Can Polymarket’s $9 Billion Valuation Redefine How Wall Street Sees DeFi?

Polymarket, the blockchain-based prediction-market platform, secured a $2 billion strategic investment from the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), parent of the New York Stock Exchange. The transaction, announced October 7 2025, lifted Polymarket’s valuation to roughly $9 billion, making it one of the highest-valued decentralized-finance (DeFi) companies to date.

ICE said the investment aligns with its broader push into tokenized finance and on-chain market data. “There are opportunities across markets that ICE together with Polymarket can uniquely serve,” Jeffrey C. Sprecher, ICE chair and CEO, said in the statement.

Under the partnership, ICE becomes the global distributor of Polymarket’s event-driven data, allowing its institutional network to access real-time probability and sentiment indicators across sectors.

“Together, we’re expanding how individuals and institutions use probabilities to understand and price the future. By combining ICE’s institutional scale and credibility with Polymarket’s consumer savvy, we will be able to deliver world-class products for the modern investor,” Coplan .

, the strategic collaboration between ICE and Polymarket will enhance the possibility of what can be traded globally. Moreover, combining Polymarket’s vast consumer network and ICE’s institutional scale and credibility creates a robust force to venture into different markets.

Through the strategic partnership, ICE and Polymarket will venture into tokenization initiatives. Under the GENIUS Act, ICE and Polymarket will likely unveil their U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin to streamline their operations.

“Jeff Sprecher is a big believer in tokenization. Polymarket is a major consumer product in this space, with every prediction market tokenized,” Coplan in an interview.

The strategic partnership between ICE and Polymarket is a major milestone achieved in enhancing the mainstream adoption of decentralized finance (DeFi). Furthermore, ICE joins other projects – led by X and Stocktwits – that have integrated with Polymarket to enhance their respective services.

Notably, Polymarket is backed by top web3 venture capitalists including Blockchain Capital, ParaFi, Coinbase, and Dragonfly.

As such, the DeFi space will gain more credibility with institutional investors globally. Ultimately, more capital injection into the DeFi space by institutional investors will bolster their trading volume, crypto liquidity, and bull markets.