Farage's Crypto Fairy Godmother? $8.8M Polymarket Win Haunted by Silent Wallets 🧐

A Polymarket account registered under the name of convicted fraudster and Reform UK financier George Cottrell received $8.8 million in cryptocurrency from unknown sources in 2024 and wagered it on Donald Trump's election victory, the Financial Times reported. The account, listed as "GCottrell93," was funded in late October 2024 through two exchanges, with $7 million sent in five tranches from OKX and $1.83 million routed through ChangeNOW, according to public blockchain data cited by the FT. Each deposit was immediately staked on Trump winning, a position that yielded $4.46 million in profit after his victory. The funds were then moved to other wallets, and the identities of both the depositors and the recipients of the winnings remain unconfirmed.

The prediction market account has not been formally linked to Cottrell, though blockchain investigator ZachXBT said he holds "high confidence" that it belongs to him, having flagged it earlier in the year over a $550,000 loss on a wager about U.S. strikes on Iran. That "GCottrell93" account had bet roughly $550,000 against the outcome "US strikes Iran by February 28, 2026?" and was wiped out after the United States struck Iran in June. Cottrell's lawyers declined to comment on his finances or specific transactions, stating that their silence did not constitute acceptance of the FT's findings. Reform UK did not respond to the newspaper.

Cottrell, 32, has been credited as a key financial backer of Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. A Sunday Times investigation earlier this month found that Cottrell had bankrolled Farage's operation, covering staff, private security, transport, and accommodation in the year before Farage won his parliamentary seat, none of which was declared. Under the MPs' code of conduct, members must disclose gifts, benefits, and hospitality that "might reasonably be thought by others to influence [their] actions or words." Since the election, Cottrell has allowed Farage to stay in a five-storey house he rents near Buckingham Palace, minutes from Reform's headquarters.

The Sunday Times investigation also tied Cottrell to a crypto-gambling platform it said was implicated in "potentially illegal" unlicensed betting in the UK. Both the Sunday Times and the FT have pressed whether money from unidentified sources helped fund benefits for Farage or Reform, a question Cottrell has declined to answer, including on who beneficially owns the Polymarket wallet. Cottrell was born into an aristocratic family and was convicted in 2016 in the United States.