The FBI seized the Polymarket CEO’s phones and electronics after the election betting platform successfully predicted Donald Trump’s victory.
Shayne Coplan, 26, was attacked at his Soho home during a dawn raid on Wednesday, sources told The Associated Press. New York Post.
The source criticized the seizure as “great political theater at its worst.”
‘They could have asked their lawyer for any of these things. “Instead, they staged a supposed raid so they could leak it to the media and use it for obvious political reasons,” the source said.
Coplan was reportedly not arrested or given a reason for the raid, but it is believed to be related to his accurate predictions that flouted traditional polls.
Predictions wunderkind Shane Coplan (pictured) and his new company Polymarket turned out to be more accurate than pollsters as traders bet on an easy victory for Donald Trump.
“This is obvious political retaliation by the outgoing administration against Polymarket for providing a marketplace that correctly called the 2024 presidential election,” the source added.
Polymarket signaled for weeks that Trump would win, and the previously low-profile site turned out to be right, despite surprising many experts.
Coplan said in a post on X after the results were announced: “Make no mistake, Polymarket called the election on its own before anything else.” The global truth machine is here, powered by the people.”
In a statement to the New York Post, Polymarket said it is a “fully transparent prediction market.”
“We charge no commissions, take no trading positions, and allow observers around the world to analyze all market data as a public good.”
Coplan has, until now, stayed out of the spotlight.
But after his site, which invited users to bet money on a certain outcome, managed to foreshadow the results of the US election on November 5, it has drawn praise from Elon Musk and US statistician Nate Silver.
Silver, one of many experts who predicted the election would be extremely close, was so impressed that he joined the company as an advisor.
But following his predictions, the FBI confiscated the CEO’s phone and electronic devices.
But some critics question Polymarket’s reliability and its representativeness of the American public.
The site has humble beginnings: Coplan shared a photo of his “office” four years ago that was actually in his bathroom.
The young businessman has kept his personal political leanings a secret, but he recently went to have breakfast with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Coplan said the company’s profile improved after it correctly called Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race.
However, he states that his site remains strictly non-partisan.
“We’re just market nerds who think prediction markets provide the public with a much-needed alternative data source,” Coplan previously said. “The polymer market is not about politics.”
Polymarket, Kalshi and other betting platforms quickly emerged as a way to put money into elections and gauge who is ahead, after successive cycles in which pollsters’ forecasts crashed and burned.
A financier managed to earn around $85 million by betting on elections through Polymarket.
The anonymous individual is a French citizen who had 11 accounts on the platform, according to the Wall Street Journal. Americans cannot trade on the platform.
Punters make ‘trades’ with a candidate and get paid if they back the correct outcome.
Coplan was reportedly not arrested or given a reason for the raid, but it is believed to be related to his accurate predictions that flouted traditional polls.
More and more bets on a favorite increase a candidate’s odds, while reducing bettors’ returns.
On election night it quickly became clear that the betting markets were right.
The polls, which involve polling voters on how they plan to vote and then processing that data, had suggested a close race, even in the seven swing states that decided the race.
But they underestimated Trump’s support nationwide, and by as much as four percentage points in battlegrounds like North Carolina, Nevada and Arizona, according to Friday’s count.
DailyMail.com has contacted the FBI for comment.