Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan Is Youngest ‘Self-Made Billionaire,’ Bloomberg Says – Decrypt

Shayne Coplan, the founder and CEO of premier prediction market Polymarket, is the youngest self-made billionaire at 27-years-old, according to Bloomberg. Coplan’s ascent comes after Polymarket was valued at $9 billion following a $2 billion investment from the NYSE owner, Intercontinental Exchange, also referred to as ICE.

Coplan joins a prestigious list of crypto billionaires, which includes Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, Strategy CEO Michael Saylor, and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. Wallets linked to the elusive Bitcoin creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, are valued at $134.5 billion, according to Arkham Intelligence, which would make him the world’s 12th richest person, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Polymarket has become one of the decade’s most successful crypto apps by allowing users to easily place bets on the outcomes of real-world events, such as the U.S. presidential election. As a result, it has processed $18.1 billion worth of trading volume and attracted 1.3 million unique users, according to Dune data.

That’s why Polymarket was valued at $9 billion following the $2 billion strategic investment from the owner of the 233-year-old New York Stock Exchange, ICE. The deal pushed Coplan into the billionaire club, which Bloomberg says makes him the youngest “self-made” billionaire.

Despite all of Polymarket’s success, predictors on Myriad—a prediction market developed by Decrypt’s parent company Dastan—believe it’s unlikely at 65% that Polymarket will announce a token this year. Those odds moved up from 83% following Coplan appearing to tease a POLY token on social media. 

For over a year, traders have been attempting to farm a potential airdrop on Polymarket , including artificially inflating their trading volume by buying and selling the same position repeatedly. But, predictors believe they’ll have to keep waiting.

“The past two years have been surreal. Going from a write-off to creating a category, watching our vision become a reality,” Coplan posted on X, in reaction to the ICE investment. “If I learned one thing, it’s that bold ideas are everywhere, hidden in plain sight. It just takes someone crazy enough to spend their life willing it into existence.”

Five years ago, the entrepreneur was building a Polymarket from his makeshift bathroom office as a solo founder. Coplan shared a photo last year of his shoddy bathroom set-up, working from a MacBook propped up on a washing basket. In securing the Intercontinental Exchange investment and becoming the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, he reposted this picture and said, “against all odds.”