This 26-year-old CEO once ran a crypto betting site out of his bathroom

Last updated:November 7, 2024 4:56 PM IST

Shayne Coplan began his journey with Polymarket in a bathroom-like setup. He shared a throwback picture on his X account.

It’s not often you hear about a thriving business that started in a bathroom. But this is where Shayne Coplan, a 26-year-old entrepreneur based in New York, began his journey with Polymarket. It’s a crypto betting platform that’s currently making waves, especially in the heated 2024 US election campaign. The entrepreneur recently shared a flashback to when his office was, well, a bathroom.

Shayne Coplan shared a post on X (formerly Twitter) reflecting on his company’s very humble beginnings. “2020, out of money, sole founder, headquartered in my makeshift bathroom office. “I didn’t know Polymarket would change the world,” Coplan wrote alongside a picture from four years ago.

The image showed a small bathroom with a laptop on a white laundry basket – a sight that illustrates the difficulties of starting a business from scratch.

Check out his post here:

Today, Polymarket is a major player in the world of crypto betting, offering users a platform to bet on events, including high-risk political outcomes.

Now, with the 2024 US presidential election season on the horizon, Polymarket has attracted a lot of attention as it allows its users to bet on election predictions, giving itself a front-row seat to the political drama.

The rise of Polymarket has not gone unnoticed by some big names. The platform is reportedly backed by high-profile investors, including Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. Over the years, online election betting sites like Polymarket have become increasingly popular, especially in the final weeks of the presidential campaign. With polls showing a close race, bettors flocked to these platforms, especially given the changing odds surrounding Donald Trump.

“Make no mistake, Polymarket single-handedly called the election before anything else. “The global truth machine is here, powered by people,” Coplan proudly declared in another post.

He had also previously announced that it was Polymarket that alerted Trump’s campaign headquarters to his victory. “I just learned that Trump campaign headquarters literally found out they were winning from Polymarket. Today history was written. Surreal,” he wrote in an earlier X post yesterday.

In the last US election, 78-year-old Trump won a landslide victory, securing his entry into the White House and defeating Kamala Harris.

This election was unlike any other, with political drama, assassinations and twists and turns, including Biden’s unexpected withdrawal that left room for Harris to enter the race. Trump’s victory not only shocked the nation; It also highlighted his connections to influential figures such as Elon Musk, currently the richest man in the world.