After the election, Polymarket was hailed as a "truth machine." However, the more popular it is, the more calm we should be about it. After all, there are still various controversies surrounding the platform, including the "political inclinations" of its founders and investors.
Written by Yangz, Techub News
Polymarket is undoubtedly the most popular Web3 application behind this US election. When major mainstream media such as the Wall Street Journal were still predicting the voting results in key swing states, this decentralized prediction market founded by 26-year-old "prodigy" Shayne Coplan made a judgment in advance that "Trump will win the election." In the past few days after the election "dust settled", there has been a discussion in the circle about whether Polymarket belongs to the Ethereum ecosystem, hoping to save some "face" of the Ethereum ecosystem by taking advantage of the popularity of Polymarket.
Although Polymarket is favored by many big names such as Vitalik Buterin and is regarded as a "truth machine", the platform is also subject to various controversies. This article aims to review the various doubts surrounding Polymarket and hopes to look at this platform rationally. After all, the more popular it is, the more calm it should be.
Political stances of founders and investors
The first is questioning of the political stance of Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan and the platform’s main investor Peter Thiel.
(New York Times) Reporter Teddy Schleifer posted a group photo on Twitter on July 20. In the photo, Shayne Coplan, with curly hair, stood out among the Republican delegates wearing suits and combed back hair. Other people in the photo include Trump's eldest son Donald Trump Jr. and Trump supporters such as Omeed Malik and Shervin Pishevar. Judging from the time, the photo should have been taken during the Republican National Convention.
In addition to Shayne Coplan himself, the main investor of the prediction market platform, PayPal co-founder and Founders Fund founder Peter Thiel, who is an open Trump supporter, has also raised questions about his "political bias."
Although Shayne Coplan has responded to the relevant questions, emphasizing that Polymarket adheres to a non-partisan stance and is not a political tool, and that Peter Thiel has no board seat and no so-called control, can this response really dispel people's doubts?
There are some reports about this matter that cannot be ignored. According to Politico and its reporter Daniel Lippman, Shayne Coplan not only appeared at the Republican National Convention, but also hosted the after-party for the Democratic National Convention. In addition, Coplan also took a photo with Democratic vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz at a Harris campaign fundraiser.
Therefore, in addition to the possible factor of "political stance", Shayne Coplan's actions may also be just to promote Polymarket, just a pure "advertising offensive". As Bloomberg reported, Polymarket has spared no effort to get out of the circle. The platform distributed baseball caps with its own brand to attendees during the Republican National Convention and hired people (paid $1,050) to act as human billboards for publicity. Earlier this year, Polymarket also posted boxing-themed championship posters in Manhattan to promote Trump's election odds against Biden. In addition, the platform announced in July that it had hired well-known political polling analyst Nate Silver as a consultant.
"Betting with real money can also be a manipulation of capital"
In addition to questioning the founder's political stance, the market also questioned whether there was "capital manipulation" in the Polymarket election prediction market. On October 18, the Wall Street Journal published an article stating that Trump's leading position on Polymarket was actually a "momentum" of capital. It pointed out that this surge may be a "false impression" caused by four Polymarket accounts. Miguel Morel, CEO of blockchain analysis company Arkham Intelligence, also said after review that the four accounts belonged to the same entity. For a time, the market was in an uproar.
然而，根据最新报道，这位「巨鲸」为法国一自称为 Théo 的投资者，其在接受《华尔街日报》的采访时指出，自己曾在美国生活，之前在多家银行从事交易员工作。Théo 表示，自己巨额下注背后并无「政治立场」，只为「赚钱」，且所投资金是大部分为「可用流动资产」。此外，Polymarket 也表示，该公司在进行调查后，得出的结论是，该交易员是基于「个人对选举的看法」进行投注的，并未发现任何信息表明该用户操纵或试图操纵市场。
Watered Trading Volume
After the authorities "ruled out" the above possible "capital manipulation" doubts, is Polymarket really more reliable than traditional polls as Elon Musk said because it is "real money betting"?
In fact, the public has also raised doubts about the platform’s real trading volume. Blockchain risk analysis company Chaos Labs released a report stating that about a third of the trading volume in presidential predictions alone may be wash trading, while Inca Digital found that the presidential election prediction trading volume reported on the Polymarket website did not match the on-chain data. Inca Digital said that the actual trading volume of the presidential election prediction market was about $1.75 billion, while the figure reported by Polymarket was $2.7 billion.
I have not found any response from Polymarket on this matter. Wash trading is actually very common in Web3 applications. In addition to the fact that the platform itself may conduct shady operations for more glamorous data, the charm of "airdrops" will also attract many Degens to "ambush" in advance, forming a false prosperity. In September this year, The Information quoted sources as saying that Polymarket is considering raising more than $50 million through token issuance, but Polymarket has not yet made a final decision and there is no clear timetable for token issuance.
If "wash trading" is no longer surprising, should it also be the case for Polymarket, which is planning to enter the prediction market? In my opinion, this practice actually endangers the nature of the prediction market. When a large number of fake users flood into the prediction market, their choices do not represent the real market sentiment. If the odds are almost the same, they will make a random choice, but if there is a large gap in the odds, due to the characteristics of degens, they may think a little and invest in the side with even a 10% chance.
"On the surface, they obey the supervision, but in fact, they act recklessly"
In January 2022, Polymarket was fined $1.4 million by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for "operating in the United States without registration." As part of the settlement, the company promised to gradually stop its services in the United States and prohibit U.S. users from accessing it.
However, the fact is that in addition to the large number of American users who can still continue to access the website through VPN and other means, according to Bloomberg, Meta's advertising library shows that Polymarket owner Blockratize recently spent about $269,875 on Facebook and Instagram to run election ads to millions of American users. In addition, Armand Saramout, senior development director of Polymarket, sought a sponsorship agreement with American social media KOLs in September. In the past few weeks, Instagram bloggers with a large number of fans have been using tags such as#PMPartnerand#PolymarketPartnerto post Polymarket sponsored content. Although a Polymarket spokesperson confirmed that the move was not intended to stimulate transactions among American visitors, it always gives people a feeling of "obedience on the surface, but recklessness in reality."
Summarize
Polymarket's emergence is definitely a boon to the Web3 industry, and we expect this decentralized prediction market platform to become an "alternative news source" or "the future of media," as Coplan put it. However, what Polymarket needs to consider now is that the U.S. election is settled, and without such a hot topic, how should it develop in the future? Perhaps launching a token will be one of the ways it considers to maintain growth, but even if a token is launched, please don't forget its mission to provide the public with more accurate and real-time event predictions.
