Prediction market Polymarket has added Donald Trump Jr. to its advisory board after receiving a strategic funding from 1789 Capital, which describes itself as a politically aligned automobile backing firms it sees advancing “American exceptionalism.”
The businesses didn’t reveal monetary phrases, however Axios estimated the funding at “double-digit tens of millions of {dollars}.”
Trump Jr. turned a associate within the fund in 2024. In a Tuesday assertion, he said that “Polymarket cuts via media spin and so-called ‘professional’ opinion by letting individuals wager on what they really imagine will occur on this planet.”
The funding follows Polymarket’s efforts to a regulated return to the US market, after being pressured to dam customers underneath a Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee (CFTC) motion.
In 2022, the CFTC fined the company $1.4 million for working an unregistered swaps platform and ordered it to dam American customers. To re-establish a authorized foothold, it acquired CFTC-licensed derivatives alternate QCEX for $112 million in July 2025, coinciding with the closure of CFTC and Division of Justice investigations into the platform.
Polymarket burst onto the scene in 2020, letting customers wager crypto on bets starting from presidential elections to movie star gossip. The platform rapidly grew into one of many world’s largest prediction platforms, drawing tens of millions in day by day quantity but in addition scrutiny from regulators.
Kalshi, Polymarket’s foremost US competitor, has additionally repeatedly clashed with regulators over its push to record contracts on political outcomes, together with management of Congress.
The scrutiny intensified in August when US Consultant Dina Titus urged the CFTC to investigate Brian Quintenz, a former commissioner nominated to chair the company, who additionally sits on Kalshi’s board — elevating conflict-of-interest considerations that delayed his Senate affirmation.
Election betting, regulation and Polymarket’s subsequent section
In the course of the 2024 US presidential race, Polymarket dealt with greater than $3.6 billion in bets, with roughly $2.7 billion staked on the Trump–Harris matchup alone. That surge of exercise drew criticism from a number of US lawmakers.
In Aug. 2024, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley and others wrote a letter to the CFTC calling for a ban on election betting.
They argued that permitting individuals to put “extraordinary bets whereas concurrently contributing to a particular candidate or social gathering, and political insiders to wager on elections utilizing personal info, will additional degrade public belief within the electoral course of.”
The sentiment has additionally been echoed in sports. The Nationwide Soccer League (NFL) not too long ago warned that prediction markets like Polymarket pose integrity dangers, arguing that with out the compliance and monitoring programs required of licensed sportsbooks, such platforms might depart video games weak to manipulation.
Regardless of lingering criticism, on July 21, Polymarket was reported to be finalizing a $200 million funding round valuing the platform at $1 billion.
The platform additionally printed a US rulebook in August and ran digital ads within the US that very same month selling its return.
Magazine: Crypto has 4 years to grow so big ‘no one can shut it down’ — Kain Warwick, Infinex
