The prediction marketplace Polymarket has incorporated Donald Trump Jr. into its advisory panel following a tactical investment from 1789 Capital, which characterizes itself as a politically oriented entity supporting firms it views as promoting “American exceptionalism.”
The companies did not disclose financial specifics, but Axios estimated the investment to be in the “double-digit millions of dollars.”
Trump Jr. became a stakeholder in the fund in 2024. In a statement on Tuesday, he asserted that “Polymarket cuts through media narratives and so-called ‘expert’ opinions by enabling individuals to wager on what they genuinely believe will occur in the world.”
This investment comes after Polymarket’s initiatives for a regulated return to the US arena, following a mandate to block users due to a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) action.
In 2022, the CFTC penalized the organization $1.4 million for managing an unregistered swaps platform and mandated it to prevent American users from accessing it. To regain a lawful presence, it purchased the CFTC-licensed derivatives platform QCEX for $112 million in July 2025, aligning with the conclusion of CFTC and Department of Justice inquiries into the platform.
Polymarket entered the market in 2020, enabling users to bet cryptocurrency on various topics from presidential races to celebrity scandals. The platform rapidly evolved into one of the largest prediction systems globally, attracting millions in daily transactions while also facing scrutiny from regulators.
Kalshi, the main competitor of Polymarket in the US, has similarly encountered repeated confrontations with regulators over its attempts to list contracts based on political outcomes, including congressional control.
The scrutiny heightened in August when US Representative Dina Titus requested the CFTC to examine Brian Quintenz, a former commissioner put forward for the agency’s chair, who also serves on Kalshi’s board — raising conflict-of-interest issues that postponed his Senate confirmation.
Election betting, regulation and Polymarket’s upcoming phase
During the 2024 US presidential campaign, Polymarket processed over $3.6 billion in wagers, with approximately $2.7 billion wagered solely on the Trump-Harris contest. This spike in activity attracted criticism from numerous US legislators.
In August 2024, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley, and others sent a letter to the CFTC advocating for a prohibition on election betting.
They contended that permitting individuals to place “extraordinary wagers while concurrently donating to a specific candidate or party, and political insiders betting on elections utilizing non-public data, will further undermine public faith in the electoral process.”
This sentiment has also been reiterated in sports. The National Football League (NFL) recently cautioned that prediction markets like Polymarket present integrity risks, asserting that without the compliance and monitoring systems necessary for licensed sportsbooks, such platforms could expose games to manipulation.
Despite ongoing criticism, on July 21, Polymarket was reported to be securing a $200 million financing round valuing the platform at $1 billion.
The platform also released a US rulebook in August and ran digital advertisements in the US that same month promoting its comeback.
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