Polymarket Brings In Zora Founder for Onchain Product
Horne is expected to strengthen Polymarket’s DeFi and Polygon venue, while Coinbase is leaning on Kalshi for regulated prediction markets in the U.S.
Key Takeaways
- Polymarket has hired Zora co-founder Jacob Horne to rebuild its onchain trading product.
- Horne will work directly with CEO Shayne Coplan to strengthen the DeFi side of Polymarket.
- The hire comes after growth, a weakening of the onchain product, and fresh competitive pressure from regulated prediction markets.
Polymarket has hired Jacob Horne to rebuild its onchain trading product. Horne co-founded Zora, the app behind Coinbase’s failed creator-coin experiment, and will work directly with CEO Shayne Coplan on the product. The move comes as Kalshi powers the U.S. prediction markets through Coinbase, while Polymarket is looking to sharpen its crypto roots.
Onchain Product Gets Priority
Coplan said Horne’s main job will be to help make the DeFi side of Polymarket stronger. Polymarket has two separate venues: outside the U.S., it trades on a market that settles on the Polygon blockchain, while U.S. users can use a separate exchange licensed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
According to Coplan, the onchain product weakened as the company grew. He also said longtime users felt this part of the platform had been neglected. Polymarket is planning a town hall to explain how it wants to address those issues.
From Zora to Prediction Markets
Horne left Zora eight days ago, after more than six years at the company. Zora let users turn social posts into tokens that could be traded on Base, the blockchain network from Coinbase. Coinbase pushed that idea for more than a year, but later admitted the effort did not work.
His move is notable because Coinbase has stepped away from the creator-coin direction, while the company has not given up on prediction markets. For its U.S. product, Coinbase is now working with Kalshi. That exchange is regulated in the U.S. by the CFTC as a Designated Contract Market and is therefore under oversight for event contracts on topics including politics, the economy, and entertainment.
Why This Matters for Europe
For European crypto followers, this hire shows how quickly the prediction markets space is splitting between regulated U.S. platforms and more open onchain environments. That matters for teams building or following DeFi products, because the balance between ease of use, oversight, and crypto-native trading is becoming more important. It also shows that major platforms are shifting staff and product focus toward the areas where user activity and regulation overlap the most.
The rapid growth of prediction markets is no coincidence: the sector had already reached record levels in open interest and volume, with Polymarket and Kalshi as the main players. That highlights why Polymarket is now putting extra focus on its onchain product.
Coplan called Horne the third senior hire in eight days. Warren Jenson became Polymarket’s first chief financial officer on September 10, and Collin McKinney Hill, a former general manager at DoorDash, joined as vice president of operations on September 15.
