NYSE Parent ICE Invests $2B in Polymarket at $9B Valuation

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), owner of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), has announced an investment of up to $2 billion in prediction market platform Polymarket, valuing the company at approximately $9 billion post-investment and marking one of the largest institutional entries into decentralized finance.

The deal, which represents one of the largest deployments of traditional finance capital into DeFi infrastructure, establishes ICE as the global distributor of Polymarket's event-driven data to institutional investors, providing real-time sentiment indicators on markets, politics, sports and culture. The partnership also includes collaboration on future tokenization initiatives.

"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," said Jeffrey C. Sprecher, ICE Chair and CEO, said in a statement on Tuesday.

Shayne Coplan, Polymarket's founder and CEO, described the partnership as validation beyond prediction markets. "Our partnership with ICE marks a major step in bringing prediction markets into the financial mainstream. But in addition to that, it's a monumental step forward for DeFi," Coplan wrote on X.

"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 added.

Founded by Coplan in 2020 during the pandemic, Polymarket allows users to trade shares representing potential outcomes of future events through peer-to-peer smart contracts. The platform gained prominence during the 2024 U.S. presidential election, where its probability-weighted markets were viewed by many as more accurate than traditional polling.

Coplan, who launched the platform at age 21 after dropping out of college, said he was inspired by economist Robin Hanson's research on prediction markets. "At the onset of the pandemic, I quite literally had nothing to lose: 21, running out of money, 2.5 years since I dropped out and nothing to show for it," he wrote. "But I knew we were entering an era where ways to find truth would matter more than ever."

The $9 billion valuation comes despite regulatory challenges. Polymarket settled with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 2022 for $1.4 million after operating an unregistered derivatives exchange, and currently blocks U.S. IP addresses. The platform has become the official prediction market partner of X and Stocktwits.

ICE's data distribution agreement provides institutional clients access to alternative sentiment indicators from Polymarket's markets, which span topics from election outcomes to corporate events and sports results. The company operates multiple data platforms serving institutional clients, with prediction market probabilities offering insights unavailable through conventional sources.

The investment provides Polymarket with institutional backing and legitimacy that could accelerate mainstream adoption. For ICE, the deal represents diversification into blockchain-based financial infrastructure, following previous investments in digital asset custody provider Bakkt and cryptocurrency derivatives platforms.

The tokenization collaboration remains undefined, though Coplan emphasized ICE's broader blockchain ambitions beyond the data partnership. ICE has explored blockchain-based settlement systems through various initiatives.

The cash investment will not materially impact ICE's 2025 financial results or capital return plans. ICE plans to discuss the strategic investment during its third-quarter earnings call scheduled for October 30.