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An anonymous better made $400k wagering Maduro would be removed. Was it insider trading?

While Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s ouster by U.S. military forces came as a surprise to most, a better on the Polymarket cryptocurrency platform made $400,000 in profits in a series of wagers, the last coming just hours before the U.S. operation began.

The timing and specificity of the bets are raising red flags among market watchers who say the winner likely relied on insider information. But on a platform where users are guaranteed anonymity, determining who the person was and whether their actions were illegal is at best complicated, and potentially impossible.

NPR tech correspondent Bobby Allyn joins Here & Now to explain Polymarket and provide the latest details on the story.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2026 WBUR

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