A blockchain prediction platform Polymarket has temporarily blocked French users, following authorization from the French online gaming regulator, Autorit’ nationale des jeux (ANJ). View only access to the country is a platform that let people place bets on real world events.
Polymarket will therefore be under scrutiny, and there is a high profile user: ‘Théo’. Reports said Théo placed more than $30 million on betting Donald Trump would become the next US president and won back more than $80 million.
But because these transactions are such a large scale, there has also been concern about future market and insider trading. Polymarket is a cryptocurrency centric service and takes advantage of blockchain technology to make everything transparent.
Polymarket CEO Coplan Targeted in FBI Raid
Its activities, however, have also run afoul of legality questions in jurisdictions like France, where betting without a license is considered illegal. ANJ’s investigation was fueled by Théos high-stakes wagers, and after Polymarket placed restrictions on French users, ANJ upped its investigation.
Following its 2022 agreement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and ban on U.S. users, the Polymarket faces recall of actions in the U.S. Despite being one of the platform’s key markets, France’s latest example of the limits to the impact of the regulator’s inquiry is clear in the limitations above.
It doesn’t get better either, as Polymarket’s CEO wasn’t safe from the home raid of Shayne Coplan in Soho, New York. But the FBI said it had seized mobile devices as part of the early morning investigation, and it was not immediately clear what it involved.
A blockchain case is just the latest in the growing chill between blockchain native platforms and the traditional rules government has established. It comes in a time when the platform is facing legal challenges in many jurisdictions while also helping trigger broader debate about whether and how cryptocurrency funded gambling is legal and regulated.
