Polymarket users jockey over $50m ‘Trump coin’ bet

Polymarket bettors have challenged the resolution of a market titled “Will Trump launch a coin before the election?” calling the outcome a colossal blunder.

Whether former U.S. President Donald Trump would launch a cryptocurrency before Nov. 4 stirred up controversy on Polymarket’s prediction platform. The contract, with over $50 million in trading volume, appeared set to reach a “Yes” resolution.

Holders of “Yes” shares formed the largest group in this market. A single user in this category owned over 8.3 million shares, suggesting that person spent thousands of dollars on this bet. However, numerous Polymarket participants pushed back on the platform’s pending resolution. These users argued that Donald Trump only promoted the World Liberty Financial project but did not directly launch the WLFI coin.

Defizard, a pseudonymous crypto influencer and apparent bettor, cited WLFI’s website disclaimer, which explicitly stated neither Trump nor any of his family members were employees of World Liberty Financial.

Polymarket’s comment section for this bet was filled with complaints accusing the platform of scamming “No” shareholders.

Polymarket’s logic

Polymarket provided additional context, explaining that Trump’s public affiliation with WLFI justified a “Yes” resolution. Despite two disputes launched by users, the platform was on course to reward “Yes” bettors by the evening of Oct. 17.

Donald Trump was explicitly involved with World Liberty Financial and has directly promoted the WLFI token sale, which occurred on October 15. Thus, this market should resolve to “Yes”.

Polymarket

A similar issue pertaining to a bet on Trump’s strategic Bitcoin (BTC) reserve speech occurred in July. In that case, users disagreed that his vow to halt the U.S. from selling its BTC stockpile differed from formally creating a Bitcoin reserve.