Polymarket Hires Former Zora Co‑Founder Jacob Horne

Polymarket announced the appointment of Jacob Horne, co‑founder of Zora, to lead the redevelopment of its on‑chain trading platform. The hiring was disclosed by CEO Shayne Coplan on Thursday.

Role and Objectives

Horne, who left Zora after more than six years, will work directly with Coplan on product development. The focus is on improving the DeFi‑based segment of Polymarket that operates on the Polygon blockchain, which Coplan said had become weaker as the company expanded.

Current Market Structure

Polymarket operates two distinct venues:

• International traders use a Polygon‑based market that settles on‑chain.
• U.S. traders use a separate exchange licensed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

The U.S. side is currently powered by Kalshi, an exchange that handles the majority of trading volume for prediction markets in the United States.

Background on Jacob Horne and Zora

Zora was an application that allowed users to tokenize social posts for trading on Base, the blockchain network built by Coinbase. Coinbase promoted the concept for over a year before discontinuing it, citing that the social‑coin model did not work as intended.

Competitive Landscape

Kalshi now processes the bulk of U.S. prediction‑market trading, accounting for $13.1 billion of the $15.8 billion traded across both platforms in the week to September 13, leaving Polymarket with roughly 17 % of that volume.

Recent Senior Hires

In addition to Horne, Polymarket has added two other senior executives in the past week:

• Warren Jenson, appointed as the company’s first chief financial officer on September 10.
• Collin McKinney Hill, former DoorDash general manager, joined as vice president of operations on September 15.