US senator alleges insider trading on Iran strike via prediction markets

A U.S. senator has alleged that a White House insider may have unfairly profited from bets on a prediction market just before an airstrike on Iran and has announced plans to push for legislation to ban them, Decrypt reported. U.S. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy stated it is possible some White House personnel used advance knowledge of military information to profit from war-related bets on prediction markets. In connection with this, blockchain analytics firm Bubblemaps analyzed that six accounts created the day before the strike bet a total of $1.2 million on Polymarket on whether the U.S. military would conduct an airstrike on Iran. Most of these wallets were funded within 24 hours of the strike, and they concentrated their purchases on "Yes" shares, predicting a strike would occur, just hours before the attack on Tehran. One account reportedly bought approximately 560,000 shares and received about $560,000 after the market settled.