Polymarket CEO Coplan Becomes Youngest Billionaire as ICE Invests $2B

Shayne Coplan, the 27-year-old founder and chief executive of blockchain-based prediction market Polymarket, became the youngest self-made billionaire this week after Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, said it would invest as much as $2 billion in the company. ICE announced the investment on Tuesday at an $8 billion pre-money valuation, a transaction that, by most wealth trackers’ calculations, pushed Coplan into the billionaire ranks.

Polymarket allows users to trade contracts that pay out based on the outcomes of real-world events, from elections to economic indicators and sporting results. The platform grew rapidly during the 2024 U.S. presidential campaign, when users wagered more than $3 billion on potential outcomes, turning Coplan’s project from a niche experiment into a high-volume exchange. Supporters argue that prediction markets can improve forecasting by aggregating diverse views, while critics have raised concerns about the social and political risks of wagering on elections.

The company’s rise followed a turbulent regulatory history. In 2022 Polymarket paid $1.4 million to settle a Commodity Futures Trading Commission allegation...