Shane Coplan, the 27-year-old founder of the crypto platform for betting on the outcome of real-life events Polymarket, has become the youngest self-made billionaire, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Koplan managed to get on the list thanks to a deal with the owner of the New York Stock Exchange - Intercontinental Exchange Corporation (ICE), which invests in Polymarket up to $2 billion, notes Bloomberg.

As a result of the deal with ICE, the entire Polymarket was valued at about $8 billion. Prior to that, the startup had already managed to attract at least $255 million from investors, including Peter Thiel and his Founders Fund, co-founder of the world's second largest cryptocurrency Ethereum Vitalik Buterin and the Blockchain Capital fund, Bloomberg notes, citing PitchBook data. Another notable investor was Donald Trump Jr.'s venture capital firm 1789 Capital, which invested in Polymarket before the 2024 election and again this year. The president's son also joined the company's board of directors.

A Polymarket spokesman declined to comment to Bloomberg.

Shane Coplan created Polymarket during the coronavirus pandemic. A few years after dropping out of New York University to pursue a career in the crypto industry, Coplan was left with no money and was even selling off his belongings to pay the rent, Bloomberg writes. Disillusioned with the chaos and scams of the crypto market, in 2019 he became interested in economist Robin Hanson's ideas about prediction markets and decided to put them into practice. However, his path to success was not easy: the "act first, ask permission later" approach led Paul to conflicts with regulators who forced the company to restrict access to users from the US. And after the 2024 election, in which more than $2 billion was bet through Polymarket, the FBI came to Koplan's apartment and searched it. However, with the Trump administration, Polymarket's relationship with the authorities improved: the regulatory investigations were closed, and Polymarket acquired a small licensed exchange and clearing house and was able to return to the U.S. market.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor

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