"The bet, which was first listed last November, generated significant controversy on social media Tuesday after it was flagged by several users. Polymarket had also highlighted the bet on its official X account that day, tweeting that its market now predicted there was a 22 percent chance a nuclear weapon would be detonated this year. The post has since been deleted - and the bet itself has now been "archived" as of Wednesday morning."
"The Wall Street Journal reported that the nuclear detonation bet had spiked in popularity after the US and Israel's deadly strikes in Iran. Before the attacks broke out, only $10,000 in bets had been placed on Friday, according to data from the Block cited by the newspaper. But on Tuesday, the daily trading volume had surged to almost $244,000, bringing the total amount of money on the line to over $830,000."
"Polymarket seldom scruples on the ethics of its prediction markets, allowing users to profit on plenty of war-related outcomes and deadly disasters. Several bettors made millions of dollars on predicting when the US would airstrike Iran. Another recently pulled in over $553,000 on a prediction on whether Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would be removed from power after the Iranian leader was assassinated in joint US and Israeli airstrikes on Friday."
Polymarket, a crypto-based prediction platform, removed a betting market predicting nuclear weapon detonation before 2025 after it generated controversy and surged in trading activity. The market was initially listed in November and gained attention following US and Israeli strikes on Iran, with trading volume jumping from $10,000 to nearly $244,000 in a single day, totaling over $830,000 in bets. The platform had promoted the market on social media, predicting a 22 percent detonation probability before deleting the post and archiving the bet. Polymarket typically permits war-related and disaster prediction markets, allowing users to profit from geopolitical events. The removal raises concerns about selective content moderation and potential conflicts of interest regarding government and military insiders using prediction markets for financial gain.
Read at Futurism
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]