Polymarket Secures $45 Million in Series B Funding Led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Vitalik Buterin

Polymarket has raised a $45 million Series B funding round led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and existing investors 1confirmation and ParaFi, with participation from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Dragonfly, and Eventbrite’s co-founder Kevin Hartz. The decentralized prediction market platform utilizes the Ethereum blockchain and smart contracts to allow users to speculate on the outcomes of various real-world events using stablecoins. Founders Fund partner Joey Krug highlighted the tangible benefits of using Polymarket as a complement to consuming news on social and mainstream media. The firm also confirmed a previously unannounced $25 million Series A round led by General Catalyst, with participation from Airbnb’s Joe Gebbia and Polychain, among others. Despite a Commodity Futures Trading Commission proposal to crack down on event contracts, Polymarket settled with the CFTC for $1.4 million in 2022, agreeing to wind down its Polymarket.com front-end website services in the U.S. Polymarket claims $202 million worth of predictions have been made via the platform so far in 2024, with over $125 million bet on the outcome of the U.S. election alone. The platform also announced the hiring of veteran futures industry executive Richard Jaycobs as its head of market expansion, who will explore the prospect of U.S.-regulated activities. Former CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo, also known as “CryptoDad,” serves as Polymarket’s advisory board chair and commented on the company’s growth and the financing’s impact on its international success and product leadership.