ICE’s Billion-Dollar Bet on Polymarket Signals Institutional Embrace of Prediction Markets

Intercontinental Exchange, the powerhouse behind the New York Stock Exchange, is poised to make a seismic move into crypto with a potential $2 billion investment in prediction market platform Polymarket. The deal would value the startup at $8 billion, marking the first major institutional endorsement of prediction markets.

Beyond capital infusion, ICE plans to leverage Polymarket's event data as sentiment indicators across its global network. The partnership may also revive Polymarket's US operations after regulatory hurdles forced its retreat from American users. Prediction markets aggregate crowd wisdom on political, economic and cultural outcomes through tradable contracts.

This strategic play transforms ICE from passive investor to infrastructure architect, bridging decentralized prediction mechanisms with traditional finance. The MOVE underscores growing institutional recognition of crypto-native markets as valuable price discovery tools rather than mere speculative arenas.