‘We’re deeply dedicated to being non-partisan, and lately is not any other,’ Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan mentioned.
Federal regulation enforcement brokers raided the downtown New York house of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan on Nov. 13, seizing his telephone and electronics, the corporate mentioned.
The early-morning raid adopted final week’s presidential election, through which bettors on Polymarket, an offshore, crypto-fueled election playing web site, had for weeks put President-elect Donald Trump’s odds upper than the ones of Vice President Kamala Harris, in a divergence from some opinion polls.
Coplan, Polymarket’s 26-year-old founder, was once roused from his mattress in New York Town’s SoHo community at 6 a.m. through FBI brokers hard he give them his digital units, consistent with the corporate.
Polymarket declined to touch upon reviews that federal prosecutors are investigating it for allegedly permitting U.S.-based customers to guess at the website online. A spokesperson mentioned the FBI raid was once “glaring political retribution through the outgoing management towards Polymarket for offering a marketplace that as it should be known as the 2024 presidential election.”
The corporate mentioned that Coplan had no longer been arrested or taken into custody.
The FBI declined to remark. The Division of Justice and the White Space didn’t reply to requests for remark at the raid.
Coplan wrote at the social media platform X that he was once the use of a brand new telephone.
“Polymarket has supplied price to ten’s of thousands and thousands of other people this election cycle, whilst inflicting hurt to no one. We’re deeply happy with that. I’m additionally proud to mention that the way forward for The us, and particularly American entrepreneurship, hasn’t ever been brighter. Within the face of adversity, we construct.”
Within the run-up to the presidential election, Polymarket positioned Trump’s odds of successful prime above the ones of Harris, when some opinion polls had proven the race in a lifeless warmth.
Trump ended up successful the election with 312 electoral votes to Harris’s 226, as he took all six battleground states—Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—that President Joe Biden had gained in 2020.
The present standard vote overall additionally has Trump with 50.2 % of the vote, in comparison to 48.2 % for Harris. Some states are nonetheless counting ballots a couple of week after the election.
Polymarket additionally received scrutiny after a thriller French dealer, referred to as the Polymarket whale, made massive bets on Trump successful the election.
The dealer’s large wagers got here in tandem with a dramatic upward thrust in Trump’s possibilities at the exchanges.
The dealer walked away with greater than $46 million in benefit.
France’s playing regulator, Autorite Nationale des Jeux, mentioned previous in November it was once investigating Polymarket.
“We’re conscious about this website online and are lately analyzing its operation and compliance with French playing regulation,” a spokesperson instructed information retailers on the time.
Reuters contributed to this file.