Polymarket closes the first trading block with a push for institutional acceptance

Prediction market platform Polymarket has completed its first block trade in an infrastructure-related artificial intelligence contract, the company exclusively shared with CNBC.

The six-figure transaction was between FalconX, a digital asset brokerage, and Anera Labs, a trading technology startup. FalconX and Anera Labs traded a contract related to the Ornn Compute Price Index, a benchmark. Nvidia’s The rental price of the H100 GPU chip.

“Prediction markets are emerging as one of the most dynamic areas of institutional block trading, and this transaction is proof,” said Brooke Rizzetto, head of institutional liquidity at Polymarket, in a statement. “Seeing a partner company use Polymarket to hedge real GPU computing exposure at scale is the future we’ve been building for.”

Block trades are large, privately negotiated transactions that are often conducted outside the public market to avoid price volatility. They are a common feature of stocks on Wall Street’s major trading desks.

The announcement comes barely a month after Kalshi, Polymarket’s main competitor, completed the first block trade on any prediction market platform. However, Polymarket in a statement noted that this was the first institutional prediction market for chain trading, as the company’s international platform operates on the Polygon blockchain.

Polymarket’s international trade is separate from its US location, which launched in December after it was banned from operating in the country in 2022 due to poor registration with regulators. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission – the agency’s regulator of futures markets – and the Department of Justice in July dropped their investigation into the company without charges. The CFTC regulates the US Polymarket platform.

While individual traders led the forecast for growing markets last year, platforms are increasingly looking to institutional traders as the next area of ​​growth. FalconX will serve as a dedicated market maker for block trading on Polymarket’s social media platforms, the company said.

“This transaction highlights the urgent need for financial infrastructure in the computing space,” FalconX head of global marketing Ravi Doshi said in a statement. “We are proud to partner with pioneers like Polymarket to bring deep capital and clear pricing to this important, rapidly evolving commodity market.”

Disclosure: CNBC and Kalshi have a commercial relationship that includes customer acquisition and micro investment.