--- aliases: - Polymarket.com - Polymarket US - Blockratize - Blockratize Inc. - Blockratize, Inc. - Adventure One QSS - Adventure One QSS Inc. - QCX LLC - QCEX category: Private Organization created: 2026-10-13 location: New York, New York relations: - fn: 1 reverse: true start: 2020 type: founded with: '[[Shayne Coplan]]' - fn: 17 reverse: true role: reported lead of a seed round of about 4 million dollars; participant in the 2024 Series A start: 2020-10 type: funded with: '[[Polychain Capital]]' - fn: 19 reverse: true role: lead of the 25 million dollar Series A start: 2024-05 type: funded with: '[[General Catalyst]]' - fn: 19 reverse: true role: lead of the 45 million dollar Series B start: 2024-05 type: funded with: '[[Founders Fund]]' - fn: 26 reverse: true role: lead of the 2025 round, reported by Bloomberg as more than 200 million dollars at about 1 billion dollars and described by Coplan as 150 million dollars at 1.2 billion dollars start: 2025-06 type: funded with: '[[Founders Fund]]' - fn: 20 reverse: true role: lead of a 55 million dollar round at a 350 million dollar post-money valuation start: 2024 type: funded with: '[[Blockchain Capital]]' - fn: 30 reverse: true role: 1.0 billion dollars for Series D preferred stock on October 7, 2025, and 600 million dollars for Series E preferred stock on March 26, 2026 start: 2025-10-07 type: funded with: '[[Intercontinental Exchange]]' - fn: 31 reverse: true role: strategic investment, later reported at 200 million dollars, followed by a reported 300 million dollars in the 2026 round start: 2025-08-26 type: funded with: '[[1789 Capital]]' - fn: 14 role: bought the holding company of QCEX for 112 million dollars start: 2025-07-21 type: owned with: '[[QCX LLC]]' - fn: 1 reverse: true role: filed and settled charges; 1.4 million dollar civil monetary penalty start: 2022-01-03 type: prosecuted with: '[[Commodity Futures Trading Commission]]' - fn: 37 reverse: true role: executed a search warrant at the Manhattan home of the chief executive start: 2024-11-13 type: investigated with: '[[Federal Bureau of Investigation]]' - end: 2025-07 fn: 38 reverse: true role: criminal inquiry into access by U.S. users, closed by declination notice start: 2024-11 type: investigated with: '[[Department of Justice]]' - fn: 31 reverse: true role: member of the advisory board start: 2025-08-26 type: member_of with: '[[Donald Trump Jr.]]' - fn: 35 reverse: true role: chairman of the advisory board start: 2022-05-19 type: member_of with: '[[J. Christopher Giancarlo]]' - fn: 11 reverse: true role: director named in the Form D filed October 18, 2024 start: 2024-10-04 type: director_of with: '[[Bart Stephens]]' - fn: 23 reverse: true role: director named in the Form D amendment of February 25, 2025 and the Form D of August 1, 2025 start: 2025-02-11 type: director_of with: '[[Joshua Rivera]]' - fn: 2 reverse: true role: president of Adventure One QSS Inc. from December 22, 2021 to April 7, 2022; remains a director start: 2021-12-22 type: director_of with: '[[Shayne Coplan]]' - fn: 19 reverse: true role: Head of Market Expansion start: 2024-05 type: employed_by with: '[[Richard Jaycobs]]' - fn: 44 reverse: true role: registered lobbyist for Blockratize, Inc. on digital asset policy and information markets, 90,000 dollars per quarter start: 2025-04-21 type: represented with: '[[Advocus Partners]]' - fn: 64 role: official and exclusive prediction market partner of UFC and Zuffa Boxing start: 2025-11-12 type: partner_of with: '[[TKO Group]]' - fn: 62 role: exclusive prediction market partner; data on WSJ, Barron's, MarketWatch and Investor's Business Daily start: 2026-01-07 type: partner_of with: '[[Dow Jones]]' summary: Polymarket is a New York prediction market that a 2022 CFTC order found had run an unregistered event-contract facility, and whose investors include Founders Fund, Intercontinental Exchange and Donald Trump Jr.'s 1789 Capital. tags: - Organization - Polymarket - PredictionMarkets - EventContracts - CFTC - ShayneCoplan - FoundersFund - BlockchainCapital - IntercontinentalExchange - DonaldTrumpJr - InsiderTrading - Lobbying - Panama - Crypto updated: 2026-10-13 --- Polymarket is a prediction market platform, headquartered in [New York](/places/new-york-city/), on which users buy and sell shares in the outcomes of future events, with trades funded in the dollar stablecoin USD Coin. The company was founded in 2020 by [Shayne Coplan](/people/shayne-coplan/) and operates through several legal entities: the Delaware corporation [Blockratize](/organizations/polymarket/), Inc., the Panamanian company Adventure One QSS Inc., which operates the international exchange, and, since 2025, a U.S.-licensed exchange and clearing house.[^1][^2] ### Founding and the Early Product Coplan's earlier company was Union, a staking marketplace at union.market, which the Internet Archive first captured on July 17, 2019. A capture of November 9, 2020 carries the description "Visit Union to Join The Staking Economy and Start Earning Today."[^3] The Block published an essay on staking on March 2, 2020 that it credited to "Union founder Shayne Coplan."[^4] Cointelegraph reported that Union had secured venture capital funding, and quoted a post in which Coplan wrote that at the onset of the pandemic he was 21, running out of money and 2.5 years out of [New York University](/organizations/new-york-university/), with nothing to show for it.[^5] Coplan has also posted that in 2020 he was a "solo founder" with his headquarters in a "makeshift bathroom office."[^6] A post by the company dated September 2020 states that the Polymarket beta left stealth on June 16, 2020. It describes the first product as having a MetaMask-only login, high Ethereum transaction fees and limited liquidity, and announces a second stage with free trades, card deposits, email login and a free 100 USDC for early-access users.[^7] The earliest archived capture of polymarket.com in the Internet Archive is dated June 18, 2020 and contains only the site title.[^8] A capture from March 2021 shows a homepage of binary markets, led by a market titled "Will Donald Trump be President of the USA on March 31, 2021?" with trading volume of $6,024,110.[^9] The product was a set of binary markets priced by an automated market maker and resolved by the company itself. The [Commodity Futures Trading Commission](/organizations/commodity-futures-trading-commission/) order of 2022 describes contracts on cryptocurrency prices, COVID-19 case counts and elections, including "Will Trump win the 2020 presidential election?", and states that disputes over outcomes were resolved by a committee of Polymarket staff.[^1] By 2025 the platform ran on Polygon. On December 22, 2025 a member of the team confirmed in the platform's Discord community that Polymarket planned to leave Polygon for an Ethereum layer-2 network of its own called POLY.[^10] ### Entities and Corporate Structure The CFTC named Blockratize, Inc. as the respondent in 2022, describing it as a Delaware corporation headquartered in New York that owns and operates the website and does business as Polymarket.[^1] Securities filings made by the company carry the same entity name.[^11] Sportico reviewed more than 100 pages of Panamanian corporate filings for Adventure One QSS Inc. The company's articles of incorporation are dated October 15, 2021, and name the law firm of Mario Ernesto García de Paredes as resident agent. At a special shareholder meeting on December 22, 2021, Adventure One designated Coplan as its president. At a special meeting on April 7, 2022, it replaced him with Harry Jones, who is listed on LinkedIn as Polymarket's director of global affairs, and Coplan remained a director. A notice at the foot of the Polymarket website states that "the international platform is not regulated by the CFTC and operates independently."[^2] France's gaming regulator names Adventure One QSS Inc. as the operator of the site.[^12] NPR reported on May 5, 2026 that a law office listed in Panamanian government documents as the entity's address, on the 21st floor of the Oceania Business Plaza in [Panama City](/places/panama-city/), showed no sign of Polymarket or Adventure One when a reporter visited, and that a worker there had never heard of either. At least fifteen other cryptocurrency companies use the same office as their headquarters, and court filings show the firm was listed as owed $13,889 in the bankruptcy of [FTX](/organizations/ftx/). NPR also reported that Polymarket has no employees in Panama and has an office on New York's Upper East Side, and that the terms of service send legal disputes to closed arbitration in [Panama](/places/panama/) and tell users not to use a virtual private network.[^13] On July 21, 2025 Polymarket announced the purchase of QCEX, a derivatives exchange and clearing house based in Boca Raton, [Florida](/places/florida/), for $112 million, with Coplan saying that the acquisition would let Polymarket re-enter the United States "as a fully regulated and compliant platform."[^14] The businesses are QCX LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, and QC Clearing LLC. The CFTC's order designating QCX LLC as a designated contract market rests on an application record running from June 16, 2022 to June 17, 2025. The order describes an anonymous electronic central limit order book and states that QCX may not permit any futures commission merchant to intermediate its trades or carry customer accounts unless the order is amended; a later amendment, signed in late November 2025, permitted futures commission merchants to carry accounts.[^15][^16] ### Funding and Capitalization Cryptorank data, as reported by Decrypt, records a seed round of $4 million led by Polychain Capital in 2020, and the Seedtable company record is dated October 19, 2020.[^17] A Form D filed in June 2021 discloses a $2,999,999 offering by an entity named PTC Polymarket LLC, a Delaware pooled investment fund with 17 investors whose first sale was June 3, 2021. Its executive officer is listed as PTC Crypto Partners SPV LLC, and the filing does not name the company whose interests it sold.[^18] On May 13, 2024 the company announced $70 million raised across two previously unannounced rounds. The $45 million Series B was led by [Founders Fund](/organizations/founders-fund/) together with the existing investors 1confirmation and ParaFi, with participation from Vitalik Buterin, Dragonfly and Kevin Hartz. The $25 million Series A was led by General Catalyst, with participation from the Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, Polychain and others. The release states that a record $202 million of predictions had been made on the platform in 2024 to that date, and that trading was unavailable in the United States. Joey Krug, a partner at Founders Fund, said that the firm had "developed a habit of checking Polymarket at times of breaking news." The release also announced the hiring of Richard Jaycobs as Head of Market Expansion to explore U.S. regulated activities; Jaycobs had been president of Cantor Exchange and chief executive of The Clearing Corporation. J. Christopher Giancarlo, described as a former CFTC chairman, is named as chairman of Polymarket's advisory board, and is quoted as saying he had "watched the growth and evolution of Polymarket's product, business and team" over three years.[^19] Blockchain Capital published a post on October 9, 2025 stating that "a little over a year ago, months before the 2024 US presidential election," it led a $55 million financing round for Polymarket at a $350 million post-money valuation. The post thanks the team members who contributed, including Bart Stephens and Joshua Rivera. The firm's team pages list Stephens as founder and managing partner and Rivera as operating partner and general counsel (joined June 2018), and its portfolio page lists Polymarket as a growth-stage investment.[^20][^21] The Form D filed April 16, 2020 for Blockchain Capital V lists a "P. Bart Stephens" of San Francisco as a director of the fund's general partner.[^22] The first Form D under the Blockratize name was filed on October 18, 2024 (first sale October 4, 2024), five months after the May 2024 announcement. It names Coplan as executive officer and director and Bart Stephens as a director, and describes equity and warrants sold under a Rule 506(b) exemption. An amendment filed February 25, 2025 to the same offering (SEC file number 021-527240) names Coplan and Joshua Rivera as directors. A second Form D filed August 1, 2025 (file number 021-553453; first sale July 18, 2025) names Coplan and Rivera. The filings do not state an affiliation for either director. The identity of the two men with Blockchain Capital's founder and general counsel rests on the matching names, the firm's lead of the 2024 round, and the firm's own post crediting both men with the Polymarket work.[^11][^23][^24] The announced rounds, the Form D filings and the later disclosures read side by side: | Date | Announced, reported or disclosed | Blockratize Form D | |---|---|---| | October 2020 | Seed of about $4 million, Polychain reported lead | none | | June 3, 2021 | none | PTC Polymarket LLC, a separate registrant: $2,999,999 offered, 17 investors | | May 13, 2024 | $25 million Series A (General Catalyst) and $45 million Series B (Founders Fund, 1confirmation, ParaFi) | none filed | | mid-2024, "months before" the November 2024 election | $55 million at $350 million post-money, led by Blockchain Capital (Blockchain Capital post, October 9, 2025) | none filed | | October 4 to 18, 2024 | none | first sale October 4; filed October 18; $86,187,000 offering, $82,203,608 sold, 28 investors; director Stephens | | February 25, 2025 | none | amendment: $91,203,500 offering, $90,948,943 sold, 41 investors; director Rivera | | June 24, 2025 | Bloomberg: more than $200 million led by Founders Fund at about $1 billion before the new money; CoinDesk: includes $50 million not previously announced | none | | July 18 to August 1, 2025 | none | first sale July 18; filed August 1; $257,535,911 offering, $135,373,939 sold, 23 investors; director Rivera | | August 26, 2025 | strategic investment by 1789 Capital, terms not disclosed | none | | October 7, 2025 | ICE: up to $2 billion at about $8 billion pre-investment; Polymarket: $9 billion post-money | none | | October 8, 2025 | Coplan discloses a $150 million round in 2025 led by Founders Fund at $1.2 billion, and the $55 million round of 2024 | none | | March 26 and April 2026 | ICE: $600 million Series E preferred stock; $40 million tender offer for common stock | none | | September 1, 2026 | $1 billion round at $21 billion led by 1789 Capital | none | The Blockratize Form D filings total $226,322,882 sold across the October 2024 offering ($90,948,943 after amendment) and the August 2025 offering ($135,373,939). The most recent Form D in the company's file at the [Securities and Exchange Commission](/organizations/securities-and-exchange-commission/) is dated August 1, 2025.[^25] The reporting of the 2025 round began on June 24, 2025, when Bloomberg News reported that Polymarket was finalizing an investment of more than $200 million led by Founders Fund at a valuation of about $1 billion not counting the new money.[^26] After the Intercontinental Exchange announcement, The Block reported on October 8, 2025 that Coplan had disclosed two earlier unannounced rounds: $55 million in 2024 led by Blockchain Capital at a $350 million valuation, and $150 million in 2025 led by Founders Fund at a $1.2 billion valuation. The later round, he said, included Ribbit, Valor, Point72 Ventures, SV Angel, 1789, 1confirmation, Coinbase and Dragonfly. The Block put the company's total prior funding, with the $4 million seed and the $70 million of May 2024, at about $279 million.[^27] On October 7, 2025, ICE, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, announced that it would invest up to $2 billion in Polymarket at a valuation of approximately $8 billion before the investment, and would become the global distributor of Polymarket's event-driven data to institutional clients, with cooperation on tokenization.[^28] Polymarket's own announcement described a $9 billion post-money valuation.[^29] ICE's annual report for 2025 states that it paid $1.0 billion for Polymarket in 2025 and has the potential to purchase up to a further $1.0 billion of shares from Polymarket employees and investors. Its quarterly reports state that the October 7 agreement was to buy 9.6 million shares of Series D preferred stock of Blockratize, Inc. for $1.0 billion, about 17 percent of the outstanding shares and 11 percent fully diluted at the time. On March 26, 2026 ICE invested a further $600 million for about 4.2 million shares of Series E preferred stock, and in April 2026 it bought about 0.4 million common shares in a tender offer for $40 million. At March 31, 2026 the Series D and E holdings had a carrying value of about $2.0 billion, about 23 percent of the outstanding and 14 percent of the fully diluted shares, after a $389 million fair value gain recorded in the quarter.[^30] On August 26, 2025 [1789 Capital](/organizations/1789-capital/), a venture firm in which [Donald Trump Jr.](/people/donald-trump-jr/) is a partner, was reported to have made a strategic investment in Polymarket, with Trump Jr. joining the company's advisory board; the terms were not disclosed.[^31] On September 1, 2026 coverage reported that 1789 Capital had led a $1 billion round valuing Polymarket at $21 billion, up from $15 billion earlier in the year, with 1789 contributing $300 million on top of $200 million it had previously invested. [The Wall Street Journal](/organizations/the-wall-street-journal/) was cited for the $300 million.[^32][^33] ### The 2022 CFTC Order On January 3, 2022, the CFTC entered an order filing and settling charges against Blockratize, Inc. d/b/a Polymarket for offering off-exchange event-based binary options contracts without designation as a designated contract market or registration as a swap execution facility. The order found that the platform had operated as an unregistered facility from June 2020, had offered more than 900 event markets, and had run markets through smart contracts on a blockchain. Users were required to use an Ethereum-based wallet and fund it with USDC.[^1] The order required a $1.4 million civil monetary penalty, which it reduced in recognition of Polymarket's cooperation with the Division of Enforcement. It also required the winding down of markets that did not comply with the law, and the company's commitment to cease offering access to trading in its markets, unless the offering complied with the Act, by January 14, 2022, with certification by January 24, 2022. The order states that the company had never been registered with the CFTC in any capacity, that it had recorded more than $130 million in trading volume since the beta phase, and that it had represented that it had taken no profits from those transactions. It also states that disputes over the outcome of markets were resolved solely by the company's "Markets Integrity Committee," which the order describes as staffed solely by Polymarket personnel.[^1] The company's own post of January 12, 2022 stated that trading on Polymarket.com would no longer be available to users from prohibited jurisdictions, including the United States, from that day, and that a site at Polymarket.us would let past users close out positions and withdraw funds. It said that about 1 million unique visitors had come to the site in its first year and a half, most of whom had never traded, and it recommended [Kalshi](/organizations/kalshi/), PredictIt and Nadex to Americans who wished to continue trading.[^34] On May 19, 2022 the company named Giancarlo, who had chaired the CFTC, as chairman of its advisory board. Coplan said in a thread announcing the appointment that Giancarlo's skillset was "exactly what's needed to pioneer compliant DeFi in the US." The Block reported that Giancarlo, in Bloomberg's coverage of the appointment, said the company had followed the legal process, moved everything offshore and done what was required.[^35] ### The 2024 Election and the FBI Search Polymarket's markets on the 2024 U.S. presidential election drew large volume and one heavy trader, a French trader whose accounts included Fredi9999, PrincessCaro, Theo4 and Michie. Fortune reported about $40 million in profit from two markets in early November 2024, according to Polymarket Analytics.[^36] On November 13, 2024, agents of the [Federal Bureau of Investigation](/organizations/federal-bureau-of-investigation/) executed a search warrant at Coplan's Manhattan home and took his phone and other electronic devices. The New York Post first reported the search and said that agents arrived at 6 a.m. Coplan wrote on X that the search was a "last-ditch effort to go after companies they deem to be associated with political opponents."[^37] NPR later wrote that agents used a battering ram, as part of a probe into whether Polymarket was violating the 2022 settlement.[^13] The federal probes examined whether the company had kept accepting bets from users in the United States despite its 2022 commitment. On July 15, 2025, CNBC reported, citing a source, that Polymarket had received declination notices earlier that month from the [Department of Justice](/organizations/department-of-justice/) and the CFTC, one covering a criminal and one a civil inquiry, stating that the probes were completed and no further action would be taken; the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office had conducted the criminal investigation and declined to comment. Bloomberg News first reported the notices.[^38] Coplan posted on X that day that the FBI had "broke down my door at 6 a.m." eight days after election night, and that "Justice prevailed."[^39] [Brian Quintenz](/people/brian-quintenz/), whom [Donald Trump](/people/donald-trump/) had nominated to chair the CFTC, had joined the board of Kalshi, Polymarket's competitor, in November 2021; the White House withdrew his nomination in late September 2025.[^40][^41] ### Return to the United States Staff of the CFTC's Division of Market Oversight and Division of Clearing and Risk issued Staff Letter 25-28 on September 2, 2025, granting QCX LLC, doing business as Polymarket US, and QC Clearing LLC, doing business as Polymarket Clearing, no-action relief from certain swap data reporting and recordkeeping rules for fully collateralized binary option contracts. One condition barred any participant from clearing a QCEX contract through a third-party clearing member. On November 14, 2025 Polymarket asked the staff to remove that condition, and a supplemental letter, 25-48, dated December 11, 2025, modified the relief.[^16] On December 3, 2025 Polymarket announced on X that its U.S. iOS app had launched, rolling out through a waitlist, starting with sports markets.[^42] NPR reported in May 2026 that the website on which the company's international markets operate remained barred to U.S. users under the 2022 settlement, in "view-only mode," while the Trump administration had embraced the company: the Justice Department had dropped its investigation, Trump Jr. had become an adviser, and administration officials had invited Coplan to a White House cryptocurrency roundtable.[^13] ### Political Giving and Lobbying [Federal Election Commission](/organizations/federal-election-commission/) records show contributions by Coplan, and by Polymarket executives, in the 2024 and 2026 cycles. On June 15, 2023 Coplan gave $5,000 to Never Back Down Inc., a super PAC that supported the presidential candidacy of [Ron DeSantis](/people/ron-desantis/). On September 19, 2024 Polymarket's chief marketing officer, Matthew Modabber, gave $50,000 to the Harris Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee for Kamala Harris, with allocations to the [Democratic National Committee](/organizations/democratic-national-committee/) ($41,300), Harris for President ($3,300) and state parties. On October 21, 2024 Coplan gave $50,000 to the Harris Victory Fund, with the same allocations. On November 1, 2024 Coplan gave $23,300 through ActBlue, earmarked for the Torres Victory Fund of Rep. Ritchie Torres, which the filings show distributed to Torres for Congress ($3,300), the New York State Democratic Committee ($10,000), La Bamba PAC ($5,000) and Equality PAC ($5,000).[^43] Coplan's contributions to the Republican National Committee on August 3, 2026, with his employer listed as Blockratize Inc. and his occupation as CEO, were $72,800 to the headquarters account, $132,900 to the legal proceedings account and $44,300 to the general account, $250,000 in all. The company's chief legal officer, Neal Kumar, gave $6,818.18 each to WinRed and Team Jordan in October 2025 and $10,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee on July 17, 2026.[^43] Under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, Advocus Partners, LLC registered on April 21, 2025 to lobby for Blockratize, Inc. on the issue "Financial Institutions/Investments/Securities," described as "strategic counsel and advocacy regarding development of digital asset policy and information markets." The registration lists David Urban (chief of staff to Sen. Arlen Specter; chairman of the American Battle Monuments Commission; USMA Board of Visitors) and Patrick Ames (senior policy adviser and counselor at the CFTC; law clerk to CFTC Commissioner Giancarlo). The firm reported $90,000 in income from the client in each of six quarterly reports, first quarter 2025 through second quarter 2026, $540,000 in all; the reports for 2026 add Andrew Lewin, a former House legislative assistant.[^44] Trump Jr. is a partner at 1789 Capital and sits on Polymarket's advisory board.[^31] The [Associated Press](/organizations/associated-press/) wrote in April 2026 that he is separately a paid strategic adviser to Kalshi.[^45] On March 1, 2026, Rep. Mike Levin posted a demand for answers about an account that had profited from a bet on U.S. strikes on Iran, and noted that Trump Jr. sat on the advisory board and that his firm had put "double-digit millions" into the company the previous year.[^46] The Associated Press reported in April 2026 that at least 50 new accounts had bet on a U.S.-Iran ceasefire shortly before it was announced; Torres wrote to the CFTC asking it to review the trades, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal wrote to Polymarket that it had "become an illicit market to sell and exploit national security secrets unlike any in history, and by extension a potential honeypot for foreign intelligence services."[^45] On June 6, 2025, X named Polymarket its official prediction market partner, with a first product that combined Polymarket odds with X data and annotations from Grok.[^47] ### Market Resolution and the UMA Oracle Polymarket settles disputed outcomes by a vote of holders of the UMA token in an optimistic oracle. On March 25, 2025 a $7 million market asking whether Trump would secure a rare earth minerals agreement with Ukraine by the end of March was resolved in favor of the claim although no deal had been confirmed. CryptoSlate reported that Wu Blockchain had said a single holder allegedly used three wallets to cast 5 million UMA tokens, about 25 percent of the votes. Polymarket called the event "unprecedented" and said that the market was resolved according to protocol and that users would not be reimbursed.[^48] ### Insider Trading and Suspicious Wagers On June 21, 2025, the United States struck the Fordow nuclear site in Iran. The Anti-Corruption Data Collective and Der Standard reported on June 11, 2026 that an account named "Skoobidoobnj" began betting on a U.S. strike about ten hours before it, staked nearly $9,000 at odds of about one to ten, and won more than $100,000. A second account, "0xoracle," placed bets on the strike and on the destruction of Fordow. The researchers wrote that more than half of military-related longshot bets of at least $2,500 succeeded, and that nine interconnected accounts identified by Bubblemaps made more than $2.4 million, almost entirely from bets on U.S. military operations.[^49] On October 10, 2025 the Norwegian Nobel Committee's announcement of the Peace Prize to Maria Corina Machado followed a rise in her Polymarket odds from roughly 3.6 percent to more than 70 percent about ten hours earlier, driven by a few accounts. Bloomberg identified one trader, "dirtycup," who had opened the account that month, and three accounts earned about $90,000 together. The director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, Kristian Berg Harpviken, said the spike "seems we have been prey to a criminal actor who wants to earn money on our information," and the institute said it would review whether confidential information had been accessed or shared unlawfully.[^50] In the predawn hours of January 3, 2026, the United States apprehended Nicolás Maduro. A Polymarket account created less than a week earlier had bought roughly $32,000 of shares in a market on whether Maduro would be out by January 31, and Fortune reported a net of $436,759.61 for the account.[^51] Torres announced on January 5 that he would introduce the Public Integrity in Financial Prediction Markets Act of 2026.[^52] On April 23, 2026 the Justice Department unsealed an indictment of Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a U.S. Army soldier stationed at Fort Bragg who the indictment alleges participated in planning Operation Absolute Resolve. The indictment alleges that he created a Polymarket account on or about December 26, 2025, made about 13 "YES" bets totaling about $33,034 on Venezuela and Maduro markets, and profited about $409,881; that he withdrew most of the proceeds on January 3; and that on January 6 he asked Polymarket to delete the account, claiming he had lost access to its email address. The charges are three counts under the Commodity Exchange Act, wire fraud and an unlawful monetary transaction. NPR reported that Van Dyke pleaded not guilty.[^13][^53] The House Oversight letter of May 22, 2026 describes him as an Army master sergeant and dates the indictment April 24, 2026.[^54] On February 28, 2026, the United States struck Iran. Bubblemaps, a blockchain analytics firm, flagged six wallets that had been funded within 24 hours of the strike, bought "yes" shares on the February 28 contract hours before the operation, and called the group "suspected insiders" with $1.2 million in profit; The Block's tally of the same wallets was $989,191.[^55] Quartz reported that an account named "Magamyman" bet $87,000 about 71 minutes before the attacks became public, when the market priced them at 17 percent, and that the position was worth more than $553,000; Levin's post gave the gain as $515,000.[^46][^56] On May 27, 2026 the CFTC filed a civil complaint in the Southern District of New York, and federal prosecutors unsealed a criminal complaint in the same court, against Michele Spagnuolo, a Google employee. The CFTC complaint describes him as a resident of Switzerland and a software engineer at Google; the complaints allege that he traded as "AlphaRaccoon" on contracts tied to Google's 2025 Year in Search list, using confidential data, and collected about $1.2 million in profit after Google announced the results on or about December 4, 2025. The criminal complaint charges wire fraud, commodities fraud and money laundering. Google said he had been placed on leave. The allegations have not been tested in court.[^57] On March 23, 2026, Polymarket published "Enhanced Market Integrity Rules." The rules bar trading on confidential information held in breach of a duty of trust or confidence, and bar people able to influence an outcome from trading markets on that outcome, with a member of Congress unable to buy contracts on a specific legislative proposal.[^58] ### House Oversight Letter and Wall Street Journal Reporting, 2026 On May 22, 2026 [James Comer](/people/james-comer/), chairman of the [House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform](/organizations/house-committee-on-oversight-and-government-reform/), signed a four-page letter to Coplan as chief executive of Blockratize, Inc. doing business as Polymarket, with a copy to ranking member [Robert Garcia](/people/robert-garcia/). The letter states that the committee is examining the use of prediction-market platforms to conduct insider trading and the adequacy of company safeguards against offshore access that circumvents U.S. regulation. It cites the indictment of Van Dyke, a case it describes as alleging the use of classified information about Operation Absolute Resolve to place wagers worth more than $409,000, and a May 13, 2026 New York Times investigation reporting that more than 80 Polymarket users placed bets with suspicious characteristics, including trades hours before unannounced U.S. and Israeli military operations against Iran. The letter requests documents from January 1, 2024 to the present, due June 5, 2026, in eight categories: identity verification and know-your-customer procedures; detection, investigation and referral of suspicious trading; contracts tied to U.S. or Israeli operations in Iran and to Operation Absolute Resolve; collection and use of personal data; compliance with CFTC regulations and the 2022 settlement; deliberations on contracts tied to armed conflict; current or former officers, directors, employees and advisers who hold or have applied for a U.S. security clearance; and the financial impact of anomalous trading on market integrity.[^54] In September 2026 The Wall Street Journal published an investigation by Katherine Long, Caitlin Ostroff and Neil Mehta, which CCN, Quartz and iGaming Express reported on September 21. According to those reports, current and former employees told the Journal that compliance staff escalated to Coplan a stolen-debit-card fraud attempt on Polymarket's U.S. platform, worth at least $10 million, that peaked in February, with the payment processor Checkout.com rejecting more than 80 percent of the deposits it handled at the peak against an industry norm of about 1 percent, and that Coplan replied: "Just keep growing and pay a fine if regulators ever find out." Polymarket has not confirmed the comment, and a spokesperson said the company's "market integrity framework includes processes to detect, review and respond to suspicious activity." The same reports state that the Journal also reported that the CFTC is investigating Polymarket and that staff were told to preserve records; that Polymarket's U.S. chief compliance officer, Andrew Clifford, resigned in April after sending executives a report on the fraud; that the U.S. division's chief executive, Justin Hertzberg, was later fired; that a review by the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell concluded the company had complied with applicable regulations; and that Polymarket was raising $1 billion at a valuation of about $21 billion, with 1789 Capital investing roughly $300 million.[^59] ### Foreign Restrictions In [France](/places/france/) the national gaming regulator, the Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ), followed the company from November 2024, when betting was already barred, and on July 16, 2026 ordered internet providers to block the site. The regulator found that the geoblocking introduced after its notice was largely circumvented, noted the absence of identity verification, and treated the live odds on the home page as illegal advertising liable to a fine of 100,000 euros. The Paris prosecutor's office opened a criminal investigation on May 4, 2026, and the report mentions suspicion that weather markets were rigged by tampering with weather sensors.[^12] In [Belgium](/places/belgium/) the Kansspelcommissie placed the site on its blacklist of illegal gambling sites effective January 30, 2025, after three warnings went unanswered and a request to the public prosecutor to block IP access.[^60] In [Singapore](/places/singapore/) the Gambling Regulatory Authority showed users a notice from January 12, 2025 declaring Polymarket an illegal gambling site operated by an unlicensed provider, citing Section 20 of the Gambling Control Act 2022, which carries fines of up to $10,000 or six months in prison.[^61] ### Data, Media and Sports Partnerships On January 7, 2026, Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, announced an exclusive partnership under which Polymarket's data appears across the Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch and Investor's Business Daily, with a custom earnings calendar built on market-implied expectations.[^62] Polymarket and Substack announced in 2026 a partnership that lets writers embed Polymarket data in newsletters and Notes; it builds on a partnership first announced in 2024, and the company joined Substack's sponsorship pilot program.[^63] On November 12, 2025, TKO Group, the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Zuffa Boxing, announced a multi-year agreement naming Polymarket the Official and Exclusive Prediction Market Partner of UFC and Zuffa Boxing, with a real-time Fan Prediction Scoreboard in UFC broadcasts. Coverage reported that Polymarket had signed a similar agreement with the National Hockey League in October 2025.[^64] [^1]: Commodity Futures Trading Commission, *In the Matter of Blockratize, Inc. d/b/a Polymarket.com*, CFTC Docket No. 22-09, order filing and simultaneously settling charges, January 3, 2022. https://www.cftc.gov/media/6891/enfblockratizeorder010322/download. The press release of the same date is Release Number 8478-22, https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/8478-22. [^2]: Dan Bernstein, "What Is Polymarket Doing in Panama?," Sportico, February 19, 2026. https://www.sportico.com/business/sports-betting/2026/polymarket-panama-adventure-one-prediction-market-1234885035/. [^3]: Internet Archive, captures of https://union.market/ dated July 17, 2019 (https://web.archive.org/web/20190717093112/https://union.market/) and November 9, 2020 (https://web.archive.org/web/20201109032613/https://union.market/). [^4]: Shayne Coplan, "Staking Beyond Consensus: decentralized digital labor markets," The Block, March 2, 2020. https://www.theblock.co/post/56263/staking-beyond-consensus-decentralized-digital-labor-markets. [^5]: Cointelegraph, "From Rags to riches: Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan Defies the odds," quoting a post by Coplan, October 2025. https://cointelegraph.com/news/polymarket-founder-coplan-billionaires-nyse-investment. [^6]: Decrypt, "Decrypt's 2024 Person of the Year: Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan," December 2024, quoting a post by Coplan. https://decrypt.co/295680/2024-person-of-the-year-polymarket-ceo-shayne-coplan. [^7]: Polymarket, "A new Polymarket is coming.. Stage 2 of the Polymarket Beta is...," Medium, September 2020 (capture of October 29, 2020). https://web.archive.org/web/20201029073909/https://medium.com/polymarket/a-new-polymarket-is-coming-d98478ec86a. [^8]: Internet Archive, capture of http://www.polymarket.com/ dated June 18, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200618071823/http://www.polymarket.com:80/. [^9]: Internet Archive, capture of https://polymarket.com/ dated March 1, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210301000000/https://polymarket.com/. [^10]: Odaily, "The economic implications of Polymarket's exodus from Polygon," December 2025. https://www.odaily.news/en/post/5208320. [^11]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR, Form D filed October 18, 2024 by Blockratize Inc. (CIK 0002041378). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2041378/000204137824000001/primary_doc.xml. [^12]: Gambling Insider (French edition), "L'ANJ ordonne le blocage de Polymarket en France," updated July 20, 2026. https://www.gamblinginsider.com/fr/?p=106304. The regulator's findings are as reported there. [^13]: Bobby Allyn and Eliana Morales Gil, "NPR went looking for Polymarket's Panama headquarters. It's elusive," NPR, May 5, 2026. https://www.npr.org/2026/05/05/nx-s1-5807918/polymarket-panama-prediction-market. [^14]: Cointelegraph, "Polymarket Set to Reenter US After $112M Acquisition of QCEX," July 21, 2025. https://cointelegraph.com/news/polymarket-reenter-us-acquisition-qcex-exchange. [^15]: Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Order of Designation, *In the Matter of the Application of QCX LLC for Designation as a Contract Market*, 2025. https://www.cftc.gov/filings/documents/2025/orgdcmqcexorderofd250709.pdf. [^16]: CFTC Letter No. 25-48, Supplemental Staff Letter regarding No-Action Position for QCEX Contracts, December 11, 2025, which describes CFTC Letter No. 25-28 (September 2, 2025) and the November 14, 2025 request. https://www.cftc.gov/csl/25-48/download; https://www.cftc.gov/csl/25-28/download. [^17]: Decrypt, "Decrypt's 2024 Person of the Year: Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan," citing Cryptorank data on a 2020 seed round led by Polychain Capital, https://decrypt.co/295680/2024-person-of-the-year-polymarket-ceo-shayne-coplan; Seedtable company record, dated October 19, 2020, https://seedtable.com/companies/polymarket. Polychain is named among the participants in the Series A in the Business Wire release of May 13, 2024. [^18]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR, Form D filed June 9, 2021 by PTC Polymarket LLC (CIK 0001862792). https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1862792/000186112821000004/primary_doc.xml. [^19]: Business Wire, "Polymarket Raises $70m From Thiel's Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Vitalik Buterin to Scale Global Prediction Market," May 13, 2024. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240513090515/en/Polymarket-Raises-%2470m-From-Thiels-Founders-Fund-General-Catalyst-Vitalik-Buterin-to-Scale-Global-Prediction-Market. [^20]: Blockchain Capital, "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: Polymarket and the Future of News," October 9, 2025. https://blockchaincapital.com/blog/put-your-money-where-your-mouth-is-polymarket-and-the-future-of-news. [^21]: Blockchain Capital, team pages for Bart Stephens and Joshua Rivera, and portfolio page. https://blockchaincapital.com/team/bart-stephens; https://blockchaincapital.com/team/joshua-rivera; https://blockchaincapital.com/portfolio. [^22]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR, Form D filed April 16, 2020 for Blockchain Capital V QP, LP. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1808666/000180866620000001/primary_doc.xml. [^23]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR, Form D/A filed February 25, 2025 by Blockratize Inc., amending accession no. 0002041378-24-000001. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2041378/000204137825000001/primary_doc.xml. [^24]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR, Form D filed August 1, 2025 by Blockratize Inc. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2041378/000204137825000003/primary_doc.xml. [^25]: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, EDGAR company filing list for Blockratize Inc. (CIK 0002041378), accessed October 2026. https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0002041378. [^26]: Bloomberg, "Polymarket Is Set to Raise Funding at $1 Billion Valuation," June 24, 2025. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-24/polymarket-is-set-to-raise-funding-at-1-billion-valuation; CoinDesk, "Polymarket on the Verge of Raising $200M at $1B Valuation: Report," June 24, 2025. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/06/24/polymarket-on-the-verge-of-raising-usd200m-at-usd1b-valuation-report. [^27]: Naga Avan-Nomayo, "Polymarket discloses past funding rounds totaling $205 million before $2 billion ICE investment," The Block, October 8, 2025. https://www.theblock.co/post/373783/polymarket-discloses-past-funding-rounds-totaling-205-million-before-2-billion-ice-investment. [^28]: Intercontinental Exchange, "ICE Announces Strategic Investment in Polymarket," press release (Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K), October 7, 2025. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1571949/000094787125000890/ss5432176_ex9901.htm. [^29]: Decrypt, "Morning Minute: Polymarket Raises $2B at $9B Valuation from NYSE Parent," October 2025, quoting Polymarket's post on X. https://decrypt.co/343372/morning-minute-polymarket-raises-2b-at-9b-valuation-from-nyse-parent?amp=1. [^30]: Intercontinental Exchange, Form 10-K for 2025 (filed February 5, 2026), Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2026 (filed April 30, 2026) and Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 (filed July 30, 2026), notes on the Polymarket investment. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1571949/000157194926000004/ice-20251231.htm; https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1571949/000157194926000007/ice-20260331.htm; https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1571949/000157194926000011/ice-20260630.htm. [^31]: Ilya Banares, "Polymarket Gets 1789 Investment, Adds Trump Jr. as Adviser," Bloomberg Law, August 26, 2025. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/esg/polymarket-gets-1789-investment-adds-trump-jr-as-adviser. [^32]: "Polymarket Raises $1 Billion In Latest Funding Round," Yahoo Finance (Cryptoprowl), September 1, 2026. https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/crypto/articles/polymarket-raises-1-billion-latest-135800904.html. [^33]: Covers, "Trump Jr.'s Firm Invests $300 Million into Polymarket," citing The Wall Street Journal, September 1, 2026. https://www.covers.com/industry/trump-jrs-firm-invests-300-million-dollars-into-polymarket-sept-1-2026. [^34]: Polymarket, "Compliance Update, January 2022," January 12, 2022. https://blog.polymarket.com/compliance-update-january-2022/. [^35]: The Block, "Polymarket appoints former CFTC chief Giancarlo as chair of advisory board," May 19, 2022. https://www.theblock.co/news/business/2022-05-19-polymarket-appoints-former-cftc-chief-giancarlo-as-chair-of-advisory-board-147946. [^36]: Fortune, "The French whale on Polymarket just won $40 million betting on Trump," November 6, 2024. https://fortune.com/2024/11/06/polymarket-whale-won-40-million-betting-on-trump. [^37]: Al Jazeera, "FBI raids home of Polymarket CEO," November 14, 2024. https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/11/14/fbi-raids-home-of-polymarket-ceo. [^38]: CNBC, "Trump administration ends Polymarket investigations without charges," July 15, 2025, reprinted by NBC San Diego. https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/business/money-report/trump-administration-ends-polymarket-investigations-without-charges/3868886/. [^39]: crypto.news, "DOJ, CFTC close Polymarket case months after FBI raid, no charges filed," July 2025, quoting Coplan's post of July 15, 2025. https://crypto.news/doj-cftc-close-polymarket-case-months-after-fbi-raid-no-charges-filed/. [^40]: Kalshi News, "Former CFTC Commissioner Brian Quintenz Joins Our Board," November 16, 2021. https://news.kalshi.com/p/former-cftc-commissioner-brian-quintenz-joins-our-board. [^41]: Cointelegraph, "Crypto industry groups weigh in on CFTC's future after key withdrawal," October 1, 2025. https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-organizations-cftc-chair-brian-quintenz-withdrawal. [^42]: CoinDesk, "Polymarket Launches App With CFTC Green Light in U.S. Return," December 3, 2025. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/12/03/polymarket-launches-app-with-cftc-green-light-in-u-s-return. [^43]: Federal Election Commission, Schedule A receipts (OpenFEC API) for contributor Shayne Coplan, employer Polymarket and employer Blockratize, retrieved October 13, 2026. Filings: Never Back Down Inc. (C00834077), https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?202307319588928213; Harris Victory Fund (C00744946), https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?202505089760714379; Torres Victory Fund (C00754598), https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?202412049720190238; Republican National Committee (C00003418), https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?202609209908290689 and https://docquery.fec.gov/cgi-bin/fecimg/?202609209908269154. Allocation lines of the joint fundraising committees are counted once. The FEC committee records list Andrew Madras as treasurer of the Torres Victory Fund (C00754598), of Torres for Congress (C00699744, candidate H0NY15160, Ritchie John Torres) and of La Bamba PAC (C00753947, sponsor candidate Ritchie John Torres). https://api.open.fec.gov/v1/committee/C00754598/ [^44]: U.S. Senate, Lobbying Disclosure Act database, registration and quarterly reports filed April 21, 2025 through July 20, 2026 by Advocus Partners, LLC for client Blockratize, Inc. https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/84df9d2d-3053-4484-820f-16bddafb8ba9/print/; https://lda.gov/filings/public/filing/0002a0aa-0c8a-4020-b2b8-3481b1765bd0/print/. [^45]: Associated Press, "Well-timed bets on Polymarket tied to the Iran war draw calls for investigations from lawmakers," April 2026, syndicated by WTOP. https://wtop.com/national/2026/04/well-timed-bets-on-polymarket-tied-to-the-iran-war-draw-calls-for-investigations-from-lawmakers/. [^46]: Yahoo Finance, "Polymarket Under Fire After Lawmaker Demands Answers Over $500K Iran Strike Bet," March 2026, reporting Rep. Mike Levin's post of March 1, 2026. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/polymarket-under-fire-lawmaker-demands-033019283.html. [^47]: Covers, "Polymarket, X Announce Prediction Market Partnership," June 6, 2025. https://www.covers.com/industry/polymarket-and-x-announce-partnership-june-6-2025. [^48]: CryptoSlate, "Polymarket faces backlash over resolving disputed $7 million Trump-Ukraine market," March 2025. https://cryptoslate.com/polymarket-faces-backlash-over-resolving-disputed-7-million-trump-ukraine-market/. [^49]: Anton Reckmann, "Profiting from War: Mysterious Bets on Polymarket," Anti-Corruption Data Collective with Der Standard and Paper Trail Media, June 11, 2026. https://acdatacollective.org/work/profiting-from-war-mysterious-bets-on-polymarket/. The patterns are the researchers' analysis. [^50]: Yahoo Finance (Bloomberg), "Probe into Polymarket Nobel Peace Prize Bets," October 2025, https://finance.yahoo.com/news/probe-polymarket-nobel-peace-prize-205100943.html; Blockworks, "Officials suspect potential insider trading after wagers on Nobel Peace Prize winner surged hours before announcement," October 2025, https://blockworks.com/news/polymarket-nobel-probe; The Block, "Officials probe Polymarket over suspicious trades predicting Nobel Peace Prize winner," October 2025, https://www.theblock.co/post/374199/officials-probe-polymarket-over-suspicious-trades-predicting-nobel-peace-prize-winner-reports. [^51]: Fortune, "Polymarket account made $400k from bets on Maduro's capture placed hours before U.S. military strike," January 5, 2026, https://dc.fortune.com/2026/01/05/polymarket-user-400k-maduro-capture-bets-insider-trading-suspicion; NPR, "After Maduro was captured, someone made $400,000 on Polymarket," January 5, 2026, https://npr.org/2026/01/05/nx-s1-5667232/polymarket-maduro-bet-insider-trading. [^52]: The Block, "Rep. Torres targets prediction market 'insider trading' after trader nets $400K on Maduro's capture," January 2026. https://www.theblock.co/post/384200/rep-torres-targets-prediction-market-insider-trading-after-trader-nets-400k-on-maduros-capture-report. [^53]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, "U.S. Soldier Charged With Using Classified Information To Profit From Prediction Market Bets," April 23, 2026. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-soldier-charged-using-classified-information-profit-prediction-market-bets. The allegations are those of the indictment. [^54]: U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, letter from Chairman James Comer to Shayne Coplan, Blockratize, Inc. d/b/a Polymarket, May 22, 2026. https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Polymarket-Prediction-Markets-Letter.pdf [^55]: The Block, "Fresh accounts netted $1 million on Polymarket hours before US airstrikes on Iran: Bubblemaps," March 2026. https://www.theblock.co/post/391650/fresh-accounts-netted-1-million-on-polymarket-hours-before-us-airstrikes-on-iran-bubblemaps. The labels and the combined figure are Bubblemaps's own. [^56]: Quartz, "A Polymarket bet placed shortly before news of U.S. strikes on Iran turned $87,000 into $553,000," March 2026. https://qz.com/polymarket-iran-strike-insider-bet-prediction-markets. [^57]: Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Release 9237-26, "CFTC Charges Google Employee with Insider Trading in Search Result-Related Event Contracts," May 27, 2026, as reproduced by Mondo Visione, https://mondovisione.com/media-and-resources/news/cftc-charges-google-employee-with-insider-trading-in-search-result-related-event-2026528/; CNBC, "Google employee charged with $1M Polymarket insider trading bet on search term," May 27, 2026, https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/27/google-employee-polymarket-insider-trading.html. Allegations only. [^58]: Covers, "Polymarket Reveals its Crackdown on Insider Trading," March 23, 2026. https://www.covers.com/industry/polymarkets-plan-to-tackle-insider-trading-march-23-2026. [^59]: Kurt Robson, "Keep Growing and Pay a Fine: Polymarket CEO Allegedly Ignored Warnings as Fraud Attempts Hit $10M," CCN via Yahoo Finance, September 21, 2026, reporting the Wall Street Journal investigation, https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/crypto/articles/keep-growing-pay-fine-polymarket-104716697.html ; Cris Tolomia, "Polymarket's CEO told staff to keep growing as a $10M fraud scheme hit its U.S. platform," Quartz, updated September 21, 2026, https://qz.com/polymarket-ceo-fraud-cftc-investigation-growth-092126 ; Mateusz Mazur, "Polymarket Waved Off Stolen-Card Fraud Warnings, WSJ Reports," iGaming Express, September 21, 2026, naming the Journal's authors, https://igamingexpress.com/polymarket-stolen-card-fraud-coplan-wsj/ [^60]: CDC Gaming, "Belgium blocks Polymarket as blacklisted website." https://cdcgaming.com/brief/belgium-blocks-polymarket-as-blacklisted-website/; SBC News, "Polymarket belgium ban," February 3, 2025. https://sbcnews.co.uk/sportsbook/2025/02/03/polymarket-belgium-ban/. [^61]: Decrypt, "Singapore Blocks Access to Polymarket Over Gambling Law," January 2025. https://decrypt.co/300583/singapore-blocks-access-to-polymarket-over-gambling-law. [^62]: Business Wire, "Polymarket and Dow Jones, Publisher of The Wall Street Journal, Announce Exclusive Prediction Market Partnership," January 7, 2026. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260107511213/en. [^63]: Nieman Lab, "Polymarket says journalism is better when it's backed by live markets," February 2026. https://www.niemanlab.org/2026/02/polymarket-says-journalism-is-better-when-its-backed-by-live-markets-does-anyone-know-what-that-means/. [^64]: Business Wire, "TKO and Polymarket Announce First-of-Its-Kind Sports Partnership," November 12, 2025, https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251112645203/en/TKO-and-Polymarket-Announce-First-of-Its-Kind-Sports-Partnership; Yogonet, November 14, 2025, https://www.yogonet.com/international/news/2025/11/14/116324-polymarket-signs-multiyear-deal-as-ufcs-exclusive-prediction-market-partner. --- *The Info Web has an MCP server for agents at https://theinfoweb.org/mcp (streamable HTTP, no auth): search by meaning, exact text, source or date, and follow typed, footnoted connections. Setup and the same tools over GET: https://theinfoweb.org/llms.txt*