{"id":1502158,"date":"2024-11-13T23:50:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T04:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1502158"},"modified":"2024-11-13T23:50:00","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T04:50:00","slug":"grand-political-theatre-fbi-raids-home-of-polymarket-ceo-seize-phone-electronics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/grand-political-theatre-fbi-raids-home-of-polymarket-ceo-seize-phone-electronics\/1502158\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Grand Political Theatre&#8221; &#8211; FBI Raids Home Of Polymarket CEO; Seize Phone, Electronics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden\">&#8220;Grand Political Theatre&#8221; &#8211; FBI Raids Home Of Polymarket CEO; Seize Phone, Electronics<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item\">\n<p>With just a few short weeks until President Trump (and his freshly appointed new AG Matt Gaetz) take over, the FBI has decided to rush in and raid the home of the founder and chief executive of Polymarket, the crypto-based prediction market that was a popular (and very accurate) platform for bets on the US presidential election.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/01932779-b7da-780f-b203-2586e8e9.jpg?itok=lh_6iTst\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/11\/13\/business\/fbi-seizes-polymarket-ceos-phone-electronics-after-betting-platform-predicts-trump-win-source\/\">The NY Post reports,<\/a> citing a source close to the matter, that Shayne <strong>Coplan was woken up at 6:00 am Eastern Time in his New York City apartment by US law enforcement officials who demanded he hand over his phone and electronics.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/im-80050585.jpg?itok=o5390sWQ\"><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t immediately clear what prompted the FBI\u2019s search but Polymarket quickly tied the raid to its track record in the recent election, in which bettors on its platform correctly anticipated that Donald Trump would beat Vice President Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>\u201cThis is obvious political retribution by the outgoing administration against Polymarket for providing a market that correctly called the 2024 presidential election,\u201d<\/strong> said a spokesman for the New York-based company.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cPolymarket is a fully transparent prediction market that helps everyday people better understand the events that matter most to them, including elections,\u201d the spokesman added.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The CEO of the decentralized prediction markets platform appeared to<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/shayne_coplan\/status\/1856808022481539192\"> confirm the reports on X,<\/a> claiming to make a post from a new phone.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/s3\/files\/inline-images\/0193278c-f338-7adc-9475-2c1ba424.jpg?itok=ABRGiWtn\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A person close to the matter <strong>described the Coplan\u2019s incident as \u201cgrand political theatre\u201d<\/strong> to<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/11\/13\/business\/fbi-seizes-polymarket-ceos-phone-electronics-after-betting-platform-predicts-trump-win-source\/\"> the NY Post.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThey could have asked his lawyer for any of these things. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Instead, they staged a so-called raid so they can leak it to the media and use it for obvious political reasons.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Coplan appeared on CNBC last week &#8211; which likely irked the establishment:<\/p>\n<p>I went on CNBC&#8217;s Squawk Box this morning to talk about how Polymarket called the election. Here&#8217;s the full interview<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/d0Cg2aIRhO\">pic.twitter.com\/d0Cg2aIRhO<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Shayne Coplan \ud83e\udd85 (@shayne_coplan) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/shayne_coplan\/status\/1854597556099334351?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 7, 2024<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Polymarket does not allow trading in the US, though bettors can bypass the ban by accessing the site through VPN, and Bloomberg reports that the <strong>DoJ is probing the company for allegedly accepting trades from US-based users<\/strong>, according to a person familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n<p>Under an agreement with the\u00a0CFTC reached in 2022, <strong>Polymarket is to prevent US-based traders from making transactions on the platform.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/shayne_coplan\/status\/1856838409861386722\">Coplan took to X <\/a>once more this evening, clearly pissed off at the obvious politicization:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;<strong>It\u2019s discouraging that the current administration would seek a last-ditch effort to go after companies they deem to be associated with political opponents<\/strong>. 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.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Polymarket has provided value to 10&#8217;s of millions of people this election cycle, <strong>while causing harm to nobody. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>We&#8217;re deeply proud of that.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>I&#8217;m also proud to say that the future of America, and in particular American entrepreneurship, has never been brighter.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>In the face of adversity, we build.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Investors in Polymarket include Founders Fund, the Silicon Valley venture firm started by billionaire Peter Thiel, and a number of prominent crypto personalities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>      <span class=\"field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden\"><a title=\"View user profile.\" href=\"https:\/\/cms.zerohedge.com\/users\/tyler-durden\" class=\"username\">Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span class=\"field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden\">Wed, 11\/13\/2024 &#8211; 18:50<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u200b<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/crypto\/grand-political-theatre-fbi-raids-home-polymarket-ceo-seize-phone-electronics\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/crypto\/grand-political-theatre-fbi-raids-home-polymarket-ceo-seize-phone-electronics<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Grand Political Theatre&#8221; &#8211; FBI Raids Home Of Polymarket CEO; Seize Phone, Electronics With just a few short weeks until President Trump (and his freshly&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1502159,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1502158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1502158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1502159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1502158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1502158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1502158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}