Breaking News: Polymarket CEO's Home Is Raided by FBI

[TomPluz]

Federal law enforcement officials raided the home of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan on Wednesday.

The prediction market was a breakout success in the U.S. presidential election, a platform where billions of dollars worth of bets were placed on the outcome. Polymarket traders viewed Donald Trump as the likely winner, as indeed he was.

The raid was confirmed by a Polymarket spokesperson. The New York Post and Axios reported the news earlier. According to the Post, the feds took Coplan's phone and other electronic devices. By all accounts, Coplan has not been arrested or charged with any wrongdoing.

"This is obvious political retribution by the outgoing administration against Polymarket for providing a market that correctly called the 2024 presidential election."

Polymarket is supposed to block U.S. persons from accessing its services, after coming to a settlement with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 2022.

This news is taken from Yahoo! Finance.


This can be one of the last actions done under the Biden administration that touched on players that has something to do with the cryptocurrency industry and its supporting industries. While I believe that the feds may have some basis for its action, this is really leaving some bitter taste on the mouth. While Polymarket was generally favoring Trump on its platform as predicting correctly what can be in the election, the CEO was actually a donor to the failed billion-dollar campaign of Kamala Harris which eventually did not save him from the lawfare still happening under Biden. the good news is that Shayne Coplan is not charged with anything...maybe he should be prosecuted for allowing Trump be the winner (just kidding).

How do you see this development? And do you think there can be more surprises like this before January 20?

[ABCbits]

I also tried searching about this news on different media, but it seems FBI haven't give reason behind this raid. I find it's weird since i expect them to mention common reason/excuse such as lack of KYC (to prevent underage from betting) or AML.

[Baofeng]

“It’s discouraging that the current administration would seek a last-ditch effort to go after companies they deem to be associated with political opponents,” Coplan wrote. “We are deeply committed to being non-partisan, and today is no different, but the incumbents should do some self-reflecting and recognize that taking a more pro-business, pro-startup approach may be what would have changed their fate this election.”

The Department of Justice is investigating Polymarket for allegedly allowing US-based users to bet on the site, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday evening.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/nov/13/fbi-raid-polymarket-founder-trump-election

So as per DOJ, Polymarket allowed US based citizens to bet on their platform. I'm not sure though if US citizens are not allowed to bet on political events and in this case the US election.

Doesn't make sense again, it could be that they just wanted to go after Poly of gambling per se, or it just that they have Trump winning the election.

[MrSpasybo]

This can be one of the last actions done under the Biden administration that touched on players that has something to do with the cryptocurrency industry and its supporting industries. While I believe that the feds may have some basis for its action, this is really leaving some bitter taste on the mouth. While Polymarket was generally favoring Trump on its platform as predicting correctly what can be in the election, the CEO was actually a donor to the failed billion-dollar campaign of Kamala Harris which eventually did not save him from the lawfare still happening under Biden. the good news is that Shayne Coplan is not charged with anything...maybe he should be prosecuted for allowing Trump be the winner (just kidding).

How do you see this development? And do you think there can be more surprises like this before January 20?

For what happened at the end of 2020, this election was more peaceful and we did not witness any extreme events after the final results. I thought Trump would still be inaugurated at the end of January and we would begin a new era for crypto in the US and then globally.

Polymarket had a huge impact on the election outcome, I think it made many voters believe more in Trump win and everyone wanted to be on the side of the correct prediction, so they tended to vote for Trump. It's a psychological issue, I'm just not sure if the results on Polymarket were truly fair and determined transparently. I don't have any evidence to accuse or defend the Polymarket CEO, I will follow this lawsuit and hope that it will not have any negative impact on crypto.

[Gurujebs]

How do you see this development? And do you think there can be more surprises like this before January 20?

It's actually illegal to involved US election to gambling but the fact that it was a decentralized platform, I'm not sure if there is any law that criminalized such kind of activities. If his case becomes big, if Trump comes to the white house, his case will be table and will be free from any investigation unless if there is another crime he might have done.

I don't trust the government though, don't be surprised if they investigate and says he is been acquainted with money laundering. Those are the kind of investigations they are very good in but can't track terrorist where they are for years.

[Lucius]

Everyone is innocent until proven otherwise - and I doubt that this is about any political calculations of the new and old administrations, because everything they managed to do in such a short time can very easily be canceled when the new president officially takes office.

Besides, haven't you read what is planned by the geniuses who have already been chosen by Mr. Donald? They are planning to dissolve this very agency we are talking about and roughly lay off about 1.5 million people who work in state agencies 

https://2paragraphs.com/2024/11/trump-ag-pick-matt-gaetz-threatened-we-defund-abolish-the-fbi/

[yhiaali3]

They accuse Polymarket of manipulating the US election by placing $3.7 billion in bets on the “Winner 2024” market, leading some critics to question the platform’s influence on the outcome of the presidential election. That’s nonsense, of course.

A Polymarket spokesperson described the raid as “clear political retaliation” against the Biden administration. I don’t know if that’s true, but since they didn’t arrest CEO Shayne Coplan and only confiscated his phone and electronics, they don’t have any evidence against him. They may have taken his personal belongings to find any evidence.

[electronicash]

They accuse Polymarket of manipulating the US election by placing $3.7 billion in bets on the “Winner 2024” market, leading some critics to question the platform’s influence on the outcome of the presidential election. That’s nonsense, of course.

A Polymarket spokesperson described the raid as “clear political retaliation” against the Biden administration. I don’t know if that’s true, but since they didn’t arrest CEO Shayne Coplan and only confiscated his phone and electronics, they don’t have any evidence against him. They may have taken his personal belongings to find any evidence.

CEOs are being targeted just this year alone 2 of them were targeted such as TON CEO and this time Polymarket CEO. maybe they are not yet done. but confiscating the phones and other electronics seem like a confiscation of assets especially if they find the private keys in the drive inside those electronics.

is the reason is US citizen is betting on its market as what i read. why didn't file lawsuit to the market instead?
surprisingly they accepted money from this guy in support for Kamala which i guess they couldn't file a lawsuit for operating a gambling platform.

[bitterguy28]

to me it feels unnecessary for them to raid his house what were they trying to find? they were already investigating his company but why go and search his house? as if he had hidden a person there lol it’s giving me a hard time to think about why they would do this aside from simply disrespecting crypto ceos/platforms

How do you see this development? And do you think there can be more surprises like this before January 20?

with bitcoin doing so well and many projects coming out i think so there’s still 2 months left under this presidency and sec can still pretty much do anything until the chair gets replaced so i believe this will not be the last act of injustice towards cryptocurrency that we will see

[Gposas]

How do you see this development? And do you think there can be more surprises like this before January 20?

It's actually illegal to involved US election to gambling but the fact that it was a decentralized platform, I'm not sure if there is any law that criminalized such kind of activities. If his case becomes big, if Trump comes to the white house, his case will be table and will be free from any investigation unless if there is another crime he might have done.

From my own reasoning, I don't see any fault in creating a betting pool for the US Presidential Election, comprehending that betting is just a game of luck and also a way of generating funds by the betting company.
Since most citizens can predict to win, it's a boost to join the tour and on the other hand a reason to vote for the candidate predicted on the bet of any citizen who placed a bet.

Else there are some constitutional laws that set limits to the betting company in the US, though I'm not from there.
Cause in most cases of betting, people place bets on alot of things other than sports on the physical world, how much more on a Decentralized world.

[yhiaali3]

is the reason is US citizen is betting on its market as what i read. why didn't file lawsuit to the market instead?
surprisingly they accepted money from this guy in support for Kamala which i guess they couldn't file a lawsuit for operating a gambling platform.

According to what I read on Cointelegraph:

US residents are prohibited from placing bets on the platform, but some Americans may be able to circumvent this ban using virtual private networks (VPNs).

Polymarket has been checking to ensure that the “whales” who placed large bets ahead of the US presidential election are located outside the US.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/polymarket-checks-for-banned-us-users-amid-media-scrutiny

This means that there may have been some manipulation by US users, but Polymarket can’t be blamed if they were using a VPN. Polymarket has verified that the whales are located outside the US, but it’s difficult for them to track all of their users.

[ABCbits]

is the reason is US citizen is betting on its market as what i read. why didn't file lawsuit to the market instead?
surprisingly they accepted money from this guy in support for Kamala which i guess they couldn't file a lawsuit for operating a gambling platform.

According to what I read on Cointelegraph:

US residents are prohibited from placing bets on the platform, but some Americans may be able to circumvent this ban using virtual private networks (VPNs).

Polymarket has been checking to ensure that the “whales” who placed large bets ahead of the US presidential election are located outside the US.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/polymarket-checks-for-banned-us-users-amid-media-scrutiny

This means that there may have been some manipulation by US users, but Polymarket can’t be blamed if they were using a VPN. Polymarket has verified that the whales are located outside the US, but it’s difficult for them to track all of their users.

FBI probably doesn't care about that and would just mention they don't perform identity verification, while most online casino does that.

[Zed0X]

~
It's actually illegal to involved US election to gambling but the fact that it was a decentralized platform, I'm not sure if there is any law that criminalized such kind of activities.

Does it really matter if it was centralized or decentralized when there was already a previous agreement (2022) between Poly and the US Government that they cannot allow Americans to use their platform?

Since there was basis, the raid is fair. He'll be charged once they found out he didn't do enough to prevent US citizens.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

They accuse Polymarket of manipulating the US election by placing $3.7 billion in bets on the “Winner 2024” market, leading some critics to question the platform’s influence on the outcome of the presidential election. That’s nonsense, of course.

A Polymarket spokesperson described the raid as “clear political retaliation” against the Biden administration. I don’t know if that’s true, but since they didn’t arrest CEO Shayne Coplan and only confiscated his phone and electronics, they don’t have any evidence against him. They may have taken his personal belongings to find any evidence.

Government can do anything to any length to make sure that they deal with everyone interested to making things get more difficult for them, though as of this case, they are only working on assumption because all these are not going to work as they thought, because the intention was not to make manipulation, but instead to support for both bitcoin and the presidential candidate financial demands towards the election.

[yhiaali3]

Government can do anything to any length to make sure that they deal with everyone interested to making things get more difficult for them, though as of this case, they are only working on assumption because all these are not going to work as they thought, because the intention was not to make manipulation, but instead to support for both bitcoin and the presidential candidate financial demands towards the election.

Yes, it is true that the government can do anything, even this illegal raid on Coplan's apartment.

But in this case, I expect the results will be the opposite of what they wish, this unwise action by the losing Biden government will increase the popularity of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies and show that Trump definitely deserves to win.