Prediction markets allow you to profit from crypto crime legally
Now, you can also legally make money from crypto crime, not only by fighting it or helping victims, but also by betting on it. An unusual case this week showcased just that: wait for an announcement about an investigation, then bet on its outcome.
Image by Cybernews.
Now, you can also legally make money from crypto crime, not only by fighting it or helping victims, but also by betting on it. An unusual case this week showcased just that: wait for an announcement about an investigation, then bet on its outcome.
The prominent blockchain sleuth ZachXBT published his latest investigation, claiming that @WheresBroox (Broox Bauer) is among the "multiple" employees at Axiom, a crypto trading platform, who allegedly abused internal information on the platform in order to profit from insider trading since early 2025.
The analyst shared a video in which Broox, "a current Axiom senior BD employee based in New York," supposedly describes how anyone can request an Axiom user lookup from him so he can send a list of wallets.
According to the investigation, the group also targeted multiple crypto influencers, including Marcell, "a trader with a poor reputation for using his followers on X and Telegram as exit liquidity."
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Therefore, per ZachXBT, Axiom insider traders knew when this trader was buying a large portion of the token supply for meme coins before promoting them to followers and profited from this internal information.
After the investigation was published, Broox himself only replied with "I’m 14 in this" and a laughing emoji to a post supposedly showing a picture of him. Axiom reacted more seriously. The team said they were "shocked and disappointed," that they had removed access to the tools that allowed team members to abuse internal information, and that they "will continue to investigate and hold the offending parties responsible."
Meanwhile, a few days before the investigation was published, ZachXBT announced the day he would reveal his findings about insider trading at "one of crypto’s most profitable businesses."
Quickly, a prediction market emerged on Polymarket, asking, "Which crypto company will ZachXBT expose for insider trading?" and providing almost 30 options to guess from. In a few days, almost $40 million worth of trades occurred in this market.
Source: Polymarket.com
The chances of Axiom being named as the target of the investigation fluctuated between 5–20% before reaching 28% at the time the findings were published, making these bets profitable.
For example, one user who joined Polymarket only this month and participated only in this prediction market made more than $421,000 from a bet that the investigation was about Axiom. However, they also initially lost $67,000 betting that the investigation was not about this company, bringing their total profit for this month to nearly $354,000.
In either case, as reported by Cybernews, prediction markets are prone to manipulation themselves.
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