Polymarket CEO Says Chasing 100x Crypto Returns Is Like a 'Hot Potato' Game

Polymarket Chief Executive Officer Shayne Coplan criticized crypto investments aimed at delivering 100-fold returns, calling them akin to a game of hot potato.

Cointelegraph reported on October 7 that Coplan, speaking at the Token2049 conference in Singapore that day, said some investors buy assets with no value if they believe those assets could still rise 100 times. He called that kind of investing irrational exuberance and said it is closer to a game of hot potato.

Coplan said Polymarket's user growth reflects a preference for trading based on the probability of specific events rather than that kind of speculation. He said there is no exponential upside on Polymarket. Instead, users wager on the outcomes of future events based on information.

Concerns about information asymmetry persist in prediction markets. In a recent report, crypto research firm 10x Research said professional investors using data are profiting from information gaps with retail traders seeking short-term gains.

Meanwhile, Polymarket recorded about $1.21 billion in trading volume over the past seven days, ranking second among prediction-market platforms, according to DefiLlama. Kalshi ranked first during the same period with about $2.3 billion.