crucial quote
“The public-facing behavior alleged here does not resemble a sober financial market designed for hedging or price discovery,” Curtis and Schiff wrote in the letter.
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key background
Polymarket was barred from serving U.S. users in 2022 after federal regulators found it had failed to properly register its markets. The scrutiny escalated sharply after the 2024 election, when prediction markets surged in popularity as users correctly favored Trump’s win. In November 2024, FBI agents raided Polymarket founder and CEO Shayne Coplan’s Manhattan apartment and seized his phone and electronics as part of a criminal investigation into whether Polymarket had let U.S. users trade in breach of its settlement. Shortly after, Coplan posted on his X account that he saw the raid as a “last-ditch effort” from the Biden administration “to go after companies they deem to be associated with political opponents.” That probe, run jointly by the CFTC and Justice Department, was dropped without charges in July 2025, and Polymarket received the regulatory greenlight to operate in the U.S. in the months after. The Trump administration has staunchly supported prediction markets and its federal regulation despite a flurry of controversies surrounding these markets regarding insider trading, market manipulation and its legal classification as gambling.
forbes valuation
Coplan briefly held the title of world’s youngest self-made billionaire at age 27 last October when the New York Stock Exchange parent company invested $2 billion in Polymarket, giving the company a $9 billion valuation. Polymarket’s chief rival Kalshi also minted billion-dollar fortunes for its founders shortly after when the company raised $1 billion at an $11 billion valuation in December. Kalshi cofounder Luana Lopes Lara claimed the title of youngest self-made woman billionaire.
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tangent
Donald Trump Jr. is an investor in Polymarket and a paid adviser to its chief rival, Kalshi. The president’s son had a $300,000 equity stake in Kalshi before the startup reached its $2 billion valuation in June 2025, according to the Financial Times. Kalshi is now valued at $22 billion thanks to a billion dollar funding round in May and is eyeing a fresh round at a $40 billion valuation, per the Times.
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