- Polymarket has launched prediction markets for private companies, partnering with Nasdaq Private Market for data and infrastructure.
- The markets will allow trading on events like fundraising and valuation changes for pre-IPO firms, aiming to bring transparency to a $5 trillion space.
- Institutional interest in prediction markets is growing, highlighted by a recent institutional block trade on rival platform Kalshi, even as retail traders dominate volume.
On Tuesday, the prediction market platform Polymarket announced a significant expansion into private company events, developed in partnership with Nasdaq Private Market. This move directly targets the opaque and data-limited world of pre-IPO startups, allowing users to trade on corporate milestones.
Consequently, the new markets aim to provide price discovery for nearly 1,600 unicorns valued at over $5 trillion worldwide. The platform noted that there are nearly 1,600 unicorns worldwide with a combined valuation exceeding $5 trillion, despite access remaining largely limited.
However, retail traders still generate the vast majority of activity in this sector. An April report by Bitget Wallet and Polymarket data shows that retail accounted for 80% of prediction market volume in March.
Meanwhile, institutional participation is nonetheless increasing as regulatory and infrastructure conditions improve. Bernstein recently pointed to the first institutional block trade on Kalshi as a key milestone for the entire sector.
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