Donald Trump’s Truth Social Is Launching a Polymarket Competitor | EUROtoday

“If you had to point to one reason [crypto prediction markets] are able to come back to the US, you have to point to the Trump administration,” says Zach Hamilton, founding father of crypto startup Sarcophagus, in an interview with WIRED. “Donald Trump. I mean, that’s it.”

Even earlier than the arrival of Truth Predict, the Trump household had a monetary curiosity within the unfold of prediction markets within the US.

In January, Donald Trump Jr. joined Kalshi as a strategic adviser. Then, in August, Polymarket acquired an funding from 1789 Capital, a enterprise capital agency the place Trump Jr. serves as a companion. As a part of the deal, Trump Jr. joined Polymarket’s advisory board.

The ties between the Trump household and Polymarket, solid simply as Polymarket was looking for reentry into the US, have drawn scrutiny from critics who declare the funding may quantity to a battle of curiosity. The deal creates a chance, they allege, for the Trump household to revenue from modifications in coverage instigated by the Trump administration.

“No one is saying members of the president’s family cannot engage in normal capitalist activities in a capitalist country,” says Jeff Hauser, government director on the Revolving Door Project, a company that seeks to scrutinize the habits of elected officers. “But Polymarket is the subject of heated political controversy. As such, the investment reflects a significant conflict of interest—and an avoidable one.”

“Neither the president nor his family have ever engaged, or will ever engage, in conflicts of interest,” says White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, in an announcement to WIRED.

Polymarket, TMTG and 1789 Capital didn’t reply instantly to requests for remark.

The Truth Predict launch additionally tees up a situation during which separate sides of the Trump household’s enterprise empire may successfully compete in opposition to each other.

“From a venture capital perspective, many of us don’t like to invest in competing projects. We try to avoid that,” says Chris Perkins, managing companion at crypto VC agency CoinFund. “We try to identify category winners.”

Already, companies linked to the Trump household are working competing bitcoin treasuries. In June, a dispute broke out over which company entities have been permitted to launch an “official” Trump-branded crypto pockets.