Blockratize, the firm that launched Polymarket, received a government loan from the pandemic-era Paycheck Protection Program less than two years before federal regulators fined it $1.4 million for operating an unregistered prediction market. The previously unreported $39,727 loan was approved in June 2020 — the same month Polymarket entered its beta phase — and repaid in July 2021, according to Small Business Administration data. In January 2022, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ordered Blockratize to “wind down” Polymarket’s US operations because it was not operating “within the bounds” of the law. The loan is no secret to some in its industry: “Polymarket relied on the largesse of the American taxpayer to operate their business actively flouting US regulations,” one executive told Semafor. ADPolymarket, which now counts Donald Trump Jr. among its advisers and his venture capital firm among its investors, did not comment.