Whitney Webb Questions Polymarket’s Origin Story and Links It to Earlier Crypto Firms

Investigative journalist Whitney Webb published a series examining Polymarket’s origins and ambitions, disputing the platform’s account that Shayne Coplan founded the company alone in 2020 and started it in a bathroom. According to Foresight News, Webb said Polymarket’s roots can be traced to an earlier company, TokenBnk, and alleged it has connections to a cryptocurrency company founded by the nephew and niece of Benjamin Netanyahu. Webb also argued that Polymarket is essentially the product of Peter Thiel and his team attempting to revive the Pentagon’s failed Policy Analysis Market (PAM) project. She described Polymarket as a “privatized rebirth” of PAM, which was previously canceled amid controversy.