Who is Shayne Coplan? World’s youngest self-made billionaire with Trump link was once raided by FBI

Shayne Coplan is the founder of the world’s largest prediction market, Polymarket. At 27, the American tech bro has now climbed another milestone. Thanks to the New York Stock Exchange’s (NYSE) parent company Intercontinental Exchange Inc investing $2 billion into the platform, the tech maverick has not just entered the billionaire club, but is now also the youngest self-made billionaire in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The up-and-coming tech titan broke the anticipated investment news via his social media account, proclaiming that the $2 billion in-flow would raise Polymarket’s valuation to $9 billion post-money.

Digging deeper into the company’s origin story, he wrote, “The past two years have been surreal. 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. That’s entrepreneurship: willing things into existence.”

Sharing his personal insight into how the company’s foundation changed his own life, he added, “t the onset of the pandemic, I quite literally had nothing to lose: 21, running out of money, 2.5 years since I dropped out and nothing to show for it. But I knew we were entering an era where ways to find truth would matter more than ever, and Polymarket could play a critical role in that.”

Breaking down two other prior funding rounds that had gone unannounced, Coplan disclosed that before ICE stepped in, Founder Fund led a $150 million round into his company, bringing its valuation to $1.2 billion. Even before that, he revealed that Blockchain Capital was behind a $55 million round, which initially valued Polymarket at $350 million, before the yesteryear election.

Who is Shayne Coplan?

The now-27-year-old launched Polymarket in June 2020. At the time, he didn’t even have a formal office for the platform’s formal conception, as he worked out of his apartment’s bathroom. Earlier this week, Shayne looked back at those old days and re-shared a post he made last year. “2020, running out of money, solo founder, HQ in my makeshift bathroom office,’ he wrote back then on X. “Little did I know Polymarket was going to change the world.”

Having previously dropped out of New York University, Shayne had long harboured dreams of skyrocketing in the crypto world. While he’s cracked the billionaire status now, he was so broke that he had to taken an inventory of his Lower East Side apartment in an attempt to sell his possession to pay the rent, as per Bloomberg.

In 2019, he turned to economist Robin Hanson’s teachings on prediction markets, looking at ways how they could reel in significant changes while factoring in outcomes. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Coplan found the perfect time during the lockdown to develop an app for all those people wanting to bet on real-world outcomes as they were stuck at home.

Over four years after the platform’s June 2020 launch, Shayne Coplan’s New York City apartment was raided by the FBI over allegations of illegal trading. The issue arose out of Polymarket wagering “correctly and controversially in Donald Trump’s favour in bets on who would win the presidential election, even though opinion polls showed a tight race,” the NBC News stated.

As a result, the Polymarket founder’s devices were confiscated, especially since the platform had come under scanner for over $3.6 billion pouring in from bets on the US presidential election, as per the news outlet’s analysis. Meanwhile, Coplan defended the platform, calling it “nonpartisan.” He further grumbled on X, “It’s discouraging that the current administration would seek a last-ditch effort to go after companies they deem to be associated with political opponents. Polymarket has provided value to 10’s of millions of people this election cycle, while causing harm to nobody.”

Polymarket founder’s professional background

Before his Polymarket days, Coplan was working on a crypto staking platform called Union. According to the Trading View, Shayne even contributed numerous smaller crypto projects while he was still in school.

His official LinkedIn profile shows that interned at Chronicles and Genius in the 2010s. His education listings indicate he briefly pursued the Bachelor of Science in Computer Science at New York University. Meanwhile, he completed his schooling from The Beacon School.

Shayne Coplan and Polymarket’s Trump link

Beyond Coplan’s name appearing in the same breath as Donald Trump due to the election bets, his company found a significant backer in 1789 Capital, which features the Republican leader’s son Donald Trump Jr as a ‘Partner,’ according to its official Team roster displayed on the website. The Palm Beach-based growth equity firm invested in Shayne’s site before the 2024 election, in addition to its this year’s contributions as well.

Even more importantly, the inked deal brought on Don Jr as an advisor to the crypto-based prediction market.

Polymarket, which made a crucial comeback this year, also has Peter Thiel (Founders Fund), and Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin as its investors. The platform is back on its upward graph following the conclusion of two federal investigations that resulted in no charges being filed against the marketplace, as per CNBC.

As the Trump administration dropped the probes initiated under the Biden administration, a person familiar with the issue told the US new agency in July: “Polymarket has received declination notices from the US Justice Department and Commodity Futures Trading Commission related to investigations into the company.” It was finally allowed to serve US customers again in September 2025 after receiving a CFTC approval.