Polymarket acquires QCEX for $112M

Polymarket announced that it acquired derivatives exchange QCEX for $112 million on Monday.

The deal allows Polymarket to re-enter the US market, which it left after settling with the CFTC in 2022. The regulator fined the prediction market $1.4 million at the time.

“The transaction marks a significant step toward expanding access to Polymarket’s category-defining platform in the United States, enabling more users than ever to trade prediction market contracts with regulatory clarity and confidence,” a press release announcing the acquisition said.

“Now, with the acquisition of QCEX, we are laying the foundation to bring Polymarket home — re-entering the US as a fully regulated and compliant platform that will allow Americans to trade their opinions,” CEO Shayne Coplan said.

The acquisition announcement comes after QC Exchange filed with the CFTC to be designated as a contract market.

Prediction markets, in recent years, have picked up in popularity. Just last year, the CFTC lost a court case to ban election markets in the US, which allowed Polymarket competitor Kalshi to launch such markets.

“When we began the process to obtain our DCM & DCO licenses over 4 years ago, the prediction market was in its infancy. But we have long believed in its potential to change the way people access and understand information and express their views on that information,” QCEX founder Sergei Dobrovolskii said.

Earlier this summer, Bloomberg reported that Polymarket was looking to raise funding at a $1 billion valuation. Bloomberg was also the first to report the acquisition.

This is a developing story.

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