'Orcas' with likely inside info win big on Trump Jr.-funded Polymarket — SkimNews
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- Anti-Corruption Data Collective identified 152 'Orca' Polymarket wallets with a 97.2% success rate that collectively won $8 million, reportedly trading on inside military information including the June 2025 attacks on Iran.
- Donald Trump Jr. serves as an adviser to Polymarket, and his venture capital firm 1789 Capital invested in the platform soon after its founding.
- Trump Jr. and Eric Trump simultaneously profit from defense investments tied to the Iran war: Powerus, funded by both brothers, has received two Air Force contracts for interceptor drones this year, while Eric Trump invested in Israeli drone firm Xtend, a DoD contractor whose drones are being used in Iran.
- Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke allegedly made more than $400,000 on Polymarket by betting on the secret January 3 U.S. invasion that removed Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro; he has pleaded not guilty.
- Polymarket users repeatedly wagered crude oil prices would drop just before Trump announced supposed breakthroughs in Iran talks or cessations in U.S. airstrikes — a pattern ACDC co-founder David Szakonyi said foreign intelligence agencies are 'monitoring.'
- The White House warned officials in March they cannot use nonpublic government information to place wagers; Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) has introduced a House ban on the practice, calling the status quo 'indefensible.'
Why it matters: The Trump family is financially entangled on both sides of the conflict: Donald Trump Jr. advises Polymarket (where 152 wallets posted a 97.2% win rate on $8 million in military bets), while the brothers' defense firms hold Air Force and DoD contracts tied to the same Iran war those wallets appear to have traded on. A caught insider — Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke, accused of pocketing $400,000 on the secret Maduro operation — shows the risk is not hypothetical.
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