Polymarket Raises $45M in Series B Funding
Polymarket, the popular decentralized predictions market, announced its $45M Series B funding round today, led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. Other investors in the round included venture funds like 1confirmation, Dragonfly and ParaFi, as well as Vitalik Buterin.
What's the scoop?
- Series B and A Funding: In addition to their $45M Series B, Polymarket revealed a previously unannounced $25M Series A led by General Catalyst & Polychain.
- Growing Usage Despite Regulatory Challenges: In 2024, the platform saw $202M worth of predictions, with $125M bet on the U.S. election alone. This comes despite a new CFTC proposal to crack down on event contracts, with Polymarket continuing to grow. They settled with the CFTC for $1.4M in 2022.
Bankless Take:
Prediction markets have long been heralded as potential sources of truth by people like Vitalik Buterin, aiming to use financial incentives to make people take the most informed stance on an issue, in turn surfacing the most accurate, probable results. Whether or not that vision proves true, Polymarket’s new funding signals strong investor confidence in the market’s growth potential despite regulatory hurdles. It also shows how much of a spectacle the U.S. election will be, given the global demand Polymarket serves and how, in 2020, most betting occurred outside the States due, in part, to regulatory restrictions.
