In today’s world, you can pretty much bet on anything—from whether Taylor Swift will be seen at the next Kansas City Chiefs NFL game to what the next Fed rate cut will be. But a few prediction markets rose astronomically in popularity recently, thanks to the 2024 presidential election—and crypto bros, pollsters, and many onlookers were glued to what Polymarket users were wagering.
For the weeks leading up to the election, users started dumping funds into the cryptocurrency-based prediction market platform. By Election Day, Polymarket users had wagered a whopping $3.2 billion on the outcome of the election, with a majority of bets on a win by former President Donald Trump. The “prophecy,” as many cryptocurrency enthusiasts and Trump advocates have called it—including Tesla CEO Elon Musk—was fulfilled when the former president declared victory this week against Vice President Kamala Harris.
