Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided the apartment of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan on Wednesday. This comes a week after the bookmaker projected Donald Trump’s victory in the November 5 presidential election.
The 26-year-old businessman was visited at 6:00 am in his apartment located in SoHo, in Manhattan, New York, by United States federal agents.. They demanded that he hand over his phone and other electronic devices.according to sources cited by the local press.
The operation in Polymarket on the result of the elections generated a business volume of 3.6 billion dollars, as reported by CriptoNoticias, which has put the platform under public scrutiny.
Coplan was apparently not given an official reason for the search of his home. However, sources suspect that It is a political retaliation. This is because its platform, Polymarket, predicted Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris, in contrast to traditional polls.
An anonymous source suggested to The Post that the government could be trying to take advantage of liberal media reports accusing Polymarket to manipulate the market and its polls in favor of Trump. “This is obvious political payback by the outgoing administration against Polymarket for providing a marketplace that correctly called the 2024 presidential election,” the source stated. However, Coplan was not arrested and no charges have been brought against him, a Polymarket spokesperson confirmed.
Later, via X, Coplan himself confirmed the seizure of his phone with the message: “New phone, who is this?”, indicating that his original device was taken by the feds.
Polymarket, which typically blocks access to users in the United States, has seen some American bettors circumvent this ban by using virtual private networks (VPNs). The FBI raid comes just after Coplan announced plans to reintroduce Polymarket to the US market.
In 2022, the platform was forced to pause its operations in the United States and pay a fine of $1.4 million to resolve charges from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for operating without registration.
Since then, the platform has operated exclusively outside the US. Following the recent election, an unnamed French trader won $85 million in bets on Trump, a sum significantly larger than previous estimatesaccording to reported the Wall Street Journal.
The FBI’s action against Coplan and the subsequent investigation highlights the tensions between new cryptocurrency-based betting platforms and existing financial regulations. The situation also reflects the political implications of prediction marketsespecially in high-profile electoral contexts.
This article was created using artificial intelligence and edited by a human Editor.