Here is your Forbes daily briefing for Friday, February 20th. Today on Forbes, VCs are throwing

money at recent college grads to build prediction markets. When venture capitalist Mark Goldberg

looks at the year ahead, he's certain of one thing. Prediction markets will be one of his main areas of investment.

Goldberg, co-founder and managing partner of San Francisco's chemistry, says, quote,

prediction markets are moving so quickly into the mainstream in a way where I think the amount of

money being traded is going to go 100x in the next five years.

Goldberg is not alone.

Caitlin Pintivorn, partner at Cryptofocused venture firm Paradigm, says, quote,

over the last year, it's probably been one of the most popular areas for the places

that we see new founders gravitate towards.

In 2025, prediction markets exploded with millions of users wagering more than $40 billion on the two leading platforms,

Kalshi and Polymarket. That momentum has only grown in the new year, as traders wagered more

than $10 billion across the two sites in January alone,

including a staggering $550 million on the winners of Super Bowl 60.

Neither platform is profitable yet, but recent infusions of equity capital from investors

ranging from Sequoia Capital to New York Stock Exchange parent

Intercontinental Exchange have valued Kalshi at $11 billion and Polly Market at $9 billion.

New funding rounds in 2025, totaling $3.7 billion, have turned Polly Market's 27-year-old founder

Shane Coplin and both of Kalshie's 29-year-old

co-founders into billionaires. Even more promising for the budding industry is support from the Trump

administration. Both Kalshi and Polymarket count Donald Trump Jr. as an investor.

Given the strong regulatory tailwinds and investor enthusiasm,

...