Someone in the Trump administration may be trying to profit from the president's push to release information about extraterrestrial life, according to a new analysis.
The Atlantic analyzed betting data on Kalshi, a prediction market app, and found that one bettor placed a $100,000 wager that President Donald Trump would reveal the existence of aliens by the end of December. Another, who The Atlantic surmised could actually be the same person, placed another "market-moving" bet within a half hour of the first, raising concerns about insider trading.
"Shayne Coplan, the CEO of Polymarket, has described prediction markets as global truth machines," the report reads. "On subjects where official information sources are suspect, they may instead serve as paranoia generators. Thanks to a fair amount of government bumbling, and decades’ worth of pop culture, everyday Americans are already predisposed to assume that they’re being lied to about alien life."
"People seize on the tiniest scraps of evidence to justify their belief that Earth has already received interstellar visitors," the report continued. "They have put their faith in blurry pictures and videos, unverified rumors about crash sites and autopsied bodies. Even an offhand joke from a former president was eagerly interpreted as a long-hoped-for disclosure. And now someone, somewhere, is betting a small fortune that the truth is about to come out, and the rest of us are left to decide what, if anything, that actually tells us about the world."