Prediction Market Titans Set New Records as Polymarket and Kalshi Attract Major Funding

Polymarket’s $200 Million Raise and Kalshi’s $185 Million Series C Signal a New Era for Crypto-Based Prediction Markets

Major developments are reshaping the prediction market landscape as Polymarket, a leading decentralized peer-to-peer platform, closes in on a $200 million fundraise that will secure it a $1 billion valuation and confirm its unicorn status, according to industry sources cited on June 25, 2025. 

The deal follows a period of heightened activity in the sector, especially during the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Even after trading volumes cooled post-election, Polymarket recorded three straight months of growth in 2025, with spot trading volumes rising by 21% from March to April, and another 17% from April to May, as tracked by The Block’s Data Dashboard. 

May 2025 became a landmark month for Polymarket, surpassing $1 billion in monthly trading volume for the first time since January, and driving cumulative trading to $13.89 billion by the end of May. These figures reflect deepening user engagement and growing interest in decentralized prediction markets as part of the evolving coin market cap and crypto price index ecosystem.

Polymarket’s capital momentum stems from a $45 million Series B round in May 2024, a previously undisclosed $25 million Series A led by General Catalyst, and earlier strategic moves, such as weighing a $50 million raise and native token launch in September 2024. 

Despite facing a $1.4 million civil penalty from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and winding down its U.S. business, Polymarket continues to command international attention, with the majority of its trading now taking place outside the United States. The platform enables users to place bets on a diverse array of political, economic, sporting, and real-world outcomes, gaining immense popularity as the Trump vs. Harris election market alone racked up more than $3 billion in trading volume on the eve of the November 2024 results. 

While trading and user activity dipped after Trump’s win, the platform’s recent growth streak underscores renewed confidence from both users and investors, reflected in strong movement across key metrics such as cumulative trading volume and monthly crypto price index benchmarks.

Direct competition between Polymarket and Kalshi has intensified as both companies vie for sector dominance, yet Kalshi is now making headlines with its own $185 million Series C round led by Paradigm. 

With support from Multicoin Capital, Neo, Sequoia, and Peng Zhao of Citadel Securities, Kalshi’s latest capital injection values the firm at $2 billion and pushes its total funding to $415 million—more than quadruple its base from the prior year. Kalshi plans to use this funding to bolster its engineering team, expand market offerings, and accelerate the mainstream adoption of regulated prediction markets in the United States, an area where its regulatory status under the CFTC has proven decisive.

Kalshi has experienced a watershed year, reporting a 100-fold jump in trading volume, a tenfold expansion of its user base, and a fivefold increase in active market listings. Key to these advances was a pivotal D.C. District Court decision in September 2024, which permitted Kalshi to list congressional race contracts—overturning previous CFTC resistance and bolstered by Paradigm’s legal advocacy. Founded in 2019, Kalshi stands as the only regulated U.S. platform able to offer election-related betting markets, a significant milestone in American financial history.

Both Polymarket and Kalshi witnessed their strongest user engagement and volumes during the 2024 U.S. election cycle, followed by a slowdown, but are now rebounding amid improving regulatory clarity and growing institutional interest. Industry leaders, including Paradigm’s Matt Huang, are drawing parallels between today’s prediction markets and the crypto sector’s early days, citing potential for the asset class to reach trillions in value and disrupt everything from financial forecasts to weather prediction. 

Researchers emphasize that prediction markets drive less biased, more accurate interpretations of current events by ensuring that participants have “skin in the game,” directly impacting the crypto price index and broader coin market cap metrics as mainstream adoption expands.

The sector’s momentum is underpinned by high-profile investments and transformative legal milestones, positioning Polymarket as a global decentralized leader and Kalshi as a regulated U.S. trailblazer. As both companies attract backing from elite venture firms and financial institutions, prediction markets are moving closer to the financial mainstream.

This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.