Written by: 1912212.eth, Foresight News
Recently, a huge financing deal has made waves in the entire Crypto circle. Polymarket confirmed that the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), will make a strategic investment of $2 billion, with a post-investment valuation of $9 billion. This is one of the highest financing amounts obtained by a project in the crypto field in recent years, and its nearly $10 billion valuation will also push the potential and popularity of the prediction market into the spotlight.
Intercontinental Exchange ICE: The world's fourth-largest exchange group
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) is a leading global financial infrastructure and data services provider, serving as the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). ICE was founded in May 2000 by Jeffrey C. Sprecher in Atlanta, Georgia, initially focusing on electronic trading of energy derivatives. In 2007, it acquired the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT), expanding into agricultural and metal futures.
In 2013, ICE acquired NYSE Euronext for 8.2 billion USD, gaining ownership of the New York Stock Exchange and expanding its business into the fields of stock and options trading, becoming the world's first exchange group to simultaneously control both commodity and stock trading.
ICE has a very broad global business layout, operating 14 exchanges worldwide, including ICE Futures Europe (London), ICE Futures U.S. (New York), and ICE Futures Singapore (Singapore), covering commodity markets such as energy, agricultural products, and metals. It also engages in diversified trading through the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Liffe, covering stocks, index futures, etc. Additionally, it provides clearing, data services, and mortgage loans.
As of now, ICE's market value exceeds 50 billion USD, ranking it as the fourth largest exchange group in the world.
Polymarket returns to the United States
According to Decrypt, the prediction market Polymarket is about to reopen to U.S. users, years after being effectively banned by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Polymarket previously acquired the CFTC-licensed trading platform QCX LLC for 112 million USD and has begun self-certifying event contracts, including sports events and election markets.
The cryptocurrency market has become an important component of the global financial market. ICE, as a leading global financial infrastructure provider, invested in Polymarket, marking an important step for ICE into the crypto prediction market.
ICE can bring its experience and resources from traditional financial markets into the cryptocurrency market, promoting the deep integration of prediction markets and crypto technology, thereby exploring new business areas and revenue sources.
Over a million traders, total trading volume exceeds 18.9 billion USD
Since Polymarket gained significant attention during last year's U.S. presidential election, both funding and user numbers have seen substantial increases. Although the hype has somewhat decreased, its trading volume remains at a good level.
According to the latest data from tokentermina, its total transaction volume has risen to 18.9 billion USD, significantly leading over another competitor, Kalshi.
Its TVL has risen to 169.2 million USD, and the trading volume over the past 30 days has reached 1.5 billion USD, an increase of 42.2%.
Its monthly active user count has also seen a significant increase. Currently, the number of active users has reached 263,800, with a monthly increase of 26.8%.
According to the latest data from Polymarketanalytics, its total number of traders is 1,349,740, with the number of prediction markets at 46,995. Although Polymarket leads significantly in total transaction volume, it lags behind Kalshi in total markets and total open positions.
Token issuance rumors
As early as after the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Polymarket hinted at potential future token airdrops on its official website to attract funds.
According to SEC EDGAR database, Polymarket's operating entity Blockratize Inc. submitted a Form D document on August 1, 2025, mentioning other warrants or terms of rights. Such expressions are often seen as signals for future token issuance.
Due to the unclear legal status of tokens in the United States, companies typically cannot directly mention token issuance plans in SEC filings, so they use terms like 'warrants' to reserve future rights for investors to obtain tokens. This has become a common practice in the crypto industry when conducting traditional equity financing.
On October 8, Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan tweeted that the token symbol POLY was listed after BTC, ETH, BNB, and SOL, implying that the name of Polymarket's token may be POLY. However, the issuance time remains unknown.
