Polymarket Cracks Down On US Users As Election Odds Soar In Favor Of Trump

Polymarket, a crypto predictions platform, is verifying the identities of users making large bets on the US presidential election to ensure they are not based in the US, as US users are banned from the platform. The platform has systems in place to block US users, but concerns have been raised that some may be using virtual private networks to circumvent the block. Almost $2.3 billion in bets have been placed on Polymarket's "Presidential Election Winner 2024" market, which currently favors Donald Trump over Kamala Harris. A single user, "Fredi9999", has placed over $20 million in bets on Republican outcomes. Trump also leads Harris on competitor platform Kalshi. However, Trump's lead in the crypto prediction markets is not reflected in most voter polls, which show Harris in the lead. Kalshi's founder has defended Polymarket's results, saying they are accurate and not caused by manipulation. Billionaire and Polymarket investor Mark Cuban has stated that most bets on Polymarket's US election market are coming from overseas and do not reflect eligible voter sentiment. Polymarket has previously reached a settlement with the US commodities regulator for offering unregistered event-based binary options. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has also partially lost a lawsuit against Kalshi, with the court ruling that the regulator exceeded its authority by ordering the suspension of election markets.