NYSE Owner to Invest as Much as $2 Billion in Polymarket

NYSE owner ICE pours $2 billion into Polymarket, as it gears up for a long-awaited US market comeback.

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the operator of the New York Stock Exchange, announced a major strategic investment in Polymarket, a decentralized prediction market platform that aggregates probabilities for global events spanning politics, sports, and culture.

Under the agreement, ICE will invest up to $2 billion in the company, which will place Polymarket’s pre-investment valuation at $8 billion.

Polymarket Gets Wall Street Validation

Beyond the capital infusion, ICE will serve as a global distributor of Polymarket’s event-driven data and plans on offering customers sentiment metrics on topics relevant to financial markets.

The two entities will also collaborate on future tokenization projects. In its official press release, ICE stated that the cash-based investment is not expected to materially affect its 2025 financial results or anticipated capital return plans. Management is set to provide further details regarding the move during ICE’s third-quarter earnings call, which is scheduled for October 30.

Following the development, ICE Chair & Chief Executive Officer, Jeffrey C. Sprecher, commented,

“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. 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.”

Redemption Arc

Polymarket, founded by Coplan in 2020, allows users to trade shares on potential event outcomes, with smart contracts facilitating peer-to-peer trades. Its markets, covering politics, business, culture, and sports, expand as participation rises. Its operations have not been without controversy.

On November 13 last year, FBI agents raided Coplan’s Manhattan apartment. They demanded access to his phone and devices, shortly after the platform correctly forecasted Donald Trump beating Kamala Harris with 58.6% odds. Later, no charges were filed.

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Polymarket had previously paid $1.4 million to the CFTC in 2022 for registration issues and had since remained inaccessible to US users. To facilitate reentry, it purchased a regulated exchange and clearing house, QCEX, earlier this year. The firm also expanded politically by bringing Donald Trump Jr. onto its advisory board and securing investment from his venture firm.

Meanwhile, new research by New York-based data scientist Alex McCullough revealed that Polymarket achieves roughly 90% correctness across multiple time frames. Using a Dune dashboard, McCullough tracked predictions one month, one week, one day, 12 hours, and four hours before market resolution, and found accuracy rose to 94.2% in the final four hours. Historical analysis removed outliers and considered markets above 50% probability. However, biases like herd behavior, low liquidity, and acquiescence were also flagged, which slightly inflated the odds.