Trump says he "jailed the leaker" of a 'Venezuela operation'… insider-trading controversy in prediction markets resurfaces

US President Donald Trump said he had tracked down and jailed the person who leaked classified information related to Venezuela, bringing allegations of insider trading tied to prediction markets back into focus.

According to Cointelegraph, a digital-asset news outlet, Trump said at a White House press conference on the 16th (Korea time), "The person who leaked information related to Venezuela has been identified and is now in jail."

Previously, on the decentralized prediction market Polymarket, an account placed a bet that "President Nicolás Maduro will step down within January" just before a Venezuela military operation began and reportedly made about 1200% in profits, sparking suspicions of insider trading. It was also revealed that the same account bet on the "stepping down of Iran's President Ayatollah Ali Khamenei."

In particular, as Trump's remarks coincided with the period when those accounts simultaneously stopped activity on Polymarket, suspicions have intensified that they may have obtained non-public information in advance and used it for betting.