Polymarket hires Goldman Sachs veteran Lisa Mantil to boost Wall Street liquidity

Polymarket just poached one of Goldman Sachs’ most seasoned equities executives, and the move tells you everything about where prediction markets are headed. Lisa Mantil, who served as a managing director at Goldman since 2009 and made partner in 2018, is joining the crypto-native betting platform to help attract institutional capital and deepen Wall Street liquidity.

The hire is part of an aggressive executive recruitment blitz that has seen Polymarket bring on at least four senior leaders in roughly five weeks, transforming what was once a scrappy DeFi experiment into something that looks a lot more like a traditional exchange.

A Goldman pedigree meets prediction markets

Mantil’s background is in program trading and equities execution, the kind of infrastructure plumbing that makes large-scale institutional trading possible. At Goldman, she spent nearly two decades building the systems and relationships that let big money move efficiently through markets.

Mantil isn’t the only heavy hitter Polymarket has recruited. Warren Jenson, who previously served as finance chief at Amazon and Nielsen, was appointed as the company’s first-ever CFO.

The hiring spree also pulled talent from Robinhood, Nasdaq, and Coinbase, with roles spanning compliance, product development, risk management, and marketing.

The regulatory pivot

Polymarket now operates a CFTC-regulated exchange in the US, a separate entity from its international operations that run on-chain. That regulatory distinction matters enormously.

This also positions Polymarket in direct competition with Kalshi, the other major US prediction market platform that secured CFTC approval. Where Kalshi has leaned into its regulatory-first approach from inception, Polymarket is now retrofitting that same legitimacy onto a platform that already has brand recognition and user traction.

Wall Street smells opportunity

The timing of Mantil’s hire aligns with a broader trend: traditional finance firms are increasingly eyeing prediction markets as a new trading venue. Firms like DRW and Susquehanna are reportedly hiring traders specifically to engage in prediction markets, motivated by opportunities for liquidity provision and arbitrage.

Polymarket is reportedly pursuing a funding round that could value the company at approximately $21 billion.

The company is also working to rebuild its on-chain trading capabilities alongside its regulated US offering.