On Wednesday, the Manhattan apartment of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan was raided by the FBIwho seized his phone and other electronic devices but did not place him under arrest.

Talk to The New York Postwho first reported on the attack, a source close to Coplan said the 26-year-old businessman had not been informed why he was under investigation and called the incident “high political theater at its worst.”

Polymarket, which allows real-time betting on a series of outcomes, attracted attention during the 2024 presidential election for the generally favorable odds it offered. Republican candidate Donald Trump to win. On October 22, he gave Trump, who would emerge victorious with 312 electoral college votes, a 64.3 percent win change compared to only 35.7 percent for the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

According to The New York Post The raid began around 6am on Wednesday when Coplan was awakened and instructed to hand over a number of electrical items. News week contacted the FBI press office and Polymarket for comment Thursday via email outside of normal business hours.

The source close to Coplan said the FBI “staged a so-called raid so they could leak the information to the media and use it for obvious political reasons.”

They added: “This is clear political retaliation by the outgoing administration against Polymarket for providing a marketplace that properly called the 2024 presidential election.”

In an X post on Wednesday, Coplan jokingly wrote: “New phone, who is it?”

He later added: “It is disheartening that the current administration is seeking a last-ditch effort to go after companies it sees as associated with political opponents.”

“We are deeply committed to being nonpartisan, and today is no different, but outgoing leaders should reflect on themselves and recognize that taking a more business- and startup-friendly approach might be what would have changed their fate in this election.

On Polymarket, which claims to be “the world’s largest prediction market,” players use cryptocurrency to buy stocks in certain events, like Trump’s election victory. Each stock is valued between $0.00 and $1.00, and the higher the number, the more the market believes this event will take place. Betting on Polymarket is banned in the United States, although users are believed to have been banned. using virtual private networks (VPN) to work around this problem.

Separate investigations by blockchain companies Chaos Labs and Inca Digital found evidence of large wash trades on Polymarket. Wash trading is an illegal practice in which shares of an event are bought and sold repeatedly to create the illusion of more intense market activity.

Chaos Lab concluded that approximately one-third of purchases and sales on Polymarket’s Presidential Marketplace in 2024 were fictitious trades, which Inca Digital said constitutes a “significant portion of the volume” of ongoing trades.

Talk to Fortunea Polymarket spokesperson said: “Polymarket’s terms of service expressly prohibit market manipulation.

“We strive to provide users with the fairest analysis possible and our transparency allows the market to decide.”

A Polymarket trader, dubbed online as “Trump’s whale,” allegedly made approximately $48 million in profit betting on the Republican candidate to convincingly win the 2024 presidential election.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal The man, identified only as a former French bank trader under the assumed name “Théo,” said he was convinced that mainstream polls were overestimating Harris’ chances and commissioned his own “neighbor polls” to support this point of view.

In response to the FBI raid on Coplan Elon Muska close ally of Trump who will co-lead his new Ministry of Government Effectivenesscommented: “This looks messed up.”

Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, the largest US cryptocurrency exchange, wrote: “This is going to backfire – they just made Polymarket even more powerful. »

British bookmaker William Hill offers rating of 2/5 (71.4 percent) about Donald Trump completing a second full four-year presidential term in the White House.