Polymarket CEO rebuffs partisan claims from New York Times

Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan has denied allegations from the New York Times that his prediction platform is politically biased.

Coplan described the Polygon-based betting service as an unbiased alternative data source that benefits from the excitement around the election right now. His comments came in response to a recent New York Times article that accused Polymarket of partisan manipulation and labeled it as nothing more than a “crypto-backed gambling” site.

Polymarket’s boss also rubbished rumors that entrepreneur Peter Thiel and the Founders Fund have gained sway over the company’s operations. The Founders Fund invested $45 million in the firm, but Coplan clarified that neither Thiel nor his fund are major shareholders.

According to Coplan, Polymarket operates like a free market where users set the price and set the rates. Since the platform is built on decentralized technology, third parties can only observe trading data.

The beauty of Polymarket is that it is completely peer-to-peer and transparent. It is even more transparent than traditional finance, where all data is hidden and visible only to the operator. Therefore, everyone can control all usage; This is a good thing for free markets. This is not a bug, it is a feature.

Shayne Coplan, CEO of Polymarket

Considering the New York Times’ latest article on Polymarket, it seems like a good time to clarify this:

• Polymarket is absolutely non-partisan. Depending on the day, we are told we are Democrat operatives and MAGA. Unfortunately the story is much less interesting, we are just market nerds… pic.twitter.com/jz87JiO6AH

— Shayne Coplan (@shayne_coplan) October 25, 2024

Coplan’s company has been one of cryptocurrency’s breakout stories this year, recording over $1 billion in volume in September bets alone. Its largest market, focused on the US presidential election, had over $2.3 billion in volume 11 days before US citizens voted for the next president.

As of this writing, Donald Trump’s lead over Kamala Harris on the platform remains intact. While the Republicans’ probability of winning was 64.1%, Harris’s chance of winning dropped to 35.9%.

Between the Bloomberg integrations and the NYT’s claims, the data revealed another point of contention regarding Polymarket. While the company has attracted billions of dollars in bets, its protocol has transferred less than $30,000 in transaction fees to Polygon’s blockchain this year.