Polymarket Stuns NYC With Democratic Mayoral Primary Upset—Now Racing Toward $1B Unicorn Status
Prediction markets just got a lot more interesting—and lucrative.
Polymarket, the crypto-powered betting platform, pulled off a political stunner by accurately forecasting an underdog victory in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary. Now, with its credibility skyrocketing, the platform is flirting with a $1 billion valuation. Wall Street’s old guard must be sweating into their spreadsheets.
How did a decentralized dark horse outmaneuver pollsters and pundits? Simple: It let the crowd—not the suits—call the shots. Polymarket’s users put real money where their predictions were, creating a hyper-efficient consensus engine that left traditional forecasting in the dust.
And the payoff? A valuation surge that’s turning heads from crypto OGs to Sand Hill Road VC drones. Because nothing screams 'market fit' like proving you can outsmart the political-industrial complex.
One question remains: When the SEC comes knocking, will Polymarket’s 'it’s not gambling, it’s collective intelligence' defense hold up? Either way—this is what disruption looks like. Just don’t tell the guys still shorting Bitcoin.
Polymarket’s $200m funding round
Polymarket's latest win comes as the company closes in on a $200 million funding round at a valuation north of $1 billion, according to separately sourced reports from Reuters and Bloomberg on Tuesday.
The raise is reportedly being led by Founders Fund, the venture firm co-founded by Peter Thiel, known for early investments in Palantir, Meta, and OpenAI, as well as backing frontier projects like Sentient, an open-source AI initiative.
The vote of confidence from institutional backers like Founders Fund signals growing acceptance of blockchain-powered prediction platforms such as Polymarket.
Alex Solleiro, co-founder of DASTAN, the company behind both Decrypt and decentralized prediction market Myriad (which did not run a market on this particular election), commented on the significance of Polymarket's achievement.
"Prediction markets once again show that they can break the news faster than media and predict elections better than polls and experts," Solleiro said. "We have entered a new era in how information is sourced, shared, and incentivized."
