- Donald Trump significantly increased his lead over Kamala Harris by over 25% on Polymarket.
- Democratic Party supporters and the mainstream media have sounded the alarm about a possible market manipulation happening within the platform.
- Others alleged that the decentralized prediction market may be servicing US-based users.
Polymarket has been gaining much attention recently, particularly its “Presidential Election Winner 2024” segment. This part of the prediction market pitted former President Donald Trump against other presidentiables in the 2024 US election since January.
To date, the top two contenders for that spot have been left to Trump and his Democratic Party rival, Vice President Kamala Harris. However, the Republican bet has notably widened his lead in the platform by 25.9% less than a month away from the official polls.
The results as of Wednesday evening showed 62.9% of the participants favoring a Trump win, while only 37% settled for Harris. So far, Polymarket has already raised a total of over $2.33 billion in funding volume in this category alone.
Meanwhile, the mainstream media’s frequent mention of this section in Polymarket further boosted its exposure. As a result, the Democrats were seemingly none too pleased about it.
Polymarket Re-Examines Users in Its Platform
Bloomberg, citing a person familiar with the matter, claimed that Polymarket is currently conducting an internal audit of its system. This is to ensure that it is operating within the US regulatory framework.
Currently, the crypto prediction market does not allow US-based users. Hence, it is making sure that it only provides its services to people overseas.
Polymarket’s move comes after some alleged that US residents may be using its platform. One of the concerns raised was the possible utilization of these individuals of virtual private networks (VPNs) to bypass IP restrictions.
Other sources like Newsweek even aired their suspicion that Polymarket itself may have rigged the numbers shown in its election-related event in favor of Trump. After all, they stated that the decentralized prediction market had partial funding from former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel, a known supporter of the former president.
In addition, the reports raised the possibility of recent whale transactions appearing on Polymarket’s presidential election odds to have come from one person or a single group. Quoting Arkham Intelligence CEO Miguel Moore’s observations, they said that wagers totaling $30 million from accounts Fredi9999, Theo4, PrincessCaro, and Michie all shared similar transaction patterns. Moreover, they all funded their projections using the same crypto exchange.
Furthermore, analysts pointed out some red flags suggesting the likelihood of market manipulation within Polymarket.
