Eight months after FBI agents stormed his Soho penthouse, Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan has the last laugh. The DOJ and CFTC quietly dropped their probes with nothing to show, exposing the cracks in Washington’s crypto crackdown.
On July 15, Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Justice Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently closed their investigations into Polymarket, ending a high-stakes regulatory saga that began with an FBI raid on Coplan’s home just days after the 2024 election.
The probes, which sought to determine whether the prediction market illegally served U.S. users and/or failed to register with the CFTC, concluded without charges, marking a decisive retreat by federal authorities. With Congress poised to pass landmark crypto legislation, the abandoned investigations signal that even the most scrutinized companies can outlast Washington’s scrutiny.
From FBI raid to regulatory victory: Polymarket’s unlikely comeback
Shayne Coplan didn’t mince words when he took to X on Tuesday to declare vindication. “Eight months ago, on election night, we were on top of the world after Polymarket called the election,” the CEO wrote. “Eight days later, the FBI broke down my door at 6 a.m. and took all my computers and phones, looking for anything that could imply foul play.”
The raid, he admitted, was traumatic, but it also cemented Polymarket’s reputation as a thorn in the side of Washington’s old guard. Now, with the DOJ and CFTC closing their cases, Coplan’s defiance has paid off. “Justice prevailed,” he posted. “God Bless America.”
Polymarket’s clash with regulators was years in the making. The platform, which lets users bet on everything from election outcomes to Bitcoin’s price using crypto, first drew scrutiny in 2022 when it settled with the CFTC for operating an unregistered swaps market.
But its real trouble began last November, when its election predictions, which accurately foresaw Trump’s victory, triggered a flood of U.S. users, many of whom allegedly bypassed geoblocks using VPNs. The CFTC and DOJ’s Manhattan prosecutors zeroed in, probing whether Polymarket knowingly facilitated illegal trading. The FBI’s raid on Coplan’s home, just a week after Trump’s win, turned the investigation into a political flashpoint.
Yet the case collapsed as swiftly as it began. Sources say prosecutors found no smoking gun, and the CFTC, now led by Trump-appointed officials, lost interest in pursuing a Biden-era enforcement action.
The timing isn’t coincidental. With Congress finalizing the first major crypto regulatory framework and Trump openly courting the industry, Washington’s stance has shifted from hostility to cautious embrace.
The implications stretch beyond one platform. Polymarket’s survival signals that prediction markets, long treated as regulatory minefields, may finally gain legitimacy in the U.S., especially under a CFTC likely to be chaired by a16z’s Brian Quintenz, a known advocate for crypto innovation. For Coplan, the message is simpler: “This chapter is over.” But for crypto, the real story is just beginning.
