Polymarket, a blockchain-based real-time event prediction market, has raised $45 million in a Series B financing led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.
Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund led the $45 million Series B financing for Polymarket, a blockchain-based real-time event prediction market. Co-founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin also participated in the fundraising round, as did 1confirmation, ParaFi, and Dragonfly Capital.
The media reports that the fundraising has increased the total amount raised to over $70 million. Speaking to the cryptocurrency publisher platform, Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan disclosed that the latest financing follows an undisclosed $25 million Series A round, which General Catalyst led. In 2020, the firm reported that it had raised $4 million in a seed round.
Richard Jaycobs, a former Cantor Exchange president, has also joined the company as head of market expansion.
Polymarket, a prohibited entity in the US, holds the largest portion of the prediction market. The market allows traders to place bets on real-world events like sporting contests, celebrity meetings, and political events (although US-based businesses no longer allow the latter).
It appears that Polymarket is capitalizing on the run-up to the US election by partnering with US-licensed practitioners Kalshi and Predict. It made it illegal to place wagers on political developments.
Those who are wagering on who will win the U.S. presidential election in 2024 already have Trump at 49% and Biden at 44% approved. Information on the platform’s website indicates that wagers on this event have already exceeded $125 million.
Notable markets on the platform for celebrity wagers include the number of tweets Elon Musk sent between May 10 and May 17, as well as Drake and Kendrick’s likelihood of releasing their upcoming songs by Friday.
Additionally, traders will have the opportunity to vote on the approval of Ethereum ETFs and significant airdrops by May 31 and June 30, respectively.