At just 27, Shayne Coplan joins the billionaire ranks after Polymarket’s valuation surges to $9 billion following a landmark deal with the NYSE owner.
Shayne Coplan, the 27-year-old founder and CEO of Polymarket, has become the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, according to Bloomberg. His fortune soared after the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) — the owner of the New York Stock Exchange — invested $2 billion in Polymarket, pushing the company’s valuation to $9 billion.
Coplan now joins a short list of crypto billionaires that includes Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, Michael Saylor, Brian Armstrong, and the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto, whose Bitcoin holdings would be worth around $134.5 billion, per Arkham Intelligence data.
Polymarket, a decentralized prediction platform, has quickly become one of the most successful crypto apps of the decade — allowing users to bet on real-world events like elections, economic data releases, and global politics. The platform has processed more than $18.1 billion in trading volume and attracted 1.3 million users, according to Dune Analytics.
Reacting to the milestone, Coplan shared a photo from his early days building Polymarket from his bathroom “office”, captioning it: “Against all odds.”
“The past two years have been surreal,” he wrote on X. “Going from a write-off to creating a category, watching our vision become reality. Bold ideas are everywhere — it just takes someone crazy enough to will them into existence.”
Despite Polymarket’s massive growth, traders are still speculating about a potential POLY token, though current prediction odds suggest just a 35% chance it launches this year.
With ICE’s backing and Wall Street now deep in the decentralized prediction space, Shayne Coplan’s rise marks a new era — where finance, crypto, and forecasting converge.
