ICE Pours Extra $600M to Polymarket as Prediction Markets Hit $20B Volume

Morgan Stanley's Low-Cost Bitcoin ETF | Bitcoin ETF Outflows Hit Three-Week High

Marco Manoppo & Karon Pangestu
March 30, 2026

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Good Morning,

Prediction markets just got their clearest institutional endorsement yet: ICE is pouring another $600M into Polymarket as the sector crosses $20B in monthly volume, a threshold that puts it in the same conversation as established derivatives venues.

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In Today's Email:

What Matters: ICE Pours $600M More into Polymarket 👀
Product of the Week: Morgan Stanley's Low-Cost Bitcoin ETF 🤑
Charts: $LDO Buyback at Record Low, Bitcoin ETF Outflows 📊

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Narratives: Institutions hit exit

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WHAT MATTERS

ICE Pours Extra $600M to Polymarket as Prediction Markets Hit $20B Volume

State of play: NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) is deepening its bet on prediction markets, injecting another $600M into Polymarket as the sector crosses $20B in monthly trading volume for the first time.

ICE's latest investment follows an initial $1B made in October 2025, part of a planned $2B funding arrangement with Polymarket.
The firm may also acquire up to $40M in additional Polymarket shares from existing holders.
Financial terms and valuation remain undisclosed, pending the close of Polymarket's broader fundraising round.
Prediciton market monthly volume surged from $1.2B in early 2025 to over $20B, with unique wallets more than tripling to 840K by February 2026.
Geopolitics, macro outcomes, and US politics now drive the majority of activity, displacing crypto-native markets as the primary volume driver.

Why it matters: Valuations as high as $20B signal serious institutional appetite, but regulatory scrutiny and insider trading patterns are risks the market hasn't fully priced.

Our take: ICE's $2B commitment marks prediction markets as infrastructure-grade. Federal oversight and manipulation risks remain the sector's biggest open questions.

For builders and investors: Institutional validation at this scale is a green light to build in the prediction market stack. Watch the valuation reveal at round close for a sector-wide pricing benchmark.

PRODUCT OF THE WEEK

Morgan Stanley's Low-Cost Bitcoin ETF

Morgan Stanley filed a 0.14% sponsor fee for its proposed spot BTC ETF, undercutting every existing US rival and positioning the bank's distribution muscle as a direct channel for advisor-driven bitcoin allocation.

The fee beats Grayscale's Bitcoin Mini Trust, the current low-cost leader at 0.15%, and sits 11 basis points below BlackRock's iBIT at 0.25%.
If approved, MSBT would be the first spot bitcoin ETF issued directly by a major US bank and the first new entrant since January 2024.
Coinbase serves as prime broker and BNY Mellon handles cash custody and administration.
Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart called the pricing a "big move" and predicted a launch in early April.
Morgan Stanley's 16,000 financial advisors oversee roughly $9.3T in client assets, with the low fee removing any conflict in recommending the product.

Other cool products:

USG, a new CDP stablecoin.
Tempo, a payments-focused L1.
Nado, a spot, perps & MM all in one CLOB DEX.
YieldNest, a DeFi platform that utilizes AI-driven strategies.
Elixir, a modular blockchain protocol designed to bring liquidity.

Take a peek at our referral reward at the bottom of this issue. Share this newsletter and receive our list of 500 crypto VC individuals 👇

CHARTS OF THE WEEK

Lido DAO Eyes $20M LDO Buyback at Record Low

Source: The Block

State of play: Lido's ecosystem operations team has proposed deploying up to 10K stETH from the DAO treasury to buy back $LDO, arguing the token's 70% discount to its two-year average represents a historic dislocation from protocol fundamentals.

LDO hit an all-time low of $0.27 on Mar. 7 and currently trades near $0.31, with a market cap of roughly $260M.
The buyback could absorb ~65M tokens, or ~8% of circulating supply, executed in 1,000 stETH batches across exchanges.
The proposal is separate from Lido's NEST automated buyback, which requires ETH above $3,000 and annualized revenue exceeding $40M to activate.
Lido posted $40.5M in total revenue for 2025, a 23% year-over-year decline, though costs improved 13% and the effective take rate rose from 5% to 6.11%.
Lido holds 23% of Ethereum staking market share, with the DAO arguing price weakness has outpaced any real fundamental decline.

Our take: A buyback at depressed prices is tactically sound, but treasury-funded price support isn't a substitute for addressing why LDO is near all-time lows. Restaking competition and ETH weakness remain unresolved.

Bitcoin ETF Outflows Accelerate to $225M

Source: SoSoValue

State of play: US spot BTC ETFs recorded $171.2M in net outflows on Thursday, accelerating to $225.5M the following day, as macro uncertainty and profit-taking continued to weigh on sentiment.

BlackRock's IBIT led Thursday's outflows at $41.9M, with Fidelity, Bitwise, and Ark each seeing over $30M in redemptions.
Spot Ethereum ETFs posted $92.5M in outflows on Thursday, extending a seven-consecutive-day negative streak, the longest since December.
Ark Invest sold 495,000 ARKB shares worth $11.2M across two funds, alongside reductions in Bullish and Block Inc. positions.
Ark's selling reflects routine rebalancing, with the firm capping individual holdings at around 10% of each fund's portfolio.
One analyst attributed the outflows to short-term profit-taking and macro hedging, not a shift in long-term conviction.

Our take: Dismissing $171M in outflows as profit-taking is spin. Ethereum's seven-day streak is harder to explain away, and institutional optimism rings hollow while the US-Iran conflict remains unresolved.

QUICK BITES

Washington sues Kalshi.
Sen. Warren targets Bitmain-Trump family ties.
Morgan Stanley sets spot BTC ETF fee at 0.14%.
Strategy ended a thirteen week Bitcoin buying streak.
Prediction market txs surge on geopolitical bets, media coverage.
Ethereum builders propose ‘economic zone’ to tackle L2 fragmentation.
Lido DAO proposes $20N one-off LDO buyback as token hovers near ATL.
Canada proposes ban on crypto political donations in election integrity bill.
World Foundation subsidiary sells $65M WLD through OTC as token hits ATL.

NOTEWORTHY READS & MEME

Stacy’s read on Protocol Winding Down.
EEZ’s read on Introducing the Ethereum Economic Zone (EEZ).
Nick Almond’s read on When is a Blockchain Not a Blockchain?

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