Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, invested another $600 million in prediction market platform Polymarket on Thursday, completing a funding arrangement that brings ICE’s total commitment close to $2 billion. ICE also plans to purchase up to $40 million in additional shares from existing holders. The company said the investment will not have a material impact on its financial results.

The fresh capital follows a $1 billion direct investment ICE made in October 2025, when it also secured a role as a global distributor of Polymarket’s event-driven data. That deal valued Polymarket at roughly $9 billion pre-investment. The platform allows users to trade on the outcomes of real-world events, from elections and economic data releases to geopolitical developments, with prices shifting in real time to reflect crowd expectations.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

ICE’s deepening bet arrives at a moment of intense competition and regulatory scrutiny for the prediction market sector. Rival platform Kalshi recently raised more than $1 billion at a reported $22 billion valuation and is generating an estimated $1.5 billion in annual revenue. Both platforms are racing to establish legitimacy with institutional investors while U.S. lawmakers debate whether event-based contracts should be restricted. Representatives Blake Moore and Salud Carbajal have introduced legislation that would block prediction markets from offering contracts on war and sports.

Polymarket has moved to get ahead of that scrutiny, acquiring a licensed exchange and clearinghouse earlier this year and partnering with Palantir and TWG AI to build a market surveillance system for detecting manipulation. For ICE, the investment is a signal that one of the world’s largest market infrastructure operators views prediction markets not as a novelty but as a category that could sit alongside equities and futures. The question is whether regulators will let it get there.