In a bold fusion of Wall Street legacy and decentralized innovation, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) announced Tuesday that it will invest up to $2 billion in Polymarket, a fast-growing prediction platform valued at $8 billion. The move signals a seismic shift in how traditional finance views the rapidly expanding — and controversial — world of prediction markets.
A Strategic Gamble on the Future of Forecasting
The Intercontinental Exchange Inc. (ICE), which owns the NYSE, said the investment will enable it to distribute Polymarket’s data to financial institutions worldwide, further blurring the lines between conventional finance and blockchain-driven speculation.
“Our investment blends Intercontinental, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange founded in 1792, with a forward-thinking, revolutionary company pioneering change within decentralized finance,” said Jeffrey C. Sprecher, chairman and CEO of ICE.
The partnership aims to harness prediction data — the probabilities people assign to real-world outcomes — to help investors, policymakers, and corporations better understand and price the future.
