More than 150 accounts that placed bets of at least $1,000 on Polymarket correctly predicted an imminent strike on Iran, cashing in on the attack, according to The New York Times.
The trades on Polymarket, a decentralized prediction market platform that allows users to place bets on world events, drew scrutiny from lawmakers and critics of prediction markets.
"It's insane this is legal," Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., wrote on X. "People around Trump are profiting off war and death," he said, adding that he plans to introduce legislation "asap" to outlaw this kind of activity.
"Insider trading in broad daylight. This should be illegal no question," added Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz.
The betting, which totaled nearly $855,000, "makes you think it was someone who knew something about the timing," Eric Zitzewitz, a professor of economics at Dartmouth who has studied prediction markets, told the Times.
At least 109 accounts made over $10,000, while at least 16 made over $100,000.
One account trading under the username "Magamyman" made more than $553,000.
Over half a billion dollars was traded over when exactly U.S. forces would bomb Iran, according to NPR.
"I think it's likely there were people making the decision on war with Iran that had a financial interest in doing so because they had placed a bet on one of these markets," Murphy told the Times.
"It's worse than insider trading."
Davis Ingle, a White House spokesman, rejected Murphy's suggestion.
"The only special interest guiding the Trump administration's decision-making is the best interest of the American people," he said in a statement.
Amanda Fischer, a former official at the Securities and Exchange Commission who now works at the financial reform group Better Markets, told NPR that lawmakers need to act to stop "perverse incentives and chaos caused by betting on death and destruction."
She added: "Prediction markets are promoting opportunities to bet on events that can only be seen as a proxy for war or assassination.
"The confusion and outcry over how the Khamenei-related wagers would resolve underscores that this betting market shouldn't exist in the first place."
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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