Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan rejected the New York Times’ allegations, saying the prediction platform was politically biased.
Coplan described the Polygon-based betting service as a neutral alternative data source currently benefiting from election-related hype. His comments followed a recent New York Times article that accused Polymarket of partisan manipulation and characterized it as nothing more than a “cryptocurrency-powered gaming” site.
The Polymarket boss also denied rumors that entrepreneur Peter Thiel and his fund of founders had any control over the company’s operations. Founders Fund invested $45 million in the company, but Coplan clarified that neither Thiel nor his fund were major stakeholders.
According to Coplan, Polymarket operates as a free market where users set the price and determine the odds. Third parties can only observe trading data since the platform is built on decentralized technology.
The beauty of Polymarket is that it is completely peer-to-peer and transparent. Even more transparent than traditional finance, where all data is hidden and visible only to the operator. This is why everyone can control all uses – which is a good thing for free markets. A feature, not a bug.
Shayne Coplan, CEO of Polymarket
The Coplan company has been one of the breakout stories in crypto this year, recording over $1 billion in volume in September alone. Its largest market, focused on the U.S. presidential elections, had a volume of more than $2.3 billion 11 days before U.S. citizens voted for the next president.
As of this writing, Donald Trump’s lead over Kamala Harris on the platform remains intact. The Republican had a 64.1% chance of winning, while Harris’ chances of winning had fallen to 35.9%.
Amid Bloomberg integrations and NYT claims, the data revealed another Polymarket-related talking point. While the company has attracted billions in bets, its protocol has paid less than $30,000 in transaction fees to the Polygon blockchain this year.
