Author: Brayden Lindrea, CoinTelegraph; Translated by: Deng Tong, Golden Finance
On November 13, the FBI raided the home of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan and seized his cell phones and electronic devices.
Coplan was woken up at his New York City residence by U.S. law enforcement officials at 6 a.m. Eastern Time and asked to hand over his cellphone and electronic devices, the New York Post reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.
A Polymarket spokesperson confirmed the incident to Cointelegraph, calling the raid “clear political retaliation” by the outgoing Biden administration for “providing a market that correctly predicted the 2024 presidential election.”
“We charge no fees, do no trading, and allow observers from around the world to analyze all market data as a public good,” the spokesperson said.
“We look forward to standing up for ourselves and our community and continuing to help people understand important world events.”
A person familiar with the matter told the New York Post that the Coplan incident was "a grand political farce."
"They could have asked his lawyers for any help they could get. But instead they staged a so-called raid in order to leak it to the media and use it for obvious political purposes."
(New York Post)’s source also speculated that “the government is likely trying to build a case alleging that Polymarket manipulated the market and rigged the polls in Trump’s favor.”
A week ago, Republican Donald Trump won the US presidential election in a landslide.
Polymarket took $3.7 billion worth of bets on the “winner of the 2024 presidential election” market, prompting critics to call out the platform’s influence.
US residents are prohibited from placing bets on the platform.
However, Americans can circumvent this ban through a virtual private network (VPN).
Polymarket is reportedly checking to make sure whales making big bets ahead of the U.S. presidential election are based overseas.
Before Polymarket’s surge in popularity, it reached a $1.4 million settlement with the U.S. commodities regulator back in January 2022 for offering more than 900 event-based binary options markets without obtaining a registration.