Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (ICE), the global financial services company that owns the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), today announced it is investing up to $2 billion in Polymarket, the leading crypto-fueled prediction market platform. The announcement comes as Polymarket is preparing for an imminent relaunch in the U.S., following its forced exit in early 2022.
ICE says the investment reflects Polymarket’s pre-investment valuation of $8 billion. Polymarket founder and CEO Shayne Coplan said that, once the investment has been made, the platform will be valued at $9 billion.
ICE Chair and CEO Jeff Sprecher expressed excitement about the possibilities the strategic investment in Polymarket opens up.
“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,” Sprecher said in a press release. “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.”
We are excited to announce that Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) — the parent company of @NYSE, is making a $2b strategic investment at a $9b post-money valuation.
Together, we’re building the next evolution of markets.
A special thank you to all those who have supported us… pic.twitter.com/y7Z3koj3IU
— Polymarket (@Polymarket) October 7, 2025
CEO says investment brings prediction markets to financial mainstream
Polymarket’s Coplan said the ICE investment marks a huge step towards bringing prediction markets to the financial mainstream.
“Together, we’re expanding how individuals and institutions use probabilities to understand and price the future,” Coplan said in the release. “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.”
ICE will distribute Polymarket’s “event-driven data” globally to give customers “sentiment indicators on topics of market relevance.” ICE and Polymarket will also partner on “future tokenization initiatives,” the release says. ICE says it will further discuss the Polymarket investment at its Q3 earnings call on Oct. 30.
Coplan says investment “monumental step” for DeFi
In a lengthy post on X, Coplan said the investment is not only big for prediction markets, but it also signals a “monumental step forward” for the development and wider adoption of blockchain-based decentralized finance (DeFi) and the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
“ICE is the one remaining founder-led exchange company, and Jeff is all-in on utilizing his assets, including NYSE, to usher in a new financial era of tokenization,” Coplan wrote. “We’re humbled to be working together on this endeavor.”
In the X post, Coplan was also reflective on Polymarket’s “surreal” journey the past few years.
“The Polymarket origin story is funny because it’s a rare case of the dream being identical to how things played out,” he wrote. “If I learned one thing, it’s that bold ideas are everywhere, hidden in plain sight. It just takes someone crazy enough to spend their life willing it into existence. That’s entrepreneurship: willing things into existence.”
Markets on everything.
We’re proud to announce that $ICE, the owner of @NYSE and the largest exchange company in the world, is making a strategic investment of $2 billion into Polymarket, valuing us at $9 billion post-money.
Our partnership with ICE marks a major step in… pic.twitter.com/oShaglRx9p
— Shayne Coplan 🦅 (@shayne_coplan) October 7, 2025
Polymarket US poised to launch soon
In June, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund led a $200 million funding round for Polymarket that put the company’s valuation at over $1 billion. In August, Polymarket announced a strategic investment of an unspecified amount from 1789 Capital, the investment firm at which Donald Trump Jr. is a partner (Trump Jr. joined Polymarket’s advisory board at the same time).
In September, The Information reported that Polymarket and its soon-to-be U.S. rival Kalshi were seeking substantial investments that would greatly increase their valuations. The report said that Polymarket had received an offer that would put its value at up to $9 billion. It’s unclear if ICE was the rumored investor in the report, which also indicated that Kalshi was nearing additional funding at a $5 billion valuation.
Polymarket was forced to prohibit U.S. users from accessing the platform in early 2022 due to a settlement agreement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that oversees and regulates prediction markets. Earlier this year, Polymarket purchased CFTC-approved exchange and clearinghouse QCX and cleared some final regulatory hurdles to open up its path to return to the U.S.
Polymarket US began self-certifying event contracts last week, suggesting a relaunch could happen at any moment. But the recent government shutdown has hobbled the CFTC, which says it has retained just 5.7% of its staff during the closure. Polymarket could potentially pause its launch plans until the shutdown is over, according to a recent InGame report.
