Polymarket betting platform successfully raised USD 70 million with the participation of Vitalik Buretin

In 2 rounds of funding, Polymarket has raised a total of USD 70 million amid increasing bridge anticipation of the upcoming US presidential election

Polymarket, one of the major cryptocurrency startups, offers "event contracts" for users to bet on events such as political elections, ETF applications, and FED interest rate fall,... has received USD 70 million in funding after two rounds of funding with the arrival of Dragon Capital and Vitalik Buterin.

Excited to share that @Polymarket has raised $70m:

A $45m Series B led by Founders Fund and insiders 1confirmation and ParaFi + @VitalikButerin, & Dragonfly

And A $25m Series A led by General Catalyst + Polychain, @jgebbia, & more

🔮🧵 > pic.twitter.com/TheJ1IxkC5

— Shayne Coplan (@shayne_coplan) May 14, 2024

Founder Shayne Coplan said in a post on X that Peter Thiel's venture capital firm Founders Fund, Dragonfly and co-founder Ethereum Vitalik Buterin leading a USD 45 million Series B round for Polymarket.

Meanwhile, Joe Gebbia, co-founder of General Catalyst, Polychain and Airbnb has leading USD 25 million Series A funding round.

Polymarket's successful fundraising over two rounds comes as the betting platform attracts more users amid growing demand bridge anticipation of the upcoming US presidential election. Polymarket is also an attractive market on topics such as cryptocurrencies, sports, and current events.

Polymarket essentially operates as an offshore betting platform that is outside the scope of U.S. regulations. Betting on elections is illegal in the United States under federal law, but many companies have lobbied the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in recent years to fall the restrictions.

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Federal regulations have banned "event contracts" related to war, terrorism, assassination, illegal activity under any federal or state law, and the "gaming" category has expanded. On Friday, CFTC voted 3-2 in favor of adopting new rules banning event contracts that go against the public interest, which would apparently include political contests.

Under the new rules proposed by CFTC, political bets would fall into the category of "gambling." The new rule will not take effect until CFTC post the final minutes of the new rules for public review.

Polymarket and other betting markets have received significant regulation and opposition from lawmakers over the past few years. In January 2022, Polymarket was forced to pay a civil slashing of USD 1.4 million as part of a legal settlement with CFTC, which also bridge required the company to "cool down" event contracts markets in the United States that did not comply with the Commodity Exchange Act. The regulators found the company was operating an "unregistered or undesignated illegal establishment for event-based binary options online trading contracts since 2020.

CFTC said Polymarket was "cooperative" with regulators during the investigation, resulting in only paying a lower slashing than regulated. Kalshi, which received CFTC's landmark approval in 2020, also tried to expand into the political electoral market last year, asking the body bridge approve event contracts over the question of which party would win control of parliament.

PredictIt, a betting market rival that opened bets for the 2020 presidential election, operates in the United States under a letter issued in 2014 authorizing it to operate as a "data collection tool for academic researchers," According to court records.

Kalshi, the only betting market currently approved by CFTC, does not bet on elections, but there are sessions on some government-related events such as the Federal Reserve adjusting interest rates.

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