On the 21st floor of the luxurious Oceania Business Plaza in Panama City’s financial hub, the desks are empty and the only people breaking the silence are law firm staff.
According to official records, this is where the operational nerve center of Polymarket, a prediction platform with billions of dollars bet on the world’s future, will operate. But when reporters knocked on the door, they received a bewildered response: “I’ve never heard of Polymarket.”
The contradiction between brilliant digital success and physical inertia The so-called “shell companies” sparked a troubling debate in Japan.. According to the report, Polymarket legally landed in Panama under the name Adventure One QSS after a checkered transit through the United States and paid a $1.4 million fine to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in 2022 for operating without registration.
But his office is nothing less than the headquarters of the García de Paredes Abogados firm, and today’s legal practice collides with new demands for transparency.
Although NPR’s report focuses on polymarkets, resident agent numbers allow hundreds, even thousands, of businesses to legally occupy a single address (such as the 21st floor of Oceania Business Plaza). This is not public data that can be easily quantified without access to public registries, but it is an institutional practice where the firm does not belong to the corporation but to the law firm that represents the corporation.
Paradoxically, while he has almost no presence in Panama, as CriptoNoticias reported at the time, Polimarket CEO Shane Coplan was recruited by the CFTC itself in February 2026 to serve on its new Financial Innovation Advisory Board, alongside the sector’s elite to redesign market oversight.
This perception in the highly regulated realm of the United States stands in contrast to the shadow of suspicion that still hangs over the corporate structures of the Isthmus. For local analysts, institutional legitimacy does not remove the urgency of reviewing how these platforms operate behind the scenes.
There are currently no official plans. Polymarket I tried to keep a low profile About Panama’s infrastructure. Their strategy appears to be one of minimal compliance. Unless current legislation requires employees or square meters, there is no economic incentive to change the offshore model to a traditional office model.
There are also no known publications, official statements from the company, or answers or reactions regarding this particular topic. The company did not respond to requests from Panamanian or international media.
The weight of Panama’s economic substance
Rodrigo Icaza, president of the Panama Digital Blockchain Chamber of Commerce, exclusively explained to CriptoNoticias that this case revives the ghost of the Panama Papers, albeit under a different legal framework.
Mr. Ikasa emphasized:
Many crypto companies have registered in Panama due to its legal flexibility, but do not operate or provide services in the country. The main debate at present is economic in nature. If the project has not demonstrated actual operations in the country, a 15% passive income tax is estimated to prevent registration figures from being used to avoid tax liability.
Rodrigo Icasa.
This analysis coincided with tax law reforms that the administration sent to Congress in an extraordinary session, aimed at ensuring that the country generates tangible revenue from these digital startups.
Currently, based on the principle of territorialism, these companies do not pay taxes in Panama if their income is generated outside the territory, but this brings little economic benefit and provides few local jobs, according to legislators such as Eduardo Gaitán.
If passed, the bill would require companies and start-ups to prove their economic substance in Panama, meaning they actually do business in the country. Otherwise, a 15% passive income tax will be estimated, impacting digital asset companies in terms of costs. The purpose is to guarantee the country’s income and prevent registration numbers in Panama from being used to avoid fiscal and tax burdens.
Rodrigo Icasa.
This phenomenon is due to the traditional economy fixed on presence and Digital era where virtual assistants provide services and receive compensation in cryptocurrencies without physical boundaries.
For Ikaza, this convergence of concepts forces a debate on economic substance in parliament today, which has extended its function into an extraordinary period to decide the future of this law.
The outcome of this legal debate will inform the landscape of the cost structure of companies in this sector and will determine whether Panama will be able to successfully integrate these new forms of economic activity or whether the tax burden will limit its competitiveness in the global ecosystem.
(Tags to translate) Cryptocurrency
