High-Stakes Bitcoin Bets via Polymarket Leave Gamblers Reeling

Event contract platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket attracted a large number of bets on the recent Presidential Elections in the United States. While sportsbooks proved to be more accurate than polls in predicting the win of Donald Trump, many bettors won hefty wagers on the elections.

Bitcoin’s Price Couldn’t Break the $100K Barrier in November

Besides betting on elections or other major political events, contract platforms offer other types of bets, including ones related to popular figures, music bands and other real-life events. On Polymarket, different markets regarding potential fluctuations to Bitcoin can be found. Despite the initial surge in the price of Bitcoin following Trump’s win in the Presidential Elections, the popular cryptocurrency couldn’t break the $100,000 barrier.

Regretfully, at least for one bettor, that resulted in a hefty loss. As announced by crypto.news, a bettor that goes under the alias TomApproves wagered $114,000 on Bitcoin to hit the $100,000 mark during November. After the price of the popular currency hit an all-time high of $99,655 as of November 22, the goal of it surpassing $100,000 looked more achievable than ever.

However, in the week that followed, the price of Bitcoin kept a downward trend, slumping to $90,800 as of November 29. At the end of the month, Bitcoin’s price rebound somewhat to approximately $98,000, which was still not enough to help the bettor win their wager.

Besides the $114,000 lost on the Bitcoin wager by TomApproves, another Polymarket user also placed a hefty wager with a similar prediction. The second user bet nearly $56,000 for Bitcoin to pass the $100,000 barrier in November but similarly to the first bettor, lost the wager.

More Bitcoin Markets Are Available

The market on whether or not Bitcoin will reach $100,000 in November attracted some $28.5 million. While two bettors lost hefty wagers, others may have capitalized on Bitcoin’s shaky price that didn’t live up to expectations, at least in November.

Further prediction markets on Polymarket ask if Bitcoin would be able to pass the $100,000 mark by the end of 2024 or once again slump to the $90,000 mark. So far, the aforementioned market has attracted $1.7 million in wagers. While a day ago the chances of Bitcoin hitting $100,000 were at approximately 70%, at the time of writing, the possibility of that happening is at 54%.

Polymarket and other similar platforms offer betting on real-life events. While in practice the activity can be referred to as betting, in reality, such platforms offer event trading contracts.