The post How a Broke Student Built an $8B Crypto Empire appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. Fintech Just five years ago, Shayne Coplan was selling his belongings in a cramped New York apartment to make rent. Today, at 27, he’s the youngest billionaire on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, thanks to a blockbuster deal that values his creation – Polymarket – at $8 billion. The transformation came after Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, announced plans to invest up to $2 billion in Polymarket, the fast-growing prediction platform Coplan built from scratch during the pandemic. A Startup Born From Frustration Polymarket’s origins are as unconventional as its founder’s story. Disillusioned by crypto’s scams and hype, Coplan became fascinated with the economic concept of prediction markets – systems that crowdsource probabilities by letting people trade on real-world outcomes. When the world shut down in 2020, he coded the first version of Polymarket in his bathroom. Within months, users were betting on everything from presidential elections to whether the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates. Controversy, Raids, and a Comeback Regulators didn’t share his enthusiasm. Polymarket’s “move fast” mentality soon collided with U.S. law. In 2022, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) fined the company $1.4 million and banned American users for operating without a license. The tension escalated dramatically a week after the 2024 U.S. election, when FBI agents raided Coplan’s home, seizing his electronics in an investigation the company later called “politically motivated.” By mid-2025, however, the Justice Department and CFTC dropped their cases. The company reentered the U.S. legally after acquiring the licensed exchange QCEX for $112 million. From Outlaw to Wall Street Partner ICE’s investment marks Polymarket’s transition from regulatory outcast to institutional powerhouse. With the deal, the exchange operator joins a roster of high-profile investors including Peter Thiel, Vitalik Buterin, and Blockchain Capital. The partnership also carries political… The post How a Broke Student Built an $8B Crypto Empire appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com. Fintech Just five years ago, Shayne Coplan was selling his belongings in a cramped New York apartment to make rent. Today, at 27, he’s the youngest billionaire on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, thanks to a blockbuster deal that values his creation – Polymarket – at $8 billion. The transformation came after Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, announced plans to invest up to $2 billion in Polymarket, the fast-growing prediction platform Coplan built from scratch during the pandemic. A Startup Born From Frustration Polymarket’s origins are as unconventional as its founder’s story. Disillusioned by crypto’s scams and hype, Coplan became fascinated with the economic concept of prediction markets – systems that crowdsource probabilities by letting people trade on real-world outcomes. When the world shut down in 2020, he coded the first version of Polymarket in his bathroom. Within months, users were betting on everything from presidential elections to whether the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates. Controversy, Raids, and a Comeback Regulators didn’t share his enthusiasm. Polymarket’s “move fast” mentality soon collided with U.S. law. In 2022, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) fined the company $1.4 million and banned American users for operating without a license. The tension escalated dramatically a week after the 2024 U.S. election, when FBI agents raided Coplan’s home, seizing his electronics in an investigation the company later called “politically motivated.” By mid-2025, however, the Justice Department and CFTC dropped their cases. The company reentered the U.S. legally after acquiring the licensed exchange QCEX for $112 million. From Outlaw to Wall Street Partner ICE’s investment marks Polymarket’s transition from regulatory outcast to institutional powerhouse. With the deal, the exchange operator joins a roster of high-profile investors including Peter Thiel, Vitalik Buterin, and Blockchain Capital. The partnership also carries political…