Polymarket Nears $200M Mega-Round as Prediction Markets Heat Up

Prediction market heavyweight Polymarket is closing in on a monster $200 million funding injection—just as speculative fever grips crypto markets again.

The decentralized betting platform, which lets users wager on everything from election outcomes to celebrity drama, appears to be cashing in on the resurgence of risk appetite. Sources close to the deal suggest the round could value the platform north of $1 billion.

Wall Street's suddenly interested in gambling platforms—who knew? Maybe because traditional finance hasn't produced alpha since 2020.

Polymarket mindshare peaks

Polymarket became the talk of social media, especially crypto-affiliated yappers. Based on the Kaito leaderboard, the platform was the most rapidly trending among tokenless protocols. Polymarket received the most talk and social media messaging among pre-TGE projects.

Polymarket rapidly ROSE to the top on social media, as the hottest pre-token platform. | Source: Kaito

Polymarket surpassed other projects that are yet to announce a token generation event. Previously, the platform has hinted that it WOULD reward its customers. The prediction site saw an outflow of users following the end of the US elections in November 2024, but briefly posted a message to users not to leave the site. Months later, Polymarket is still undecided about an eventual token or an airdrop. 

In the past few months, Polymarket users retained a lower baseline, mostly hinging on small bets under $100. Despite this, the platform gained wider mainstream acceptance, with quotes on event resolution appearing in mainstream media. 

The betting market also immediately reacts to current news, evolving its most active markets. While sports bets remain a staple, the Polymarket influence is mostly tied to current news and events. 

For some, Polymarket is a crowdsourcing mechanism, while others are skeptical and point to some of the illiquid, easy-to-manipulate prediction pairs. Some of the markets remain extremely volatile, fluctuating by up to 50% in minutes depending on current events. 

The prediction market on whether Iran would close the Straits of Hormuz was one of the pairs closely watched to determine the direction of oil prices. Within hours, the probability was down from 50% to 2%, reflecting the rapidly changing conditions.

However, Polymarket has shown itself to be more reliable compared to other on-chain betting sites. The platform has few competitors, including the much less liquid Kalshi.

Google Trends reveals a general interest in Polymarket, boosting searches from virtually non-existent to 100 points in the span of two weeks. 

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