
Ethereum's Buterin: 'My Power Will Continue to Decrease'
Vitalik Buterin states his influence over Ethereum Foundation is shrinking intentionally.

A Polymarket trader earned $320,000 by accurately betting on Joe Biden's last-minute pardons. The trader's two linked wallets raised concerns of insider trading due to their perfect win rate on the bets.
Mentioned in this story
A supremely well-timed Polymarket trader netted hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit betting flawlessly on former President Joe Biden’s last acts in office, newly surfaced on-chain data has revealed.
Last year, on Biden’s final day in office, two connected Polymarket accounts correctly chose four of the five individuals the president pardoned in his final hours at the White House. None of the bets they made were inaccurate—and even as odds related to the pardons dropped close to zero as Biden’s presidency expired, the wallets doubled down by increasing their positions.
All in all, the wallets netted $320,000 in profit on Biden pardon-related wagers, and had a 100% win rate on such markets. The connection between the two wallets was discovered this week by blockchain sleuthing firm Bubblemaps.
REWIND: 🇺🇸 Someone made $300,000+ predicting Joe Biden’s last minute pardons with a 100% win rate:
Adam Schiff, Hunter Biden, and more 🧵 pic.twitter.com/Ozxo0jairi
— Bubblemaps (@bubblemaps) April 16, 2026
The wallets correctly predicted that Biden would issue pardons during his final minutes in office to anti-Trump Republicans Liz Cheney and Adam Kinziger, California Senator Adam Schiff, and the former president’s brother, Jim Biden.
The wallets also correctly wagered the prior month that Biden would pardon his son, Hunter.
The January 20 bets had incredibly low odds when they were placed, given Biden was just hours away from losing the powers of the presidency. The odds of pardoning Adam Schiff, for instance, sat at just 6% when one of the wallets made its wager.
A $21,711 bet made on the Jim Biden pardon stood just 11% odds of paying out when it was made—and, within minutes, netted a $198,220 return.
The revelation of the potentially suspicious trades comes as the Trump administration faces scrutiny for numerous bets made in the last several months—on prediction markets, futures exchanges, and the stock market—that have come just prior to crucial market-moving actions or statements from the White House, and quickly collected billions of dollars.
The size and timing of such wagers has generated enough scrutiny that the White House quietly staff last week not to place bets on sensitive topics including the ongoing Iran war.
The trader placed high-risk bets on four of the five individuals pardoned by Biden, achieving a perfect win rate and timing their bets just before the pardons were announced.
The trades have raised possible insider trading concerns due to the perfect timing and accuracy of the bets placed by the two linked wallets.
Polymarket is a prediction market platform where users can bet on the outcomes of various events, including political events like presidential pardons.

Vitalik Buterin states his influence over Ethereum Foundation is shrinking intentionally.

The Federal Reserve updated its proposal for a 'skinny' master account, enhancing crypto firms' access to payment systems. Concurrently, President Trump signed an executive order to integrate digital assets into existing payment networks.

XRP's price shows indecision; key trading days ahead.

What to Expect for Bitcoin Prices Next Week: Key Levels to Watch

Dogecoin is retesting a critical Fibonacci fan structure, hinting at a potential breakout.

Joi AI is hiring 'masturbation consultants' for $2,000 a month to test an AI feature.
See every story in Crypto — including breaking news and analysis.
Earlier Thursday, CFTC Chair Mike Selig came under fire during a congressional hearing over his willingness to investigate such trades, if the potential misconduct might trace back to President Trump’s inner circle.
A Bubblemaps analyst told Decrypt the suspicious Biden-related trading they identified this week looks very similar to the type that has come under scrutiny during the second Trump administration.
“For suspicious trades we search for the pattern of big, well-timed bets across several connected wallets,” the analyst said. “This is exactly what we found in the Biden pardon case here.”