Who is Shayne Coplan, world’s youngest self-made billionaire?

The milestone comes after Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, announced it would invest up to US$2 billion in Polymarket at an US$8 billion pre-money valuation.

Bloomberg has given Coplan the billionaire status but has yet to reveal his exact net worth.

Shayne Coplan, founder and chief executive of Polymarket, speaks during the New York Times annual DealBook summit at Jazz at Lincoln Center on December 04, 2024 in New York City. Photo by Getty Images via AFP

The newspaper reported that Coplan, born and raised in New York City, left New York University to pursue a career in crypto, but became so broke that he listed the belongings in his Lower East Side apartment to sell and make rent.

Frustrated with crypto scams, he turned in 2019 to theories on prediction markets and their potential to enhance society’s ability to forecast events.

"This is too good of an idea to just exist in white papers," he later wrote on X. When Covid-19 hit, he decided it was the right time to build an app for people stuck at home to bet on real-world outcomes. From his bathroom, he began developing Polymarket, which launched in June 2020.

The platform’s "move fast, ask permission later" strategy repeatedly clashed with regulators, who forced it to bar U.S. users for years because it was not a registered exchange.

Polymarket faced serious legal challenges in 2022 when it agreed to pay a US$1.4 million penalty to settle allegations of illegal trading. Without admitting or denying wrongdoing, the company blocked U.S. users.

However, regulators later suspected the site still hosted Americans, prompting an FBI raid on Coplan’s home a week after the 2024 election. The platform was later licensed and resumed U.S. operations legally.

Before Intercontinental Exchange’s investment, the company had raised at least $255 million, according to Pitchbook data. Investors include billionaire Peter Thiel and his Founders Fund, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin, and Blockchain Capital.

Donald Trump Jr – son of President Donald Trump – became an adviser for the firm in August.

Polymarket has helped reshape both the gambling and financial forecasting sectors by combining blockchain transparency with market-driven prediction, attracting growing interest from individual and institutional users, according to crypto news platform CoinDesk.

Rival platform Kalshi has also expanded this year, offering prediction-market bets through a partnership with Robinhood Markets.

Polymarket has seen nearly $19 billion in cumulative trading volume since launching in 2020, according to digital asset news platform The Block.