefits such as a better understanding of public sentiment and more reliable forecasts compared to traditional surveys and experts.
As supported for some time by supporters like the economist Robin Hanson. In addition, at the end of last year, analysts at Bitwise Investments predicted that by 2024 a record of 100 million dollars would be wagered on cryptocurrency-based prediction markets.
Of these, Polymarket is the largest. Surprisingly, a single contract on Polymarket has already exceeded this estimate. Overall, more than 125 million dollars have been bet on the presidential elections through this platform.