Someone placed an $800 million bet that oil prices would drop, then 15 minutes later the president made an announcement that sent oil down 10%.
60 Minutes is claiming that insider trading is occurring on a massive scale around US military operations, using both traditional oil markets and prediction markets like Polymarket.
Their reporting cites financial data from LSEG showing that on March 23, more than $800 million was staked on oil prices dropping at 6:50 a.m. ET. Fifteen minutes later, Trump announced a postponement of strikes against Iranian infrastructure. It has not been determined if the trade was made with inside information or if the trader was in the US.
They also cite analytics firm Bubblemaps, which claims to have identified nine connected Polymarket accounts that made over $2.4 million betting on US military actions with a 98% win rate across 80+ bets. The accounts allegedly predicted specific dates for the first US strikes on Iran, the removal of Iran's supreme leader, and the ceasefire announcement.
The segment ties this to the recent indictment of a US Army soldier who allegedly used classified information to win Polymarket bets on the Venezuela raid, netting over $400,000 from roughly $34,000 in wagers.
The CFTC is reportedly investigating the oil trades.