ICE Invests $2B in Polymarket at $9B Valuation, Marking Major DeFi Institutional Entry

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, has committed up to $2 billion in prediction market platform Polymarket. The deal values the decentralized finance (DeFi) pioneer at approximately $9 billion post-investment, representing one of the largest traditional finance deployments into DeFi infrastructure.

The partnership establishes ICE as the global distributor of Polymarket's event-driven data streams, providing institutional investors with real-time sentiment indicators across markets, politics, sports, and culture. "This blends 230 years of exchange expertise with revolutionary DeFi innovation," said ICE CEO Jeffrey Sprecher, referencing NYSE's 1792 origins.

Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan framed the investment as validation beyond prediction markets: "This isn't just about bringing our markets mainstream—it's a quantum leap for decentralized finance." The collaboration includes joint development of tokenization initiatives, signaling ICE's strategic pivot toward blockchain-based financial infrastructure.