Key Points: Polymarket revealed ahead of its official announcement on Tuesday that Lisa Mantell, a Goldman Sachs veteran with nearly 30 years of industry experience, has joined the company as Head of Institutional Business Growth.

Prediction markets were initially brought into the mainstream by retail traders, and the industry is now increasingly focused on bringing in institutional liquidity. On March 20, 2026, in Washington, D.C., signage outside Polymarket's pop-up bar "Situation Room." Prediction trading platform Polymarket has hired a senior executive who spent nearly 30 years at Goldman Sachs to lead its strategy of bringing in Wall Street liquidity.

Polymarket said ahead of its Tuesday announcement that Lisa Mantell will serve as Head of Institutional Business Growth. Mantell was previously a partner at Goldman Sachs, serving as global head of ETF Accelerate, the bank's internal platform dedicated to helping clients launch various investment products.

Mantell said in the announcement: "Joining Polymarket is a rare opportunity to help shape a rapidly emerging asset class at a turning point in its development. My career has been dedicated to helping institutions embrace new products and open up new markets. I look forward to bringing that experience to Polymarket, building out the institutional business, and expanding the applications of prediction markets in investment and risk management strategies."

This hire is another step in Polymarket's continued expansion following the official launch of its U.S. regulated exchange. The company has recently been recruiting aggressively across both its international and domestic U.S. platforms; earlier this month, it officially announced the appointment of Warren Jenson as Chief Financial Officer. Jenson previously worked at companies including Amazon and Delta Air Lines.

Over the past year, prediction market trading volumes have surged, driven mainly by retail traders betting on various events, and the industry is now racing to attract Wall Street institutional capital. Polymarket founder and CEO Shane Coplan said in the announcement that Mantell is the right person to lead the company's next round of business expansion. Coplan said: "Lisa's experience and connections in the institutional space are world-class."

Institutional adoption of prediction markets is still at an early stage. New York State is suing platforms over who has the authority to regulate sports-related event contracts, and due to this legal dispute, some institutions remain on the sidelines. But that has not stopped major platforms from courting large trading clients. Rival Kalshi facilitated the first-ever institutional block trade in prediction markets in April of this year. These large trades, completed through private negotiation, can avoid the sharp price swings caused by public matching and are standard practice on Wall Street. A month later, Polymarket's international platform, built on the Polygon public blockchain and not subject to U.S. regulation, also completed its own first block trade. Brokers serving early institutional participants in prediction markets said Polymarket has already held discussions about conducting block trades on its U.S. regulated exchange and is very close to making it happen. Polymarket declined to comment on the progress of block trades on its domestic U.S. platform.