Polymarket’s $917K political jackpot rides an Alaska-sized tail — and Tether’s Bitcoin bag gets bigger

A Polymarket trader identified as 0xA2 accumulated $917,000 in profit over the past 24 hours after correctly wagering $609,644 that Republicans would not win any Senate swing states, according to the platform’s daily leaderboard. The position’s odds moved from 36% to 87%, turning the stake into $1.48 million and generating an unrealized profit of $860,000, although the outcome remains exposed to an upset in Alaska. Traders assign the potential upset a 14% chance.

0xA2 also realized $106,115 by predicting a Democrats win in the Texas Senate, while the trader’s second-largest active position is $1.42 million on the United States not confirming that aliens exist before 2027. The top 10 Polymarket users collectively made more than $170,000, according to the leaderboard. For comparison, the platform’s top daily winner earned $154,000 on a day in March this year, while its 10th-highest earner gained $29,700, according to the WayBackMachine.

Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said the stablecoin company now holds around 150,000 Bitcoin, worth roughly $11.5 billion at current prices, exceeding its own reserve disclosures by some 50,000 coins. “We have give or take 150,000 bitcoin ourselves. It’s not much, but it’s honest work,” Ardoino said during a keynote at the Plan ₿ Forum in Lugano, Switzerland, where Tether has run a Bitcoin and stablecoin adoption program since 2022.

Prediction-market activity accelerated after polls began closing at 6pm ET, with Kalshi’s odds of a Democratic sweep rising from about 74% to 99%, said Kelly Ye, Head of Research at digital asset management firm Talos. “Prediction-market trading peaked between 8pm and 10pm ET, led by a small number of large trades,” Ye said in a note shared with Decrypt.

Separately, a Canadian judge ordered the return of a laptop containing a Bitcoin wallet to the family of William Sandeson, who is serving a life sentence for the 2015 murder of fellow university student Taylor Samson during a drugs deal, Global News reported. Justice John Bodurtha of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that prosecutors had not proved the cryptocurrency was linked to the killing. Sandeson, who appeared virtually at the hearing in Halifax, had filed the motion in April.