Polymarket’s Corporate Structure Is a Mystery—Even to Some of Its Former Employees
Polymarket’s Corporate Structure Is a Mystery—Even to Some of Its Former Employees
Polymarket 的公司架构成谜——连其前员工都感到困惑
There’s no shortage of bonkers details about Polymarket. The government alleges that both a special forces soldier and a longtime Google employee used the prediction market to amass small fortunes by insider trading; CEO Shayne Coplan had his apartment raided by FBI agents, who entered via battering ram; and one of its executives reportedly paid influencers through his personal PayPal account to hype up the company.
关于 Polymarket 的疯狂细节不胜枚举。政府指控一名特种部队士兵和一名长期在谷歌工作的员工利用该预测市场进行内幕交易，积累了小额财富；首席执行官 Shayne Coplan 的公寓遭到联邦调查局（FBI）特工突袭，特工们用破门锤强行进入；据报道，该公司的一名高管还曾通过个人 PayPal 账户向网红支付费用，以炒作该公司。
But one of the biggest oddities about Polymarket has remained somewhat overlooked: What’s going on with the Panama-based company it set up to comply with a settlement it made with the federal government? And why, as WIRED’s reporting suggests, do some employees of the Panamanian company appear to have worked from New York?
但 Polymarket 最令人费解的怪事之一一直被忽视：它为遵守与联邦政府达成的和解协议而设立的巴拿马公司到底是怎么回事？正如《连线》（WIRED）报道所暗示的那样，为什么这家巴拿马公司的部分员工似乎是在纽约办公的？
The prediction market with ties to Donald Trump Jr. has an unusually convoluted setup. In 2022, federal regulators said it was operating as an unlicensed derivatives exchange, kicked it out of the country, and barred it from serving US-based customers. Prior to the ban, Adventure One QSS, a corporate entity in Panama, was established, as first reported by Sportico. Adventure One QSS was based offshore so that it could take over operational responsibilities for Polymarket’s flagship platform. A different US-based outfit, Polymarket US, was established in 2025 and is overseen by an entity called QCX LLC. To this day, Polymarket US is the only Polymarket platform that can legally serve US customers.
这家与小唐纳德·特朗普（Donald Trump Jr.）有联系的预测市场拥有极其复杂的架构。2022 年，联邦监管机构称其作为未经许可的衍生品交易所运营，将其驱逐出境，并禁止其为美国客户提供服务。据 Sportico 最早报道，在禁令发布前，一家名为 Adventure One QSS 的巴拿马公司成立了。Adventure One QSS 设立在海外，旨在接管 Polymarket 旗舰平台的运营职责。另一家名为 Polymarket US 的美国公司于 2025 年成立，由名为 QCX LLC 的实体监管。时至今日，Polymarket US 仍是唯一能合法为美国客户提供服务的 Polymarket 平台。
Despite this structure, WIRED found that Adventure One QSS had staff working out of the US. Former Polymarket employees tell WIRED that some Adventure One QSS staffers have resided in New York, including some who worked from the company’s Manhattan-based headquarters.
尽管有这样的架构，但《连线》发现 Adventure One QSS 有员工在美国办公。Polymarket 的前员工告诉《连线》，一些 Adventure One QSS 的员工居住在纽约，其中一些人甚至在公司位于曼哈顿的总部工作。
These employees did not travel to Panama, report to anyone in Panama, or interact with Panama-based colleagues—because, they say, there were no colleagues there. Instead, they say, the Adventure One QSS staff was spread out across a number of other countries, including the US.
这些员工从未前往巴拿马，也无需向巴拿马的任何人汇报，更没有与巴拿马的同事互动——因为他们说，那里根本没有同事。相反，他们表示，Adventure One QSS 的员工分散在包括美国在内的多个国家。
The finer points of this structure are important. The 2022 settlement fined Blockratize—a corporate entity associated with Polymarket—$1.4 million and ordered it to “wind down” offering markets that violated the Commodity Exchange Act. The agreement also required the company to stop violating the CEA and other Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulations. Former CFTC employees see the location of Adventure One’s staff as relevant to the agreement. “We would have really liked to know that the people purportedly in Panama weren’t actually in Panama,” one former CFTC lawyer tells WIRED.
这一架构的细节至关重要。2022 年的和解协议对与 Polymarket 相关的公司实体 Blockratize 处以 140 万美元罚款，并责令其“逐步停止”提供违反《商品交易法》（CEA）的市场服务。该协议还要求该公司停止违反 CEA 及其他商品期货交易委员会（CFTC）的规定。前 CFTC 员工认为 Adventure One 员工的所在地与该协议有关。“我们当时真的很想知道，那些声称在巴拿马的人实际上并不在巴拿马，”一位前 CFTC 律师告诉《连线》。
As Sportico reported, Adventure One QSS did initially name Panama residents on its incorporation papers in 2021, including Mario Ernesto García de Paredes, a lawyer referred to as the company’s “resident agent.” A woman named Diana Munoz was listed as the company president for two months before being replaced by Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan, who is based out of New York. Another man who appears to be based in Panama, Omar Camargo, was listed as secretary. García de Paredes did not respond to WIRED’s requests for comment, and Munoz and Camargo could not be reached for clarification about their roles. Munoz and Camargo appear to have worked together before; they are listed as executives in securities filings connected to a company called Internet Art Foundation.
正如 Sportico 所报道的那样，Adventure One QSS 在 2021 年的注册文件中确实列出了巴拿马居民的名字，其中包括被称为公司“常驻代理人”的律师 Mario Ernesto García de Paredes。一位名叫 Diana Munoz 的女性曾担任公司总裁两个月，随后被常驻纽约的 Polymarket 首席执行官 Shayne Coplan 取代。另一位似乎常驻巴拿马的男子 Omar Camargo 被列为秘书。García de Paredes 没有回应《连线》的置评请求，也无法联系到 Munoz 和 Camargo 对其角色进行澄清。Munoz 和 Camargo 似乎曾共事过；在与一家名为 Internet Art Foundation 的公司相关的证券备案文件中，他们被列为高管。
WIRED’s reporting aligns with previous coverage from NPR, which found that the company’s headquarters in a skyscraper in Panama City was empty and that the company did not have Panama-based staff. In contrast, Adventure One QSS workers in the United States have allegedly been productive and present. One former Polymarket staffer said that the workers in New York who “touched code,” set up event contracts, or otherwise dealt with the offshore platform were all technically working for Adventure One QSS, “but there was no barrier” dividing the corporate arms in practice.
《连线》的报道与 NPR 此前的报道一致，NPR 发现该公司位于巴拿马城一栋摩天大楼里的总部是空的，且该公司并没有巴拿马当地的员工。相比之下，Adventure One QSS 在美国的员工据称一直都在高效工作。一位 Polymarket 前员工表示，纽约那些“接触代码”、设置事件合约或处理离岸平台事务的员工，在技术上都受雇于 Adventure One QSS，“但在实际操作中，这两个公司部门之间并没有任何界限。”
Blockratize and Adventure One QSS are not completely intertwined; New York Stock Exchange parent company Intercontinental Exchange has announced it would invest up to $2 billion into Polymarket, but it’s actually invested only in Blockratize and not Adventure One QSS, for example. And Adventure One QSS staffers in the US did not have permanent desks in the New York office. A former employees described a workplace in which Adventure One team members were expected to perform specific tasks related to the offshore platform, while the Blockratize team, which was far larger, focused on the company’s newer US-licensed platform, marketing, and other concerns. The workers felt unsure of why the workplace was structured in this way.
Blockratize 和 Adventure One QSS 并非完全交织在一起；例如，纽约证券交易所母公司洲际交易所（Intercontinental Exchange）曾宣布将向 Polymarket 投资高达 20 亿美元，但实际上它只投资了 Blockratize，而非 Adventure One QSS。此外，在美国的 Adventure One QSS 员工在纽约办公室也没有固定工位。一位前员工描述了一个工作环境：Adventure One 的团队成员被要求执行与离岸平台相关的特定任务，而规模大得多的 Blockratize 团队则专注于公司较新的美国许可平台、市场营销和其他事务。员工们对这种工作场所的架构感到困惑。
It’s not unusual for businesses to incorporate in Panama, which has an appealing tax system for multinationals, strong privacy laws, and easy registration requirements. In this instance, though, Polymarket was specifically spurred by its 2022 settlement agreement with the CFTC.
企业在巴拿马注册并不罕见，因为那里对跨国公司有吸引人的税收制度、严格的隐私法和简便的注册要求。然而，在这一案例中，Polymarket 的行为主要是受其 2022 年与 CFTC 达成的和解协议所驱动。
According to Joseph Konizeski, former chief trial attorney in the CFTC’s division of enforcement, Polymarket needed to take a number of steps to properly move its operations to Panama to adhere to the settlement. “That would have required them to hire new staff offshore, move their corporate infrastructure offshore, and stop accepting funds from US customers,” he tells WIRED.
据 CFTC 执行部门前首席审判律师 Joseph Konizeski 称，Polymarket 需要采取一系列措施将其业务适当地转移到巴拿马，以遵守和解协议。“这要求他们必须在海外招聘新员工，将公司基础设施转移到海外，并停止接受美国客户的资金，”他告诉《连线》。
The CFTC declined WIRED’s requests for comment about Adventure One QSS’s setup and whether it fulfills the terms of the agreement. Polymarket declined to comment. The CFTC has not accused Adventure One QSS of any wrongdoing. It is unclear, now, if the agency would currently find issue with employees of the Panamanian offshoot working in New York. Todd Phillips, a financial services regulation expert, describes the setup as odd, “even if it is legal.”
CFTC 拒绝了《连线》关于 Adventure One QSS 的架构及其是否符合协议条款的置评请求。Polymarket 也拒绝置评。CFTC 尚未指控 Adventure One QSS 有任何不当行为。目前尚不清楚该机构是否会追究这家巴拿马分支机构的员工在纽约工作的问题。金融服务监管专家 Todd Phillips 将这种架构描述为“即使合法，也显得很奇怪”。
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