Polymarket Denies Venezuela Invasion, Sparks Community Outrage

BlockBeats News, January 7th. According to MarketWatch, the prediction market Polymarket refused to pay out on bets related to "US invading Venezuela" and stated that the weekend events did not constitute an "invasion," leading to strong expressions of dissatisfaction from Polymarket's customers. As per the Polymarket website, the prediction market volume for "When will the US invade Venezuela" reached $10.78 million. The outcome for "US invades Venezuela before December 31st" has currently been determined as false, with a prediction market volume of $2.76 million, and the probability for "before January 31st" is currently reported at 4%, with a prediction market volume of $6.08 million.

An anonymous user posted on the Polymarket website questioning, "What exactly constitutes an invasion?" and referred to the company as "Polyscam." Another user stated, "Polymarket has descended into outright arbitrary rulings. Words can be redefined at will, detached from any accepted meaning, and facts can be blatantly disregarded. A military invasion, the kidnapping of a head of state, and the takeover of a country are not recognized as an invasion; this is obviously absurd." Someone else wrote, "Is this a joke?" While another person asked, "So this is not an invasion just because it was done quickly and with few casualties?" (The New York Times cited a Venezuelan official stating that the death toll from this raid was 80 people.)

Polymarket explained on its website that "the market refers to a US military action aimed at establishing control, and Trump's statement about 'running' Venezuela when referring to ongoing negotiations with the Venezuelan government is not sufficient to classify the 'raid and extraction' operation carried out to arrest Maduro as an invasion."

MarketWatch sought an explanation from Polymarket, but did not receive a response. The reporter also emailed its 28-year-old crypto billionaire founder and CEO Shayne Coplan directly, but similarly did not receive a reply.