Crypto Insiders Cashed In Before the Axiom Bombshell—$1.2 Million on Polymarket

8 of the top 10 highest-earning addresses on Polymarket are reportedly linked to insiders who collectively profited over $1.2 million betting on ZachXBT’s Axiom insider trading investigation.

The incident exposes how early access to investigative findings can create asymmetric advantages on decentralized prediction platforms.

Why it matters:

• Insiders trading on non-public investigative findings distorts outcomes on open prediction markets, harming regular bettors
• 52 addresses lost between $10,000–$100,000+, totaling over $1.6 million in losses, absorbing insider gains
• The incident raises regulatory questions about information asymmetry on decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms with no enforcement mechanism

The details:

• Lookonchain identified 12 suspected insider wallets generating a combined $1.02 million in profit
• Address 0x1d9af60c679cd0b577c3c4ccb4b1a4be4174426d (predictorxyz) earned $411,600 trading only the Axiom market, per DefiOasis
• Two additional insider addresses earned $354,000 and $144,000, each trading a single market
• WuBlockchain confirmed 3,630+ total addresses bet on the Axiom market, with 56.2% ending profitable

The big picture:

• Insider-driven prediction market manipulation mirrors front-running patterns seen in traditional securities markets
• The ZachXBT Axiom exposé revealed how on-chain transparency can simultaneously expose and enable information-based exploitation
• Decentralized prediction markets lack enforceable insider trading rules, leaving structural abuse unaddressed