This Crypto Prediction Market Founder Is Now The Youngest Self-Made Billionaire

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Polymarket founder and CEO Shayne Coplan is now the youngest self-made billionaire, according to Bloomberg.

Coplan, 27, joined the billionaire class after New York Stock Exchange owner Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE) announced a $2 billion investment in Polymarket at a $9 billion post-money valuation, Bloomberg reported on Oct. 8.

“The past two years have been surreal,” Coplan said on Oct. 7 on X, discussing ICE’s Polymarket investment. “Going from a write off to creating a category, watching our vision become a reality. The Polymarket origin story is funny because it’s a rare case of the dream being identical to how things played out. If I learned one thing, it’s that bold ideas are everywhere, hidden in plain sight. It just takes someone crazy enough to spend their life willing it into existence.”

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Coplan launched Polymarket, a blockchain-based platform that lets users bet on real-world events, in 2020 at the age of 21 after studying economist Robin Hanson’s work on prediction markets.

“This is too good of an idea to just exist in whitepapers,” Coplan said he remembered thinking at the time. “There were a million reasons why it shouldn’t work, countless arguments of why not to do it, and the odds were against us, but we had to try.”

Polymarket’s breakout year came in 2024. The platform’s U.S. presidential election market earned it mentions in mainstream media, as some experts said that prediction markets could be more accurate than traditional polls. That market attracted $3 billion in bets.

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But Polymarket’s journey has predictably not been without hurdles. In 2022, the platform was fined $1.4 million by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over allegations that it was offering illegal trading services in the U.S.

As part of the settlement, Polymarket also said that it had blocked U.S. users. But trading volumes during the U.S. elections caused regulators to suspect otherwise. A week after the election, FBI agents raided Coplan’s home and seized electronic devices.

But Polymarket’s fortunes have changed as U.S. regulators have softened their stance on the cryptocurrency industry in President Donald Trump’s second term. In July, the Department of Justice and CFTC dropped their investigations into the platform. Also in July, Polymarket acquired CFTC-licensed exchange QCEX to re-enter the U.S. market.

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“Against all odds,” Coplan said on X on Oct. 7, sharing a picture of himself working on Polymarket in 2020 from his “makeshift bathroom office.”

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This article This Crypto Prediction Market Founder Is Now The Youngest Self-Made Billionaire originally appeared on Benzinga.com

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