Controversy Surrounding Polymarket After Trump's Victory, France Reacts

The National Gambling Authority (ANJ) plans to block access to the cryptocurrency betting platform Polymarket in France. This decision comes after record-breaking bets during the U.S. presidential election, including a spectacular gain of 47 million dollars made by a French trader on Donald Trump’s victory.

France Takes Measures Against Polymarket After Massive Bets on Trump

The ANJ has launched a thorough investigation into Polymarket’s activities in France following the explosion of transaction volumes during the U.S. election period. The platform, which recorded over 3.5 billion dollars in trades, allows users to bet on political events using cryptocurrencies, without requiring strict identity verification.

The case of the French trader “Théo”, who made a historic gain of 47 million dollars by betting on Trump’s victory, has particularly caught the regulators’ attention. This record transaction raises questions about the risks of market manipulation and insider trading.

The French authority now plans to block the domain names of the platform and restrict its promotion in national media, although these measures could be circumvented through the use of VPNs.

A Decision Driven by Major Crypto Regulatory Issues

The growing popularity of Polymarket poses a real dilemma for international regulators. Moreover, in the United States, the CFTC had already opened an investigation in 2021 into possible regulatory violations. More recently, a bipartisan group of American senators has called for a ban on electoral betting on these platforms.

Furthermore, the blockchain technology underlying Polymarket makes its regulation particularly complex. Without a traditional intermediary and with potential decentralization via a future token, the platform could become even more difficult to regulate.

Authorities are particularly concerned about the influence that massive betting could have on public opinion. A group of American lawmakers, including Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal, has notably highlighted the risk of billionaires using these platforms to influence electoral outcomes.

Regulators must now find a balance between financial innovation and protection of democratic processes, as decentralized predictive markets continue to gain popularity.