Polymake, a forecast market, added Donald Trump Jr. to the advisory board after receiving strategic investment from the capital in 1789.
The company did not disclose financial terms, but Axios estimated the investment to be “double-digit millions of dollars.”
Trump Jr. became a partner in the fund in 2024. In a statement Tuesday, he said, “Polymet will cut down on media spin and so-called “expert” opinions by betting on what people believe in real life will happen in the world.”
The investment follows polymake’s efforts to regulated returns to the US market after being forced to block users based on the actions of the Commodity Futures Trade Commission (CFTC).
In 2022, the CFTC fined the company $1.4 million for operating an unregistered swap platform and ordered it to block US users. To reestablish the legal footing, we acquired CFTC licensed derivative exchange QCEX for $112 million in July 2025.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BX9ALZW1UI
Polymerket entered the scene in 2020, causing users to stake codes from presidential elections to celebrity gossip. The platform has rapidly grown into one of the world’s largest forecasting platforms, attracting millions with daily volumes, but also scrutinized by regulators.
Polymarket’s main US competitor, Kalshi, has repeatedly clashed with regulators over a push to list contracts on political outcomes, including congressional control.
Surveillance escalated in August when US President Dina Titus urged the CFTC to investigate former commissioner Brian Quintz, who was appointed chairman of the agency sitting on the Calci board of directors.
The next stage of election betting, regulation and multinationality
During the 2024 US Presidential race, Polymerket handled more than $3.6 billion in bets, with around $2.7 billion in bets on Trump and Harris matches alone. That surge in activity has drawn criticism from several US lawmakers.
In August 2024, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley and others wrote to the CFTC calling for a ban on election betting.
They argued that people “contribute to a particular candidate or party while also making extraordinary bets, and that political insiders betting on elections using private information further reduces public confidence in the election process.”
Emotions are also reflected in sports. The National Football League (NFL) recently warned that forecast markets like Polymate pose a risk of integrity, claiming that such platforms could make games vulnerable to operation without the compliance and surveillance systems required for licensed sportsbooks.
Despite lingering criticism, it was reported on July 21 that Polymarket was finalizing a $200 million funding round valued the platform at $1 billion.
The platform published its US rulebook in August and ran digital advertising in the US that month, driving its return.
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