Frenchman bets on Trump's election and wins $85 million

Presenting himself as a former trader, the French bettor did not want to reveal his identity. By betting on Donald Trump for the American presidential election, he hit the jackpot in any case.

A user of the Polymarket platform made $85 million in profits from a series of bets on the victory of Donald Trump in the American presidential electionthe company Chainalysis told AFP on Wednesday. According to the Wall Street Journal, it is a French national called Théo, a former trader who did not want to publicly reveal his last name.

Last month, Polymarket confirmed that a French bettor had placed considerable sums on the election of the Republican candidate. Specializing in the analysis of cryptocurrency transactions, Chainalysis carried out cross-checks and identified 11 accounts with similar characteristics. They were fed at the same time, made bets at the same time, and were emptied simultaneously, according to data collected and cross-referenced by Chainalysis.

The player bet some $70 million in total on the victory of the Republican candidate, ultimately recovering this sum, as well as an additional $85 million. Contacted by the Wall Street Journal, he confirmed that he had indeed made a profit of this amount. Asked by AFP, Polymarket did not immediately respond.

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Trump in the lead on betting sites

Polymarket is an offshore betting platform launched in 2020, on which you can only bet in cryptocurrency. It is theoretically prohibited for American residents. Like other betting sites, Polymarket gave Donald Trump a marked advantage before the election, contradicting polls that put him neck and neck with Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

All accounts identified by Chainalysis as belonging to the same person appear in the top 20 biggest gains published by Polymarket. According to several American media, the New York home of the CEO and founder of the platform, Shayne Coplan, was searched on Wednesday by agents of the FBI, the American federal police. According to the New York Post, the FBI seized the Polymarket boss's phone as well as other electronic devices. The origin and purpose of the investigation remain undetermined. A spokesperson for Polymarket described, to the Axios information site, the investigation as “political reprisals on the part of the government (…) for having predicted the result of the presidential election”.

(upday with AFP)