Crypto Startup Uses Polymarket to Bet on Its Funding, Blindsiding Backers

P2P.me was founded to push the boundaries with stablecoins, but the startup has decided that doing it yourself through Polymarket may have been a bridge too far.

On Saturday, the company backed by Coinbase Ventures and Multicoin Capital apologized for speculating about its latest investment using the prediction market. post on X as an inappropriate attempt to convey public sentiment.

Overall, the company that bills itself as a zero-revenue exchange service between stablecoins and cash showed a profit of less than $15,000 per market move. However, it recognized how a smaller payday would affect the results.

“It caused confusion and frustration,” P2P.me said. “We should have let the service, products, and services speak for themselves. That was our mistake.”

As prediction markets have exploded in popularity, so too have concerns that platforms could be abused by insiders with confidential information. Recently to force actions and to be arrested have focused on human behavior, but P2P.me’s my problem it shows that questionable decisions may come again for the company.

P2P.me wagers are based on MetaDAO, a Solana– based on funding and management strategies. Some of the company’s bets stood to win if the $140 million was awarded P2P is via MetaDAO, but the hit depended on $6 million.

In a post on X, Prohp3t, co-founder of MetaDAO, said that the platform would have forced P2P.me to separate from Polymarket had it known what was coming. They disagreed with the behavior, but argued that it amounts to “criminal advertising gone too far.”

In the name of business protection, Prohp3t said that MetaDAO will help refund investors who want to exit P2P.me before the end of Tuesday. A prophet said Decrypt that a refund of $20,000 of the $6.7 million was requested.

For P2P.me’s biggest supporters, the behavior was also surprising. Some were unaware that the India-based stablecoin company was betting on its own, two people familiar with the matter said. Decrypt.

Before starting to solicit funds on MetaDAO, P2P.me raised $2 million in a round of seed funding led by Coinbase Ventures and Multicoin Capital. A spokesperson for Coinbase Ventures said Decrypt that the company has not distributed more than the initial capital.

At the time P2P.me invested in Polymarket, the company reported on X that it had only received a “verbal commitment” of $3 million from Multicoin, which was non-binding. Additionally, wagers were made 10 days before the crowdfunding campaign began, the company added.

P2P said it was called his Polymarket account “P2P Team” for transparency. In total, the article has predicted 27. His biggest win to date, $8,173, came in January. The company stated that the MetaDAO project will not receive $100 million in pledges.

A few days before the MetaDAO coin launch on March 25, Polymarket he said that it changed its rules to prevent insider trading. The platform made it clear that it prohibits the sale of false information and illegal advice, as well as people who “have the position or power to influence the outcome of the event.”

Decrypt has reached out to Multicoin and Polymarket for comment.

A spokesperson for P2P.me was named Decrypt to company records on X, incl one which got over 620,000 views. The company said it does not consider it to be “trading the past,” but will continue to use the company’s principles to forecast future market trends.