Prediction market Polymarket has pulled in $300M from 1789 Capital, the investment firm in which Donald Trump Jr. is a partner, as part of a new funding round totaling around $1B, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.
Bloomberg put the round’s valuation at $21B. The firm previously invested $200M in the prediction site, which lets users bet on everything from elections to sports outcomes. 1789 Capital has backed other controversial tech projects, including the Enhanced Games, the self-described “steroid Olympics.”
The fresh capital arrives as prediction markets face an intensifying regulatory fight. At least 20 states are litigating against prediction sites over sports wagers, and a coalition of 44 state attorneys general recently argued the Commodity Futures Trading Commission lacks authority to regulate sports-related wagers on such platforms.
The Trump administration has countered that the CFTC should be the industry’s sole regulator, and the federal government has repeatedly defended prediction sites from state action. Trump Jr. recently told a gathering of conservative state attorneys general that the industry already operates under “robust oversight.”
For Polymarket, the round adds firepower for expansion while the legal questions play out. The outcome of the state-versus-federal fight will shape whether prediction markets scale as a mainstream financial product or stay confined to a contested regulatory gray zone.
