The leaker enabled three Polymarket wallets to profit from betting on the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The United States President Donald Trump has revealed that the individual who leaked information about the Venezuelan attack before the incident occurred has been arrested and jailed.
According to a tweet from the blockchain security platform, Lookonchain, President Trump said the leaker, whose gender was undisclosed, will be in jail for a long time. He also revealed that authorities are looking for other individuals who may have worked with the leaker to spread the news before the attack. However, only the leaker has been found and jailed.
In less than 24 hours after the United States attacked Venezuela and captured the country’s president on January 3, Lookonchain revealed that three wallets on the blockchain prediction platform, Polymarket, had predicted the development.
The blockchain security firm said the wallets had bet that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro would be out of office. The Polymarket users placed those bets hours before Maduro’s arrest and netted profits exceeding $630,480. Lookonchain insisted that theirs was a case of insider trading, which means they knew about the arrest before it happened, pointing to a leak.
Furthermore, Lookonchain found that the three wallets were created and pre-funded days in advance. They had no history of placing other bets and only predicted events related to Venezuela and Maduro.
The first wallet, 0x31a5, bet $34,000 and gained $409,900. The second, 0xa72D, invested $5,800 and made away with $75,000, while the third, SBet365, bet $25,000 and profited $145,600.
In the latest turn of events, Lookonchain revealed that two out of the three wallets became inactive after profiting from their bets. In fact, they have registered no activity for the last 11 days. Only the wallet tagged SBet365 placed a new bet two days ago. This time, the user bet $4,000 that Ali Hosseini Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, would be out of office by January 31.
The wallet’s latest bet comes amid lingering tensions between the U.S. and Iran, as President Trump threatens strikes. So, the prediction that Khamenei will leave office by the end of the month raises concerns about another insider trade or a leak in classified information.
However, a recent report from Reuters says Trump has eased the strike threats after he received reports that killings had reduced amid the Iranian government’s crackdown on the protests. Nonetheless, it remains to be seen how the situation will play out over the next few days.
