Polymarket has hired Goldman Sachs veteran Lisa Mantil as head of institutional growth, a move aimed at drawing Wall Street liquidity into prediction markets. The appointment comes as the company expands after its U.S. exchange launch in May and pushes to build a deeper market structure for large traders.
What Polymarket is trying to build
The company said Mantil will help lead its effort to attract institutional participation, a step that matters because prediction markets have so far been driven mainly by retail trading. That retail surge has been tied largely to sports-related contracts, but Polymarket is now trying to widen the base of liquidity beyond small traders.
Polymarket’s founder and chief executive, Shayne Coplan, said Mantil’s experience and relationships across the institutional world are “world class.” Her mandate is not just to recruit clients, but to help shape how prediction markets fit into investment and risk-management strategies as the asset class keeps developing.
Why Mantil matters
Mantil spent nearly three decades at Goldman Sachs and most recently served as a partner and global head of the bank’s ETF accelerator, an internal platform that helped clients launch investment products. That background makes her a fit for a business that wants to look more like a market venue institutions can use, rather than a niche retail product.
In a release, Mantil said joining Polymarket gives her a chance to help shape an “exploding asset class” at an “inflection point” in its development. She also said she has spent her career helping institutions adopt new products and enter new markets, language that points directly to Polymarket’s bid to win credibility with professional investors.
The broader hiring push
Mantil is the latest in a series of additions as Polymarket scales up after the May launch of its U.S. exchange. CNBC reported in August on a wave of new hires across both the company’s international and domestic platforms, showing that the institutional push is part of a wider expansion rather than a single appointment.
Earlier this month, Polymarket also said it was hiring Warren Jenson as chief financial officer. Jenson previously held roles at Amazon and Delta Air Lines, giving the company another senior executive with experience at major U.S. businesses as it tries to broaden its operations.
Institutional adoption is still early
Prediction markets have seen volumes surge over the past year, but much of that growth has come from retail traders rather than institutions. That creates an opening for platforms that can offer more sophisticated trading tools and market structure, especially if they want to handle larger orders without moving prices sharply.
Even so, institutional adoption remains in early stages, and some players are staying on the sidelines because of a regulatory fight with states over who can oversee sports-related event contracts. The dispute has not stopped platforms from trying to win over large traders, but it has made the path to broader adoption less certain.
Block trades and market structure
One sign of that effort is the move toward block trades, which are large negotiated transactions designed to reduce price volatility. Rival Kalshi became the first exchange to complete a block trade in April, while Polymarket’s international platform completed its first block trade one month later.
Polymarket’s international venue is not regulated in the U.S. and runs on the Polygon blockchain, giving it a different operating setup from the company’s domestic exchange. Brokers working with early institutional participants have told CNBC that Polymarket has discussed block trades on its U.S. exchange and is nearing the ability to offer them, although the company declined to comment on that status.
Takeaway: By hiring Lisa Mantil, Polymarket is signaling that its next growth phase is about more than retail volume — it wants the liquidity, structure and credibility needed to court Wall Street.
