Shayne Coplan Becomes Youngest Self-Made Billionaire
Shayne Coplan, founder of Polymarket, is now the world’s youngest self-made billionaire at 27. This follows a $2 billion investment from the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). The deal values Polymarket at nearly $8 billion.
A few years ago, Coplan was selling his belongings in a small Lower East Side apartment to pay rent. Today, he has joined the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, according to a recent Bloomberg report.
Polymarket’s Growth and Challenges
Coplan dropped out of New York University and shifted his focus from speculative crypto projects to prediction markets inspired by economist Robin Hanson. He launched Polymarket in mid-2020 from his bathroom during the pandemic. The platform allows users to trade outcomes of real-world events using stablecoins.
Polymarket aggregates crowd sentiment into on-chain price signals. Its activity surged in 2024 amid U.S. election speculation. Backers include Founders Fund, Blockchain Capital, Vitalik Buterin, and 1789 Capital, where Donald Trump Jr. is an adviser.
ICE’s CEO Jeffrey Sprecher, whose wife Kelly Loeffler leads the U.S. Small Business Administration, supports closer ties between digital markets and regulated finance.
Regulatory Issues and Recent Developments
- In 2022, Polymarket paid a $1.4 million penalty to settle with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for unregistered trading.
- Polymarket blocked U.S. users after the settlement.
- Following the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the FBI raided Coplan’s apartment over suspected U.S. activity.
- The Justice Department and CFTC dropped their investigations in July 2025.
- In July 2025, Polymarket acquired QCEX, a CFTC-licensed exchange, for $112 million.
- This acquisition allows Polymarket to legally resume U.S. operations.
- ICE’s investment legitimizes decentralized prediction markets in traditional finance.
With this deal, Coplan’s net worth exceeds $1 billion. He has gone from coding in his bathroom to reshaping how information and capital interact online.
