The story behind Polymarket and its 27-year-old founder who built the company from his bathroom
Shayne Coplan, the 20-something founder of the predictions market Polymarket, is being dubbed a record-breaking billionaire.
Polymarket founder and CEO Shayne Coplan is now being described as a record-breaking billionaire, after his cryptocurrency-based prediction market signed a multi-billion-dollar deal with Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) last week.
What is Shayne Coplan’s net worth?
On October 7, ICE - which is the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange - announced it would be investing up to $2 billion in Polymarket. In a statement, Coplan said the agreement included a $9 billion post-investment valuation of the online platform, which the 27-year-old founded in 2020.
According to the money magazine Forbes, Coplan’s net worth has now risen to “at least $1 billion”, given his estimated 11% stake in Polymarket.
The financial publication Bloomberg, which tracks the world’s wealthiest individuals on its Billionaires Index, says the New York native is the youngest self-made billionaire - i.e. someone who did not inherit their fortune - on its rich list.
Who is Shayne Coplan?
In a recent profile of Coplan, Bloomberg’s Tom Maloney explained that the entrepreneur “began building Polymarket from his bathroom” in 2019, ahead of the prediction market’s release midway through the following year.
Coplan had dropped out of New York University “with dreams of making it big in crypto”, Maloney adds. At the time, the Bloomberg journalist says, Coplan “was so broke that he took an inventory of his Lower East Side apartment so that he could sell belongings to make rent”.
Five years on from its launch, Polymarket has achieved “the fastest and largest valuation growth that we’ve seen in crypto”, Rob Hadick, of the venture capital firm Dragonfly, told Forbes’ Alicia Park and Nina Bambysheva.
What is a prediction market?
A prediction market is a form of online trading platform that allows users to bet on the outcome of global events - often in politics or economics - by exchanging contracts whose value is based on how these events turn out.
As prediction-market providers style themselves as suppliers of financial products, rather than as betting outlets, this allows them to sidestep laws restricting the gambling industry in certain states in the U.S.
“Prediction markets involve a collection of people speculating on a variety of events - exchange averages, election results, quarterly sales results, or even gross movie receipts,” says Katelyn Peters, an investment and personal-finance expert with Investopedia.
Polymarket’s creation in 2020 coincided with the spread of covid-19 - and the pandemic has also been among the major worldwide occurrences that the site has focused on. Traders on the prediction market have been able to speculate on a range of covid-related outcomes, such as: “New Coronavirus Pandemic in 2025?”
Polymarket backed by Trump Jr.
On top of ICE, Polymarket’s investors include Dragonfly, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, Philadelphia Eagles running-back Saquon Barkley, and the venture capital firm 1789 Capital.
Among 1789’s backers is Donald Trump Jr., the son of U.S. President Donald Trump - a man who has embraced crypto since he was sworn in for a second term at the White House in January.
Polymarket’s rise has not been without setbacks. In 2022, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission - the U.S.’s federal derivatives market regulator - fined the company $1.4 million over regulatory violations.
Polymarket was also the subject of two subsequent federal investigations, opened under the Biden administration, over allegations of rule-breaking. In November last year, indeed, FBI agents raided Coplan’s apartment in New York, seizing electronic devices from the CEO. “New phone, who dis?” Coplan posted on social media in the aftermath of the raid.
In July, however, the federal probes against Polymarket were dropped.
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