Donald Trump Jr. has joined Polymarket’s advisory board as 1789 Capital invests in the platform, tying the prediction market more closely to U.S. politics.
Prediction market Polymarket has added Donald Trump Jr. to its advisory board after a strategic investment was received from 1789 Capital, which describes itself as a politically aligned vehicle backing companies it sees as advancing “American exceptionalism.”
The financial terms were not revealed by the companies, but the investment was estimated at “double-digit millions of dollars” by Axios.
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 return to the U.S. market in a regulated manner, after users were forced to be blocked under a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) action.
In 2022, the company was fined $1.4 million by the CFTC for operating an unregistered swaps platform and was ordered to block American users. To re-establish a legal foothold, CFTC-licensed derivatives exchange QCEX was acquired for $112 million in July 2025, which coincided 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 U.S. competitor, has also repeatedly clashed with regulators over its push to list contracts on political outcomes, including control of Congress.
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The scrutiny was intensified in August when U.S. 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.
Polymarket’s Next Phase: Election Betting and Regulatory Challenges
During the 2024 U.S. presidential race, more than $3.6 billion in bets were handled by Polymarket, with roughly $2.7 billion being staked on the Trump–Harris matchup alone. That surge of activity drew criticism from several U.S. lawmakers.
In Aug. 2024, a letter was written by Senators Elizabeth Warren, Jeff Merkley and others 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, it was reported on July 21 that Polymarket was finalizing a $200 million funding round valuing the platform at $1 billion.
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The platform also published a U.S. rulebook in August, and digital ads were run in the U.S. that same month promoting its return.
