Crypto Startup Uses Polymarket to Bet on Its Own Fundraise, Blindsiding Backers

P2P.me was established to push boundaries with stablecoins, but the startup has determined that wagering on itself via Polymarket may have been a bridge too far.

On Saturday, the firm backed by Coinbase Ventures and Multicoin Capital apologized for speculating on its latest fundraising round using the prediction market, describing the move in a post on X as an inappropriate attempt at conveying conviction to the public.

In total, the company that bills itself as a non-custodial service for converting between stablecoins and cash signaled that it notched less than $15,000 in profits on the prediction market move. Still, it recognized how a small payday could carry outsized consequences.

“It created confusion and hurt trust,” P2P.me said. “We should have let the work, the product, and the mission speak for themselves. That was our mistake.”

As prediction markets have exploded in popularity, so too have concerns that the platforms can be abused by insiders who have access to confidential information. Recent enforcement actions and arrests have focused on the behavior of individuals, but P2P.me’s mea culpa signals that questionable choices can also arise at the company level.

P2P.me’s wagers centered on MetaDAO, a Solana-based fundraising and governance platform. Some of the company’s bets stood to win if $140 million in funding was committed to P2P.me through MetaDAO, but the ones that hit hinged on a $6 million milestone.

In a post on X, Prohp3t, a pseudonymous co-founder of MetaDAO, said the platform would’ve pushed P2P.me to steer clear of Polymarket had it known what was coming. They didn’t support the behavior, but argued that it resembled “a guerrilla marketing stunt gone too far.”

In the name of investor protection, Prohp3t said that MetaDAO would facilitate refunds for investors who want out before P2P.me’s public fundraise concludes on Tuesday. A spokesperson told Decrypt that $20,000 worth of refunds out of $6.7 million committed had been requested.

For P2P.me’s biggest backers, the conduct also came as a surprise. Some were unaware that the India-based stablecoin firm was betting on its own fundraise, two people familiar with the matter told Decrypt.

Before it began soliciting funds on MetaDAO, P2P.me raised $2 million in a seed funding round led by Coinbase Ventures and Multicoin Capital. A Coinbase Ventures spokesperson told Decrypt that the firm hasn’t allocated beyond the initial fundraise.

At the time that P2P.me placed its bets on Polymarket, the firm said on X that it had only received a $3 million “oral commitment” from Multicoin, which wasn’t binding. On top of that, the wagers were made 10 days before the public fundraising campaign went live, the company added.

P2P said that it named its Polymarket account “P2P Team” for transparency’s sake. In total, the account has made 27 predictions. Its biggest win so far, $8,173, came in January. The firm had wagered that another MetaDAO project wouldn’t receive $100 million in commitments.

A couple days before MetaDAO’s fundraise went live on March 25, Polymarket said that it had updated its rules to prohibit insider trading. The platform made clear that it disavows trading on stolen information and illegal tips, as well as by individuals who “hold a position of authority or influence sufficient to affect the outcome of the underlying event.”

Decrypt has reached out to Multicoin and Polymarket for comment.

A P2P.me spokesperson referred Decrypt to the firm’s previous posts on X, including one that had gained more than 620,000 views. That firm said it didn’t think it was “trading on a done deal,” but would still implement a company policy on prediction market trading moving forward.