In a stunning and aggressive move, FBI agents raided the Manhattan apartment of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan early Wednesday morning, just a week after the popular betting platform accurately predicted President-elect Donald Trump’s comeback win. According to a report from the New York Post, the 26-year-old CEO was jolted awake at 6 a.m. as armed federal agents swarmed his apartment, demanding access to his cellphone and other electronic devices.
The timing of the raid has raised eyebrows, and sources close to the matter aren’t mincing words about what they see as a politically motivated spectacle. “They could have asked his lawyer for any of these things,” a source told the New York Post. “Instead, they staged a so-called raid so they can leak it to the media and use it for obvious political reasons.” This isn’t just a legal maneuver, according to insiders — it’s a show of force meant to send a message.
The raid comes at a curious moment for Polymarket, which had emerged as the leading prediction market for the 2024 election. While mainstream pollsters and pundits were skeptical of Trump’s chances, Polymarket showed a rapid surge in Trump’s odds leading up to Election Day. By the time early returns came in favoring the GOP nominee in key battleground states like Georgia and North Carolina, Trump’s likelihood of winning had climbed to over 90 percent. The site’s accuracy far outpaced that of rivals like Kalshi, drawing both praise and suspicion.
Sources close to Coplan believe the raid was a direct response to Polymarket’s accurate predictions, claiming it’s “political retribution” from the Biden Department of Justice. Allegations in left-wing media that Polymarket manipulated its data to favor Trump have been cited as a possible pretext for the raid. “This is obvious political retribution by the outgoing administration against Polymarket for providing a market that correctly called the 2024 presidential election,” the source asserted.
Despite the high-profile raid, Coplan was not arrested and currently faces no criminal charges. A spokesperson for Polymarket defended the company’s practices, saying, “Polymarket is a fully transparent prediction market that helps everyday people better understand the events that matter most to them, including elections. We charge no fees, take no trading positions, and allow observers from around the world to analyze all market data as a public good.”
The FBI has yet to comment on the raid, but Coplan seemed to address it indirectly with a cheeky post on X (formerly Twitter), writing, “New phone, who dis?” It’s a bold response, emblematic of the CEO’s irreverent style, even in the face of a federal investigation.
The incident also comes at a critical time for Polymarket, which has faced regulatory hurdles in the past. In 2022, the company was forced to halt U.S. trading and pay a $1.4 million fine to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for failing to register properly. Since then, Polymarket has operated exclusively outside the United States, though Coplan recently announced plans to return to the U.S. market. Whether this raid will complicate those plans remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: the political and legal battle surrounding Polymarket is far from over.
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