Trump Jr. joins Polymarket board as platform pursues US return

Prediction market Polymarket has added Donald Trump Jr. to its advisory board after receiving a strategic investment from 1789 Capital, which describes itself as a politically aligned vehicle backing companies it sees advancing “American exceptionalism.”

The companies did not revealed financial terms, but Axios estimated the investment at “double-digit millions of dollars.” 

Trump Jr. became a partner in the fund in 2024. In a Tuesday statement, he said that “Polymarket cuts through media spin and so-called ‘expert’ opinion by letting people bet on what they actually believe will happen in the world.”

The investment follows Polymarket’s efforts to a regulated return to the US market, after being forced to block users under a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) action.

In 2022, the CFTC fined the company $1.4 million for operating an unregistered swaps platform and ordered it to block American users. To re-establish a legal foothold, it acquired CFTC-licensed derivatives exchange QCEX for $112 million in July 2025, coinciding with the closure of CFTC and Department of Justice investigations into the platform.

Polymarket burst onto the scene in 2020, letting users wager crypto on bets ranging from presidential elections to celebrity gossip. The platform quickly grew into one of the world’s largest prediction platforms, drawing millions in daily volume but also scrutiny from regulators.

Kalshi, Polymarket’s main US competitor, has also repeatedly clashed with regulators over its push to list contracts on political outcomes, including control of Congress.

The scrutiny intensified in August when US Representative Dina Titus urged the CFTC to investigate Brian Quintenz, a former commissioner nominated to chair the agency, who also sits on Kalshi’s board — raising conflict-of-interest concerns that delayed his Senate confirmation.

Election betting, regulation and Polymarket’s next phase

During the 2024 US presidential race, Polymarket handled more than $3.6 billion in bets, with roughly $2.7 billion staked on the Trump–Harris matchup alone. That surge of activity drew criticism from several US lawmakers.

In Aug. 2024, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley and others wrote a letter to the CFTC calling for a ban on election betting.

They argued that allowing people to place “extraordinary bets while simultaneously contributing to a specific candidate or party, and political insiders to bet on elections using non-public information, will further degrade public trust in the electoral process.”

The sentiment has also been echoed in sports. The National Football League (NFL) recently warned that prediction markets like Polymarket pose integrity risks, arguing that without the compliance and monitoring systems required of licensed sportsbooks, such platforms could leave games vulnerable to manipulation.

Despite lingering criticism, on July 21, Polymarket was reported to be finalizing a $200 million funding round valuing the platform at $1 billion.

The platform also published a US rulebook in August and ran digital ads in the US that same month promoting its return.

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