The FBI raided the home of the chief executive of the predictive betting site Polymarket and seized his phone late on Wednesday.
Shayne Coplan, the 26-year-old CEO of the company, woke early on Wednesday morning in Manhattan to federal agents in his home, the New York Post first reported. Coplan himself was not arrested, the company said.
On X, formerly Twitter, Coplan wrote on Wednesday evening: “New phone, who dis?”
Polymarket claimed the raid was retaliation for its users betting overwhelmingly that Donald Trump would win the election. The site displayed a large chance of Trump winning before the election, giving Kamala Harris a minimal one, out of line with most mainstream polls.
“It’s discouraging that the current administration would seek a last-ditch effort to go after companies they deem to be associated with political opponents,” Coplan wrote. “We are deeply committed to being non-partisan, and today is no different, but the incumbents should do some self-reflecting and recognize that taking a more pro-business, pro-startup approach may be what would have changed their fate this election.”
The Department of Justice is investigating Polymarket for allegedly allowing US-based users to bet on the site, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday evening.
Polymarket users can place bets on the outcome of yes-or-no questions that range widely in subject. Fortune reported the week before the election that the site was rife with wash-trading, an illegal type of market manipulation.
“This is obvious political retribution by the outgoing administration against Polymarket for providing a market that correctly called the 2024 presidential election,” Polymarket told media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal.
“Polymarket is a fully transparent prediction market that helps everyday people better understand the events that matter most to them, including elections.”
Making bets and predictions on Polymarket is not allowed in the US, though users can and do circumvent the prohibition via virtual private networks (VPNs). A week ago, the company announced it would resume operations in the US. The company had paid a $1.4m fine to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 2022 for failing to register with the agency as required and was forced to pause trading at the same time.
The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
When no reason for the raid was given publicly, powerful figures in the technology industry came to Coplan’s defense. The CEO of Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US, decried the raid. Brian Armstrong wrote on X: “This will backfire – they just made Polymarket even more powerful.”
Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and one of the president-elect’s closest advisors, wrote, “This seems messed up” in response to the news.
Coplan himself has been photographed with Donald Trump Jr, and claimed last week to have fielded calls from the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort as votes were counted.
