Polymarket has laid off employees and ended agreements with contractors, the prediction market confirmed in statements reported on 11 November 2026, but it has not said how many people lost their work. The company called the cuts a reorganisation for its “next phase of growth” and rejected as inaccurate a figure of 30% of its workforce that had spread on X. According to a person familiar with the matter quoted by Fox Business, more than half of those affected were contractors.
The cuts come as Polymarket hires senior executives, trails its rival Kalshi on monthly trading volume and, by press accounts, works on a $1 billion funding round. The company has not linked the layoffs to any of that.
Polymarket layoffs: what the company confirmed
A Polymarket spokesperson told Fox Business that, as the company grew and brought in new leadership, “we’ve reorganized to set the company up for its next phase of growth”. That process, the spokesperson said, meant “a lot of new hires, changes in personnel and letting some people go”.
The company added a line of thanks to departing staff: “We’re grateful to the team that got us here, and we’ll keep growing as we build what’s next.” Front Office Sports, Investing.com and CoinDesk carried the same statement; CoinDesk said Polymarket did not immediately respond to its own request for comment.
Polymarket also confirmed that an email sent to contractors, which had been circulating on X since 4 November, was genuine. Reuters reported its wording, as quoted by Fox Business: “As part of a company-wide reduction in force, we’ve made the decision to end your contractor agreement”. The end date given in the email was 4 November.
What the company did not give is a number. Posts on X on 4 and 7 November claimed that 30% of staff had been let go. Polymarket called that figure inaccurate but did not say what share of its workforce was affected. It also declined to tell Front Office Sports how many employees and contractors it has today.
Who was cut: mostly contractors, mostly marketing
The detail on who left comes from unnamed sources, not from Polymarket. A person familiar with the matter told Fox Business that the cuts mainly hit marketing, customer experience and engineering, and that some full-time employees were also let go. CoinDesk, citing a source who spoke to Reuters, also put contractors at more than half of those affected.
Front Office Sports, a sports business outlet, spoke to four people for its report of 11 November, none of whom lost their job. They described a sharp reduction in contractors, especially in marketing, which one of them said had been “heavily reorganized”. One source said the email had gone only to contractors. A handful of people in creative, growth, video and marketing roles posted online about losing their work.
Another of those sources rejected the idea that the company was short of money. “It’s not like a struggle for cash or something,” the person told Front Office Sports, adding that some full-time staff had been moved out as the company hired others.
A new CFO, a new growth chief and a fired marketing head
The reorganisation follows a run of senior hires. In September Polymarket named Warren Jenson, a former chief financial officer of Amazon, as its first CFO; Front Office Sports notes he also held the role at Electronic Arts and Delta Air Lines. Lisa Mantil joined in September from Goldman Sachs, where she spent nearly three decades, to lead institutional growth; Malea Otranto came from Meta in August as global head of trust and safety. Investing.com reports hires from DoorDash and Robinhood as well.
Marketing changed at the top too. Travis VanderZanden, a former Uber executive, joined this year as chief growth officer. Front Office Sports, citing the New York Post, reports that he replaced chief marketing officer Matthew Modabber, who was fired in October; CoinDesk says that reported dismissal followed an internal probe into alleged misconduct. Polymarket has not published the findings of any such probe, and no wrongdoing has been established in public.
A person familiar with the matter told Fox Business that the cuts came after the new leadership reviewed staffing needs and how departments should be organised. CoinDesk, citing Bloomberg, and Investing.com both report that investors had pressed founder and chief executive Shayne Coplan to bring “more discipline” to the business.
Kalshi leads on volume, and a $21 billion round is in the reports
Polymarket was the largest prediction market. It no longer is. Kalshi has overtaken it on monthly trading volume, Reuters reported according to Fox Business, and CoinDesk reaches the same conclusion from DefiLlama data. Neither outlet published the monthly figures behind the ranking. Front Office Sports cites a report by the newsletter Predicted that gave Kalshi 73% of prediction market volume in the third quarter and Polymarket about 18%.
Kalshi also holds the higher price tag. It raised $1 billion at a $40 billion valuation on 29 October, days after Utah filed criminal charges against it and its founders.
For Polymarket, the money side rests partly on its own figures and partly on reports. The company told CNBC on 10 November that its annualised revenue had passed $1.8 billion, up from more than $1 billion in June, and credited its US exchange. That is a run rate given by the company, not audited revenue. CNBC also reported that Polymarket had begun a $1 billion funding round valuing it at $21 billion. A source told Front Office Sports that the round, led by 1789 Capital, the fund linked to Donald Trump Jr., is being finalised. Polymarket has not announced it.
Two of the outlet’s sources said the reorganisation aims to “professionalize” the company before a possible go-public deal, which could come as soon as 2027. Polymarket has said nothing in public about a listing.
The last investment the company itself confirmed came from Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange. ICE made a $1 billion direct investment in October 2025 and said in a release on 27 March 2026 that it had completed a further $600 million direct cash investment, part of an equity fundraising by Polymarket.
A year of relaunch, exploits and scrutiny
The cuts close a busy year. Polymarket returned to the US through QCEX, a CFTC-licensed exchange and clearing house it bought for $112 million in July 2025, and its US-regulated exchange now runs alongside the blockchain-based international site. CNBC, citing TickerTracker data, puts the US exchange at more than $14.5 billion of notional volume in October, against $4 billion in June. Our profile of Polymarket traces that path, from the 2022 CFTC fine to the US app.
Security has been the other story. On 29 October the company halted trading after a vendor script drained about $2.65 million from users, its second vendor exploit since June. A proposed Polygon hard fork to return about 70 million POL to Polymarket and Binance had no decision as of 9 November. No outlet has tied either episode to the job cuts.
Regulators are watching as well. CNBC reported on 10 November that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is conducting a broad investigation into the company, with questions about its advertising and about whether it broke an earlier settlement that barred US residents from its international exchange. Polymarket did not address the inquiry in its statements on the layoffs.
Why the headcount matters, and what is still unknown
Prediction markets let people buy and sell contracts that pay out if an event happens, so prices act as a running estimate of the odds. Our guide to how prediction markets work explains how Polymarket and Kalshi differ. For users, the teams named as hit include customer experience, the people who answer account and payout questions. Polymarket has not said whether support hours or channels change.
Several points remain open. Polymarket has not given the number of people cut or the size of its staff today. The round reported by CNBC and Front Office Sports has not been announced, and the 2027 listing rests on two unnamed sources. The company answered none of this in its statements on 11 November.
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