Meet the 27-year-old, youngest, self-made billionaire whose ‘prediction’ company got $2 billion from NYSE's parent

Shayne Coplan started Polymarket from his home on New York's Lower East Side during the pandemic in June 2020. The inspiration came from economist Robin Hanson's ideas on the prediction markets and its ability to improve society, according to a Bloomberg report.

Now, in October 2025, the 27-year-old is the youngest self-made billionaire, after his company secured $2 billion in funding from the New York Stock Exchange's (NYSE) parent company Intercontinental Exchange Inc . The deal has rocketed the pre-money valuation of Polymarket to $8 billion.

A spokesperson for Polymarket declined to comment, it added.

What is Polymarket? Who is Shayne Coplan?

Polymarket is a prediction market that allows users to bet on the outcomes of a range of events, such as elections, the Fed rate cuts, Time magazine's cover, sports winners, and more.

Shayne Coplan, is a New York University dropout, who has made it to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index (BBI), this week. While he dabbled in crypto in 2019, he felt Hanson's ideas were “too good to just exist in whitepapers”.

Then during COVID-19, Coplan felt that the shutdown in 2020 was the perfect time to develop an app where housebound people could bet on real-world outcomes. However, the path has been rocky.

Why was Polymarket controversial?

The company had a “do first, ask permission later” method that rubbed the regulators wrong — Polymarket was banned from operating in the US; and after the 2024 US Presidential elections, Coplan's apartment was raided by FBI agents. Notably, Polymarket users bet over $3 billion on the outcome of the US elections.

In 2022, it paid $1.4 million to settle a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) penalty over allegations of illegal trading. Then in July 2025, the US Justice Department and CFTC dropped their investigations and Polymarket acquired CFTC-licensed exchange and clearinghouse QCEX for $112 million, allowing it to legally resume operations in the US, as per the report.

Who are the other big investors?

• Polymarket had raised around $255 million before the ICE investment, from investors including Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin and Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, BB reported citing data on Pitchbook.
• Another big investor is 1789 Capital. Notably, US President Donald Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr joined the company as an advisor in August 2025, as per the report.
• Bloomberg also noted the company’s ties to Washington could deepen with the ICE investment. ICE’s CEO, Jeffrey Sprecher, is married to Kelly Loeffler, a former senator who heads the Small Business Administration and is a member of Trump’s cabinet.

(With inputs from Bloomberg)