Three Polymarket addresses earned $630,000 from predictions about Maduro’s departure, 2026/01/04 16:03:03

Lookonchain analysts discovered three crypto addresses that collected a profit of $630,484 on the Polymarket forecasting platform by betting on the removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power. The bets were made a few hours before Maduro was detained by American special forces.

All three addresses were created and replenished just a few days before the bids. They do not have a history of previous transactions, and their actions were aimed only at contracts related to the forecast of the future of Maduro.

From one address, identified as 0x31a5, a bet was made for approximately $34,000 – an unknown user earned almost $410 000 from it. The owner of another address turned his $25,000 into $145 600, and from the third address a bet of $5800 brought its owner $75 000. Lookonchain analysts suggested that the participants in these suspicious transactions may have had inside information about Maduro’s detention even before the US military began an operation in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas.

News of the insider bets prompted immediate reactions from some lawmakers in Washington. Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres is preparing to introduce a bill “On the conscientious conduct of civil servants in financial forecast markets.” The bill would prohibit federal officials and executive branch officials and employees from trading on platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi, or from profiting from forecasts related to government policies or court decisions about which they may have proprietary information.

In May, Torres promised to introduce legislation that would prohibit US President Donald Trump, members of Congress, government employees and their relatives from profiting from cryptocurrencies. If this law comes into force, officials will be required to disclose the amount of crypto assets they hold.