Prediction markets have risen to immense popularity within the crypto community. And now, one of the largest prediction markets in the world just landed some of Silicon Valley’s most prestigious venture capital funds.
What’s happening:
- Decentralized prediction market Polymarket has raised $45M USD in a Series B financing
- The round was led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, with notable participation from Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, Dragonfly and ParaFi
The big idea:
- Polymarket allows individuals to bet against each other through their decentralized platform, which leverages digital assets for both wagers and payouts
- Users are allowed to create new premises for bets or bet on existing predictions, which range from politics to sports to interest rates to price speculation on assets
By the numbers:
- Polymarkets has raised $70M USD in venture capital funding since inception
Going deeper:
- Prediction markets have become increasingly popular around elections in the United States, with Polymarket seeing significant upticks in user activity around presidential election cycles
The fine print:
- The United States Commodities Future Trading Commission has recently proposed a ban on trading of derivatives betting on political elections and sports betting, which could have major implications for prediction markets if approved
- Polymarket was previously fined by the Commodities Future Trading Commission, which ultimately led to them removing certain betting options from their platform
