Personelle Neuaufstellung: Geht Polymarket an die Börse?

Coincamps · 2026-09-21T02:47:42.000Z

Am 20. September kursiert auf X ein Screenshot zum Thema „Binance Wallet steht kurz davor, Polymarket Pre-IPO zu starten“. Polymarket wurde 2020 von Shayne Coplan gegründet, der als CEO fungiert. Nutzer können ihr Geld nutzen, um auf mögliche Ausgänge von Politik, Sport und globalen Ereignissen zu handeln. Anfang September berichteten Medien, dass 1789 Capital eine Finanzierungsrunde in Höhe von etwa 1 Milliarde US-Dollar anführt und damit die Bewertung der Plattform nach der Investition auf 21 Milliarden US-Dollar anhebt. Wenn man es durch die Brille von „an die Börse gehen“ betrachtet, ergeben die Reihe von Schritten, die Polymarket in den vergangenen Monaten unternommen hat, plötzlich Sinn: Eine Gruppe von Führungskräften von Amazon, Uber, der NYSE, Coinbase und Robinhood ist in rascher Folge hinzugekommen; die Macht im US-Geschäft wurde neu verteilt; das On-Chain-Orderbuch bereitet sich darauf vor, abgerissen und neu geschrieben zu werden; und das Unternehmen hat außerdem begonnen, Positionen für CFO, Compliance, Risikokontrolle und Government Relations zu besetzen.

On September 20, a screenshot about "Binance Wallet is about to launch Polymarket Pre-IPO" is circulating on X.
Polymarket was founded in 2020 by Shayne Coplan, who serves as CEO. Users can use funds to trade on the possible outcomes of politics, sports, and global events. In early September, media reports said that 1789 Capital is leading a financing round of about $1 billion, bringing the platform's post-investment valuation to $21 billion.
If viewed through the lens of "going public," Polymarket's series of moves over the past few months suddenly make sense: a group of executives from Amazon, Uber, the NYSE, Coinbase, and Robinhood have joined in quick succession; power in the U.S. business has been redistributed; the on-chain order book is preparing to be torn down and rewritten; and the company has also begun filling positions for CFO, compliance, risk control, and government relations.
It appears the platform is equipping itself with a skeleton more like that of a financial company.
Executives from major companies parachute in to pave the way for an IPO
On September 10, Warren Jenson joined Polymarket as its first company-level CFO. He previously served as a finance chief at Amazon and several other giants, and has long been responsible for the financial, capital strategy, and long-term planning of large companies.
A few days later, Collin McKinney Hill, who was formerly a general manager at DoorDash and chief of staff to the founder of Bridgewater, became vice president of operations.
Other core personnel include Travis VanderZanden, who previously worked at Uber, in charge of growth; former Coinbase executive Dan Lee in charge of the U.S. business; former Robinhood executive Megan McGrath as chief compliance officer; and Hayk Mkrtchyan, who was previously responsible for the core matching system at the NYSE, as head of engineering for Polymarket's U.S. exchange.
These people's backgrounds come from different companies, yet they respectively correspond to several of the gaps most easily exposed at a large financial platform: finance, operations, growth, U.S. business, compliance, product, and trading infrastructure are almost all being overhauled.
According to The Information, Dan Lee, who was recruited from Coinbase, has already gradually taken over Polymarket's U.S. business at the actual working level. According to people close to the company, employees report to Lee, not to the nominal CEO of the U.S. business, Justin Hertzberg.
The more direct changes are happening within the engineering team. Josh Stevens, who joined in March of this year as VP of DeFi Engineering and previously served as Senior VP of Engineering at Aave, publicly stated that the early, hastily built code can no longer be salvaged long-term, and the team is preparing to rewrite the matching engine.
His reasoning was equally straightforward: the platform is already an exchange handling user funds, not a small product where trial and error is acceptable.
If you look at these moves through the lens of an IPO strategy, it looks very much like an emergency effort to shore up the organizational capabilities of a financial platform.
$21 billion valuation — who holds stakes in this platform?
Currently, market valuation anchors for Polymarket broadly range between $15 billion and $21 billion. The only investor with reliable, publicly available data is Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange.
As of June 30, 2026, ICE holds approximately 22% of the platform's issued shares and has the exclusive right to nominate and vote on one director. If you simply do the math, ICE's 22% stake corresponds to roughly $4.6 billion; on a fully diluted basis of 14%, it comes to approximately $2.9 billion.
Unlike ICE, other funding parties can only be roughly estimated based on the amounts invested in each round and the post-money valuation at the time: Blockchain Capital holds approximately $2.3 billion (11%), 1789 Capital holds approximately $300 million (1.4%), and CEO Coplan holds approximately $2.3 billion (11%).
Unlike ICE, other funding parties can only be mechanically extrapolated based on the amounts invested in each round, the post-money valuation at the time, or media estimates. If these percentages are uniformly applied to the $21 billion valuation, Blockchain Capital's stake, back-calculated from historical rounds, comes to approximately $2.3 billion (11%); 1789 Capital approximately $300 million (1.4%); and Coplan approximately $2.3 billion (11%).
It is worth noting that Trump Jr., the eldest son of Donald Trump, serves as a partner at 1789 Capital and was already a member of Polymarket's advisory board as early as August 2025.
Equity Transfers Packaged as an IPO
In this September 20 screenshot, what truly deserves attention may not only be Polymarket, but also Paimon Finance. The screenshot links "Polymarket's upcoming IPO" with $pPOLY, and the full name of $pPOLY is Paimon Polymarket SPV Token.
Paimon is a platform that tokenizes private equity and Pre-IPO assets. Its model is to package assets related to unlisted companies into on-chain tokens. The company has previously placed assets related to private companies such as SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic into the same product system.
Binance, mentioned in the screenshot, has also made the nature of this kind of product very clear: Pre-Access assets are provided by third parties, and the Binance wallet is only an access point; such assets do not represent direct shares in the underlying company, nor do they guarantee that the relevant company will necessarily complete an IPO in the future.
Therefore, a more accurate statement is not "Polymarket is issuing its own Pre-IPO shares," but rather "Paimon may be packaging private equity related to Polymarket into a token that can circulate on-chain."
For Polymarket, the real IPO may not have begun yet; but trading around IPO expectations has already appeared in advance.
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