Polymarket is owned and operated by Blockratize Inc., a Delaware-registered company. Founder and CEO Shayne Coplan launched the platform in June 2020. As of September 2026, Polymarket is valued at roughly $21 billion post-money, after a $1 billion round led by 1789 Capital.
If you searched for “who owns poly market,” you’re asking the same question — it’s a common misspelling of Polymarket, not a different company.
Three legal entities make up the group:
- Blockratize Inc. — the Delaware company that owns and operates Polymarket.
- Adventure One Ltd — a related entity incorporated in Panama that runs the international platform.
- QCX LLC (doing business as Polymarket US) — the separate, CFTC-regulated US exchange.
Who Is the Owner of Polymarket?
The owner of Polymarket is Blockratize Inc., a private Delaware corporation — not a single person and not a publicly traded company. There is no Polymarket stock and no ticker symbol, so you cannot buy shares in it.
Ownership is split between the founder and outside investors:
- Shayne Coplan, founder and CEO, holds a significant stake and remains the person running the company.
- Investors hold minority positions: Union Square Ventures and Polychain Capital (seed), Founders Fund and Dragonfly Capital (early rounds), Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) — the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange — which invested $2 billion in October 2025, and 1789 Capital, which led the ~$1 billion round that closed in September 2026 at roughly $21 billion post-money.
No outside investor has a controlling stake. Related but separate: the international exchange is run through Adventure One Ltd (Panama), and the US exchange through QCX LLC d/b/a Polymarket US.
One clarification: this site is an independent guide. Start Polymarket is not affiliated with, operated by, or endorsed by Polymarket, and it is not the separate US-based Polymarket entity.
Who Started Polymarket?
Polymarket was started by Shayne Coplan. He was born in 1998 in New York City, and he developed an early interest in financial markets — at age 14, after reading Michael Lewis’s Flash Boys, he wrote an email to the SEC about high-frequency trading practices.
Coplan studied computer science at NYU but dropped out to pursue Polymarket full-time. He and a small founding team started the company in what he described as a converted bathroom office in New York.
Polymarket launched in June 2020 with a straightforward premise: let anyone trade on real-world events using a decentralized prediction market.
Funding History
Polymarket has raised more funding than any other prediction market by a significant margin.
| Round | Date | Amount | Lead Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | Aug 2020 | $4M | Union Square Ventures, Polychain Capital |
| Series A | Mar 2022 | $25M | Founders Fund, Dragonfly Capital |
| Series B | May 2023 | $45M | Founders Fund |
| Series C | Nov 2024 | $150M | Y Combinator Continuity, Polychain Capital |
| Strategic | Oct 2025 | $2B | Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) |
| Follow-on | Apr 2026 | $600M | ICE-led (valuation then: ~$15B, since superseded) |
| Latest | Sep 2026 | ~$1B | 1789 Capital (valuation: ~$21B post-money) |
| Total | ~$2.8B+ |
The October 2025 investment from Intercontinental Exchange — the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange — valued Polymarket at approximately $9 billion. It was a watershed moment for the prediction markets industry: the world’s largest exchange operator betting that event-based trading is a durable market category.
The valuation has kept climbing since. The April 2026 follow-on (which included the $600 million Intercontinental Exchange direct cash investment announced in March) valued Polymarket at roughly $15 billion at the time — a person familiar with the matter confirmed that April round closed at that level to CNBC. Polymarket also told CNBC in late June 2026 that its annualized revenue was well above $1 billion, and its regulated US exchange is doing more than $100 million in notional volume per day (up from ~$75 million at the end of May), while the international platform records daily notional volume above $150 million.
September 2026 — the round closed at ~$21 billion post-money, the current valuation. In early August 2026, Bloomberg and CNBC reported that Polymarket was in talks for a new funding round at a valuation above $20 billion (a person familiar with the matter confirmed the talks to CNBC; Polymarket declined to comment). That round — roughly $1 billion led by 1789 Capital — subsequently closed in September 2026 at about $21 billion post-money. For context on the competitive landscape, rival Kalshi closed a round valuing it at $22 billion in May 2026 and has reportedly sought a $40 billion valuation for a Q3 raise.
The CFTC Settlement (2022)
In January 2022, Polymarket settled with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for $1.4 million. The CFTC alleged that Polymarket had operated an unregistered swap execution facility, making its binary event contracts available to US users without proper regulatory approval.
Polymarket settled without admitting wrongdoing. As part of the settlement, the company agreed to restrict US users — restrictions that remain in place on the international platform today, where the United States is close-only (existing positions can be closed, but no new trades can be opened).
The fine was relatively modest given Polymarket’s trading volumes, and the company continued operating internationally without interruption.
The Path Back to the US Market
After the CFTC settlement, Polymarket spent years navigating a path to legal US re-entry.
In July 2025, Polymarket acquired QCEX (also known as “QCX”) for approximately $112 million. QCEX held a CFTC-licensed exchange designation — specifically the same regulatory structure used by competitor Kalshi. The acquisition gave Polymarket the regulatory infrastructure to legally offer prediction markets to US customers.
The US platform relaunched in December 2025 (rollout to waitlisted users began 3 December), initially as an invite-only, sports-first app. Polymarket US is a CFTC-designated contract market (DCM) as of December 2025 — meaning the CFTC has formally designated it as a regulated exchange where standardized contracts can trade. The waitlist was dropped in May 2026, and the exchange has since expanded to iOS, Android and the web with a catalogue covering sports, politics, crypto, economics, weather, tech and culture. It operates separately from the international platform with its own markets, liquidity, and fee structure — see our full US status page for the state-by-state legal picture.
The two platforms are not connected. Positions, balances, and accounts are completely separate.
Business Model
Polymarket earns revenue from trading fees.
The fee structure has evolved significantly:
- 2020–2024: Minimal or zero fees while building market share
- 2025: Zero fees maintained through most of the year to compete with Kalshi’s US relaunch
- March 30, 2026: Taker fees broadly introduced across the international platform
Current taker fees vary by market category, with max fees ranging from $1.00 to $1.75 per 100 shares. Geopolitical markets are fee-free. Makers (traders who add liquidity) pay zero fees and receive rebates. The full fee breakdown is covered in the Polymarket Fees article.
Scale and Metrics
As of September 2026, Polymarket is the dominant prediction market globally by trading volume:
- Valuation: ~$21 billion post-money (September 2026, $1bn round led by 1789 Capital)
- Monthly volume (parent, all-in): $8.41 billion in August 2026, down about 35% from July’s $12.89 billion — a post-World-Cup slowdown
- US exchange volume:
$3.82 billion in August 2026 ($5.0 billion in July, ~$1.3 billion in April) - Annualized revenue: well above $1 billion (as reported by CNBC, June 2026)
- Total raised: ~$2.8 billion
- Cumulative trading volume: Billions of dollars since launch
- Peak activity: 2024 US presidential election period saw record daily volumes
- Markets: Hundreds of active markets at any time, spanning politics, sports, crypto, finance, economics, culture, and tech
- Countries: 148 countries have full access; 50 do not (34 close-only, 14 blocked, 2 restricted)
- Blockchain: Polygon (Ethereum Layer 2)
- Settlement currency: pUSD, Polymarket’s USDC-backed ERC-20 token — see how to deposit on Polymarket for funding methods
How Polymarket is Different From a Casino or Sportsbook
Polymarket holds no positions. It does not bet against its users. Unlike a sportsbook that sets odds to ensure a margin, Polymarket is a two-sided marketplace — all trading happens between users, and Polymarket earns only the fee on each transaction.
This structure means Polymarket’s revenue scales with trading volume, not with user losses. A profitable Polymarket user is not a cost to the company — they’re a source of more trading.
The Broader Polymarket Ecosystem
Polymarket’s contracts run on the Polygon blockchain using the Conditional Token Framework (CTF) — an open-source smart contract standard. This means:
- Positions are recorded on-chain, not in Polymarket’s database
- The CTF contracts are publicly verifiable
- Third-party tools can read positions and liquidities directly from the blockchain
- In principle, positions can be held and traded outside the Polymarket interface
Outcome resolution uses the UMA Optimistic Oracle — an independent protocol where anyone can propose and dispute market outcomes. Polymarket does not unilaterally decide results; the oracle system does. For a full explanation, see How Polymarket Markets Resolve.
What the Company’s Evolution Looks Like From the Trading Floor
Corporate milestones are one thing — here’s how the last year of company news has actually felt as someone who trades on Polymarket daily.
The ICE investment hasn’t changed the product — yet. Nobody trading on the platform can tell you what a $2.6 billion commitment from the NYSE’s parent company means day-to-day, because so far the experience is much the same as before. What it means longer term is genuinely hard to say. The honest read is that it’s a bet on the category, not a redesign of the platform.
The US/international split is strange from a user’s perspective. The US product is currently the weaker of the two — a smaller, newer venue, while the international exchange has the breadth and the vast majority of the liquidity. As an international user I’d love to see the two unified, but my understanding is US regulations don’t allow it. Since the liquidity is mostly international anyway, the split matters less in practice than it looks on paper.
The fee rollout was rough; the fees themselves make sense. The March 2026 fee introduction was poorly communicated and buggy in its first weeks. That said, I’m genuinely glad fees exist — I want Polymarket to be a sustainable business for the long haul, and the taker-only model is the right shape: makers pay nothing and the rebate program meaningfully rewards providing liquidity. My one criticism is that some categories are priced too high — taker fees at the top end make active trading difficult in those markets, and I’d expect the schedule to be tuned again.
Learn More
- How Does Polymarket Work? — How the platform works
- How Markets Resolve on Polymarket — UMA oracle resolution explained
- Polymarket Fees Explained — Complete fee breakdown
- How Long Polymarket Withdrawals Take — Getting funds off the platform
- Polymarket Review 2026 — Full in-depth review
- Is Polymarket Available in Your Country? — Check your location