Prediction market Polymarket has added Donald Trump Jr. to its advisory board after receiving a strategic funding from 1789 Capital, which describes itself as a politically aligned car backing firms it sees advancing “American exceptionalism.”
The businesses didn’t revealed monetary phrases, however Axios estimated the funding at “double-digit thousands and thousands of {dollars}.”
Trump Jr. grew to become a accomplice within the fund in 2024. In a Tuesday assertion, he said that “Polymarket cuts by media spin and so-called ‘professional’ opinion by letting folks guess on what they really consider will occur on the planet.”
The funding follows Polymarket’s efforts to a regulated return to the US market, after being compelled to dam customers below a Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee (CFTC) motion.
In 2022, the CFTC fined the company $1.4 million for working an unregistered swaps platform and ordered it to dam American customers. To re-establish a authorized foothold, it acquired CFTC-licensed derivatives trade QCEX for $112 million in July 2025, coinciding with the closure of CFTC and Division of Justice investigations into the platform.
Polymarket burst onto the scene in 2020, letting customers wager crypto on bets starting from presidential elections to superstar gossip. The platform shortly grew into one of many world’s largest prediction platforms, drawing thousands and thousands in each day quantity but in addition scrutiny from regulators.
Kalshi, Polymarket’s most important US competitor, has additionally repeatedly clashed with regulators over its push to listing contracts on political outcomes, together with management of Congress.
The scrutiny intensified in August when US Consultant Dina Titus urged the CFTC to investigate Brian Quintenz, a former commissioner nominated to chair the company, who additionally sits on Kalshi’s board — elevating conflict-of-interest considerations that delayed his Senate affirmation.
Election betting, regulation and Polymarket’s subsequent part
Throughout the 2024 US presidential race, Polymarket dealt with greater than $3.6 billion in bets, with roughly $2.7 billion staked on the Trump–Harris matchup alone. That surge of exercise drew criticism from a number of US lawmakers.
In Aug. 2024, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley and others wrote a letter to the CFTC calling for a ban on election betting.
They argued that permitting folks to put “extraordinary bets whereas concurrently contributing to a selected candidate or occasion, and political insiders to guess on elections utilizing personal info, will additional degrade public belief within the electoral course of.”
The sentiment has additionally been echoed in sports. The Nationwide Soccer League (NFL) not too long ago warned that prediction markets like Polymarket pose integrity dangers, arguing that with out the compliance and monitoring programs required of licensed sportsbooks, such platforms might go away video games susceptible to manipulation.
Regardless of lingering criticism, on July 21, Polymarket was reported to be finalizing a $200 million funding round valuing the platform at $1 billion.
The platform additionally revealed a US rulebook in August and ran digital ads within the US that very same month selling its return.
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