Absorb Polymarket Old Guard, Coinbase Plunges Into Prediction Market Abyss

Original Title: "Embracing Polymarket's Old Guard, Coinbase Ventures into the Deep End of Prediction Markets"

Original Author: ChandlerZ, Foresight News

On December 22, Coinbase announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire The Clearing Company, with the transaction expected to close in January. The Clearing Company team will join Coinbase to assist in expanding its product offering. A spokesperson refused to disclose the transaction amount, stating it was "immaterial," and confirmed the deal included a combination of cash and Coinbase stock.

While the specific financial terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed, it signals Coinbase's shift in the rapidly growing prediction market space from simple distribution partnerships to deep integration of technology and talent.

Just a week before the announcement of this transaction, Coinbase had just initiated a partnership with the CFTC-regulated prediction platform Kalshi, allowing its users to access Kalshi's markets through the Coinbase interface. The acquisition of The Clearing Company is seen by the market as Coinbase's further move to acquire underlying technology infrastructure and strengthen its in-house product development capabilities.

Polymarket and Kalshi's "Hybrid Genes"

In August 2025, The Clearing Company completed a $15 million seed round with Union Square Ventures leading, along with Haun Ventures, Variant, Coinbase Ventures, Compound, Rubik, Earl Grey, Cursor Capital, and Asylum participating. The company has not yet announced a platform launch timeline but emphasizes a focus on designing products that balance simplicity and compliance.

Despite being an early-stage startup, its team composition brings a significant background advantage in the prediction market space.

According to information on the official website, The Clearing Company's core team consists of several former executives and technical leaders from Polymarket and Kalshi. The company's founder and CEO, Toni Gemayel, is a seasoned player in the prediction market space. His resume shows past roles at Polymarket and Kalshi, where he served as Head of Growth. Additionally, he has a background in designing the unicorn Figma.

In addition, The Clearing Company's core engineering team is mainly composed of early employees from Polymarket, and has also absorbed some operational staff from Kalshi.

· Liam Kovatch (Engineering): Former Head of Engineering at Polymarket;

· Niraek Jain-Sharma (Product/Markets): Former Market Lead at Polymarket;

· Sam Schwartz: Former Chief Compliance Officer at Kalshi;

· Nick Beattie and Daniel Ramirez: These two engineers also come from the Polymarket team and have experience working on projects such as Raibow and Avara.

A Coinbase spokesperson told The Block that the startup has about 10 employees, and almost all team members will join Coinbase as part of the transaction.

Relatively, The Clearing Company, despite being a newcomer, started with significantly more capital compared to Polymarket and Kalshi at the time. Contrasting the seed funding data of the three companies, it is clear how the valuation system of the prediction market track has surged in the past five years.

Even before its product went live, The Clearing Company closed a $15 million seed round led by Union Square Ventures. This amount is nearly four times the size of Polymarket's seed round back in the day. This indicates that even before the Coinbase acquisition, the primary market had already set very high expectations for this hybrid team.

Coinbase Launches Stock Trading and Prediction Market Services

During the System Update event on December 18, Coinbase announced a significant expansion of its platform's trading asset range, including stock trading, prediction markets, new cryptocurrencies, and perpetual futures, among other new services, aiming to strengthen its position as an "all-in-one trading platform."

Coinbase will first launch trading for hundreds of stocks based on market capitalization and trading volume, with plans to add thousands of stocks and ETFs in the coming months. Users can enjoy commission-free trading, unrestricted by traditional market hours, allowing for trading 24 hours a day, five days a week. Furthermore, Coinbase has partnered with the $11 billion prediction market provider Kalshi, enabling users to trade on outcomes of real-world events such as elections, sports, collectibles, and economic indicators.

Meanwhile, Coinbase also launched the AI-driven wealth management tool Coinbase Advisor and the Coinbase Business service for startups, further expanding its business scope. Company executives stated that these new features will be supported by the Coinbase Tokenize platform, which is an end-to-end institutional-grade platform designed for tokenizing real-world assets.

Recently, Coinbase, Kalshi, Crypto.com, Robinhood, and Underdog joined forces to establish the Coalition for Prediction Markets. This national organization is dedicated to maintaining a secure, transparent, and federally regulated access environment for prediction markets.

Coinbase is gradually shedding its label as a mere cryptocurrency exchange platform. With Robinhood and Interactive Brokers stepping into the prediction market, Coinbase must defend its territory. Having native prediction products will complement its spot, futures, and prediction market product matrix, allowing users to complete a full range of operations from buying Bitcoin to hedging macroeconomic risks within a single account.

The Next Stage of Competition in Prediction Markets

The acquisition of The Clearing Company is Coinbase's tenth acquisition announced in 2025. Earlier deals completed this year include Roam, Spindl, Iron Fish, Deribit, Opyn Markets, Liquifi, Sensible, Echo, and Vector.fun.

From partnering with Kalshi for distribution to securing The Clearing Company's team and technology, Coinbase's path in the prediction market is now clear. It starts with validating demand and product form through partnerships, then internalizes key capabilities through acquisitions, ultimately forming a scalable long-term business line.

Competition in the prediction market is shifting from who goes live first to who can sustainably operate in compliance in the long run. By bringing talent and technology into its ecosystem, Coinbase is evidently positioning itself ahead of time for the next stage of licensed, institutionalized competition.

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