Kalshi and Polymarket Jointly Invest in New Fund, a Major Step Towards “Ecosystemization” of Prediction Markets

المؤلف ｜وينسر (@وينسر 2010)

Behind the surging trading volume of prediction markets, its ecosystem is also expanding at an incredible pace.

أمس، venture capital firm 5c(c) Capital, founded by two former Kalshi employees, announced its latest fundraising plan, aiming to raise $35 million to invest in prediction market-related startups. Notably, the firm has not only secured support from Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour and Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan, but its other investors also include individuals associated with a16z, Ribbit Capital, and Multicoin Capital.

Simultaneously, this firm is both the first VC dedicated to investing in the prediction market industry and the same entity receiving investment from the two giants, Kalshi and Polymarket, which can be considered “unprecedented in the industry.” Considering previous news such as Kalshi launching a prediction market coalition, planning a prediction market conference, Polymarket opening LP market-making incentives, and the continuous emergence of various prediction market data platforms, prediction markets are gradually decoupling from the native تشفير market and becoming an independent, emerging industry ecosystem.

When an industry’s trading volume grows dozens of times within a single year, and when a single platform’s monthly volume rivals the entire industry’s volume from just a few months prior, prediction markets are aggressively encroaching on the territory of traditional betting platforms.

Polymarket CEO Invests in Former Kalshi Employees: A Shared Choice by the Prediction سوق Duopoly

It is understood that the name “5c(c) Capital” originates from the clause concerning prediction markets in the U.S. Commodity تبادل Act.

ال two founders are veteran figures from Kalshi—Adhi Rajaprabhakaran was formerly the No. 2 trader at Kalshi Trading, Kalshi’s affiliated market-making division, and is also the creator of the well-known prediction market podcast “50 Cent Dollars”; Noah Zingler-Sternig served as Kalshi’s Head of Operations (similar to COO) and led Kalshi’s integration with Robinhood Markets Inc.

Furthermore, the fund plans to invest in approximately 20 companies over the next two years, focusing on prediction market infrastructure such as market makers and index design. Its first round of fundraising is expected to be completed within the next month.

A Star-Studded Investor Lineup: Spanning Traditional VC, Crypto VC, Prediction Markets, and Traditional Sports Betting Platforms

Beyond the confirmed support from Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour and the unconfirmed but likely participation of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan, 5c(c) Capital’s other investors constitute a “star-studded lineup”—including “veteran VC” Marc Andreessen of A16z (participating via his Moneta Luna fund), Ribbit Capital founder Micky Malka, former Multicoin Capital managing partner Kyle Samani, and even industry insiders and outsiders such as an investment manager from the $70+ billion hedge fund Millennium and the founder of prediction market platform PredictIt.

If the above investor list primarily reflects the strategic interests of venture capital firms, the participation of the next two individuals can be seen as “industry-driven actions,” similar to those of Polymarket and Kalshi. It is reported that Underdog CEO Jeremy Levine and sports prediction platform Novig CEO Jacob Fortinsky are also on the list.

It’s evident that as the industry rapidly develops, prediction market platforms and even traditional sports betting platforms are striving to solidify their foundations.

The Ambition of the New Prediction Market Fund: Future Industry Volume Could Reach $10 Trillion

It’s worth noting that the two founders of 5c(c) Capital mentioned two key points in their investment documentation:

First, they explicitly stated, “We want to use the (product platforms) we build to create more secondary, tertiary, and even quaternary effects.” Their words clearly indicate their aim is not just primary investment in building prediction market platforms, but also capital investment, risk management, equity trading, and attracting more layers of liquidity inflow and outflow across various sub-sectors emerging from these platforms.

Second, regarding the industry’s future development, the document states, “While prediction markets currently seem limited to sports, this is only one part of the industry. The future trading volume of this sector could reach $10 trillion.”

Kalshi’s recent operational data might support this claim: As of March 22, Kalshi’s monthly notional trading volume had exceeded $9 billion. At this rate, Kalshi’s March volume will surpass $12.7 billion, a 21.5% increase month-over-month. For comparison, Kalshi’s total annual notional trading volume for 2025 was approximately $23.8 billion, meaning that in just one month (March), Kalshi’s volume will reach about 53.4% of last year’s total. Furthermore, the entire prediction market industry’s volume was around $10 billion in October last year; now, Kalshi alone has surpassed that figure.

Previously, Odaily predicted in multiple articles that prediction markets would become another trillion-dollar industry sector independent of the cryptocurrency market. It seems this prediction is gradually becoming a reality.

Prediction Markets Decouple from Crypto to Form Independent Ecosystem: Funds, Industry Alliances, Data Services, APIs Form a Closed Loop

In an era where AI is a major driving force in the global economy, prediction markets have become another rare, fast-growing sector, and their closed-loop ecosystem is rapidly maturing.

Beyond the $35 million industry fund mentioned above, the prediction market industry is steadily building out its own foundational infrastructure, industry organizations, and application platforms.

Last December, Coinbase announced the acquisition of prediction market platform The Clearing Company, founded by former employees of Kalshi, Polymarket, and others. Although the specific amount was not disclosed, the company had previously raised a $15 million seed round and was one of the industry’s promising challengers.

Around the same time, five prominent institutions—Kalshi, Crypto.com, Robinhood, Coinbase, and Underdog—jointly announced the formation of the Coalition for Prediction Markets (CPM). Recommended reading《Kalshi Allies with Coinbase, Robinhood, etc., Aims to End the ‘Casino’ Narrative》.

At the end of last year, Kalshi Co-founder and CEO Tarek Mansour issued a call to hold the first Prediction Market Conference in March 2026, where researchers, economists, policymakers, and traders would discuss core issues surrounding prediction markets and knowledge aggregation.

In February this year, Polymarket officially announced its second major acquisition, acquiring prediction market API startup Dome. Dome, a Y Combinator Fall 2025 batch company, provides a unified prediction market API to help developers build applications, trading bots, and dashboards that can connect to multiple platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi simultaneously. It had previously received a $500,000 investment from YC and completed a $4.7 million seed round. Polymarket’s first official acquisition was the licensed U.S. derivatives exchange QCEX, facilitating its return to the U.S. market.

As industry trading volume grows, data analytics platforms for prediction markets are also mushrooming, including: Parity, Predictefy, and KalshiData.

Moreover, on-chain trading tools and AI Agent trading tools specifically for Polymarket are numerous, such as Insiders.bot, Hubble AI، و AgentCard launched by Alchemy.

It is no exaggeration to say that the entire upstream, midstream, and downstream of prediction markets are currently filled with investment and entrepreneurial opportunities. We will explore this further in our upcoming series “Crypto Bear Market Startup Guide“.

The Trend is Set, Awaiting the Bloom

Previously, Kalshi topped the valuation charts for prediction market platforms at $22 billion, significantly higher than traditional sports betting giants like FanDuel (also known as Flutter, $19 billion), DraftKings ($12.75 billion), and bet365 ($12 billion).

Furthermore, U.S. CFTC Chairman Mike Selig has previously stated that prediction markets can become a “truth machine” and that the agency is developing regulatory rules and hiring relevant talent for them. From this perspective, prediction markets are no longer a niche sector within the crypto market but have become a major landmark emerging industry in the golden age of the U.S. financial markets.

بالرغم من reports indicate U.S. lawmakers will introduce a bipartisan bill to ban sports event predictions on platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi, this is yet another sign of prediction markets moving from the fringe to the mainstream.

After all, the survey finding that over 36% of U.S. voters are users of prediction market platforms cannot be ignored, and the consistently rising monthly trading volume data for Kalshi, Polymarket, and others doesn’t lie.

قراءة موصى بها

Why Prediction Markets Are Truly Not Gambling Platforms

The Future Battle of Prediction Markets: Casino on the Left, News on the Right

Still Not Enough? Prediction Market Giants Set Sights on Payments and AI

2025 Prediction Market Review: Total Trading Volume Exceeds $50 Billion, Duopoly Market Share Over 97.5%

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