'Whale' Election Bettors Set To Win Big On Trump Wagers

Bettors placed $3.2 billion in presidential bets on Polymarket, a cryptocurrency-based prediction platform, with a majority favoring a win by Donald Trump.

Bettors risked $1.3 billion on the former president and $827 million on Vice President Kamala Harris. Globally, more than $3.6 billion in online bets were riding on the outcome of the 2024 election.

The decentralized prediction platform allowed users to bet on a variety of election-related events, including who would win and by how much.

The Fredi9999 account and other accounts linked to a high-stakes French bettor won almost $50 million in various bets related to Donald Trump winning the election, according to Benzinga.

Another account called zxgngl won $11.4 million on its Trump bet.

Another so-called whale, due to the large amount that was bet, was the walletmobile account. The owner of that bet had a $6.1 million win on Trump's victory.

The prediction market has gained attention because it allows users to invest cryptocurrency based on their beliefs, with the potential for profit from both correct predictions and fluctuating odds, according to Fortune.

The website bills itself as the "world's biggest prediction market" and enables users to wager so-called stablecoins pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar on everything from interest rates to movie box office receipts.

In May, Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan told the CoinDesk website that the company had raised $45 billion in series B funding round led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund.

Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal, backed Trump in 2016, when he donated $1.25 million to support the campaign, spoke at the Republican National Convention and served on the transition team.