{
  "schemaVersion": "vultax-public-research-data-v1",
  "articleUrl": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-longshot-insider-screen-base-rate",
  "datasets": [
    {
      "title": "Where the long shots paid, and where they did not",
      "columns": [
        {
          "name": "Category",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "Bets",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "Wallets",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "Won",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "Average price paid",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "Staked",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "Gross return",
          "unit": null
        },
        {
          "name": "After fees",
          "unit": null
        }
      ],
      "rows": [
        [
          "All flagged bets",
          "113,863",
          "17,858",
          "24.37%",
          "23.01¢",
          "$1.24bn",
          "−3.67%",
          "−4.33%"
        ],
        [
          "Sports",
          "70,290",
          "7,081",
          "25.54%",
          "24.48¢",
          "$764.0M",
          "−1.77%",
          "−2.70%"
        ],
        [
          "Politics",
          "11,049",
          "5,111",
          "23.61%",
          "19.66¢",
          "$140.9M",
          "+16.87%",
          "+16.87%"
        ],
        [
          "Crypto",
          "10,413",
          "2,734",
          "23.85%",
          "21.72¢",
          "$92.4M",
          "−1.06%",
          "−1.44%"
        ],
        [
          "Price Action",
          "4,047",
          "679",
          "22.93%",
          "21.69¢",
          "$18.5M",
          "−1.38%",
          "−3.71%"
        ],
        [
          "Other",
          "2,403",
          "1,262",
          "23.55%",
          "21.90¢",
          "$24.9M",
          "+4.74%",
          "+4.46%"
        ],
        [
          "Finance",
          "1,314",
          "908",
          "15.68%",
          "21.89¢",
          "$17.8M",
          "−57.21%",
          "−57.80%"
        ],
        [
          "Culture",
          "1,241",
          "860",
          "21.19%",
          "17.62¢",
          "$13.3M",
          "−14.49%",
          "−14.53%"
        ],
        [
          "Global Elections",
          "1,006",
          "773",
          "5.67%",
          "17.66¢",
          "$19.8M",
          "−86.94%",
          "−86.94%"
        ],
        [
          "Bitcoin",
          "832",
          "202",
          "25.12%",
          "23.76¢",
          "$6.3M",
          "−6.17%",
          "−6.25%"
        ],
        [
          "Sci-Tech",
          "714",
          "535",
          "19.05%",
          "21.76¢",
          "$6.8M",
          "−26.29%",
          "−26.30%"
        ],
        [
          "World",
          "713",
          "513",
          "46.28%",
          "22.97¢",
          "$10.9M",
          "+105.67%",
          "+105.67%"
        ],
        [
          "Soccer",
          "662",
          "376",
          "25.68%",
          "22.54¢",
          "$7.5M",
          "+22.08%",
          "+22.06%"
        ],
        [
          "Games",
          "631",
          "252",
          "26.47%",
          "25.53¢",
          "$6.2M",
          "+10.19%",
          "+9.05%"
        ],
        [
          "Romania",
          "626",
          "405",
          "43.61%",
          "25.12¢",
          "$7.9M",
          "+69.39%",
          "+69.39%"
        ],
        [
          "Fed Rates",
          "604",
          "429",
          "2.15%",
          "12.07¢",
          "$10.8M",
          "−96.44%",
          "−96.44%"
        ]
      ],
      "measurementContext": "Every Polymarket category with at least 600 qualifying bets, 1 January 2025 to 28 April 2026, ordered by bets. Each bet carries exactly one category, so the rows do not nest. Returns are stake-weighted.",
      "sources": [
        {
          "label": "Anti-Corruption Data Collective — Classifying Insider Trading Risk: Analyzing the Longshot Betting Ecosystem on Polymarket",
          "url": "https://acdatacollective.org/work/classifying-insider-trading-risk-analyzing-the-longshot-betting-ecosystem-on-polymarket/",
          "note": "August 2026. Defines a long-shot bet as \"more than $2500 wagered at 35 cents or less\" and the wallet profile as betting in a small number of markets and on very few topics with a success rate above 75%. Settled markets through 5 May 2026; 12,355 long-shot wallets classified, 556 of them matching the profile."
        },
        {
          "label": "Reuters — More than 150 Polymarket wallets may have traded on military secrets, research finds",
          "url": "https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/more-than-150-polymarket-wallets-may-have-traded-military-secrets-research-finds-2026-08-20/",
          "note": "20 August 2026. First report of the study; renders the threshold as at least $2,500 placed cumulatively in an hour or less at odds of 35% or lower. 152 wallets concentrated on military and defence markets, about $8 million won at an average 97.2% win rate against roughly 52% for long-shot bets in those markets generally."
        },
        {
          "label": "CNN — Polymarket referred dozens of possible military insider trading cases to DOJ, source says",
          "url": "https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/21/politics/polymarket-doj-military-prediction-market",
          "note": "21 August 2026. A senior Polymarket official said the referrals predated the report and that internal surveillance monitors around 150 further signals and trading patterns. Polymarket has not been accused of wrongdoing; the Department of Justice did not comment."
        },
        {
          "label": "Polymarket — Market Integrity Policy",
          "url": "https://integrity.polymarket.com/",
          "note": "The venue's own policy: trading on stolen or confidential information and trading by anyone positioned to influence an outcome are prohibited; real-time surveillance and referral to law enforcement are described."
        },
        {
          "label": "Bloomberg Businessweek — Polymarket and Kalshi Grapple With a New Era of Insider Traders",
          "url": "https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2026-polymarket-traders-who-knew-the-future/",
          "note": "20 July 2026. About 34,000 Polymarket transactions flagged by Polysights between August 2025 and June 2026; 57% of flagged wallets created less than 24 hours before their flagged trades; 38 connected wallets across 90 Iran and Venezuela markets won 98% of them for about $1.6 million. A flag is not presented as proof of wrongdoing."
        },
        {
          "label": "The Wall Street Journal — Cluster of Polymarket Accounts Won Big on Companies Audited by KPMG",
          "url": "https://www.wsj.com/business/c-suite/cluster-of-polymarket-accounts-won-big-on-companies-audited-by-kpmg-b4d322f7",
          "note": "11 September 2026. Bubblemaps clustering linked 19 accounts that went 41 for 42 on earnings bets across roughly 18 KPMG audit clients from November 2025, for about $22,000. KPMG cited zero tolerance for misuse of non-public client information; Bubblemaps said clustering alone does not prove insider trading."
        },
        {
          "label": "Mitts and Ofir — From Iran to Taylor Swift: Informed Trading in Prediction Markets",
          "url": "https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6426778",
          "note": "SSRN working paper, March 2026. Every Polymarket contract from February 2024 to February 2026 scored on bet size, profitability, pre-event timing and directional concentration: 210,718 suspicious wallet-market pairs, a 69.9% win rate more than 60 standard deviations above a permutation null, about $143 million of anomalous profit."
        },
        {
          "label": "Nechepurenko — Per-Market Information Leakage and Order-Flow Skill",
          "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.02287",
          "note": "May 2026. Sets out the limitation of an outcome-conditioned score: profitability is only known at resolution, so the screen gives no real-time signal and does not separate skill from luck on its own."
        },
        {
          "label": "CFTC — Enforcement Division issues Prediction Markets Advisory",
          "url": "https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/9185-26",
          "note": "25 February 2026. Names insider trading, fraud and manipulation, wash sales and pre-arranged trading as conduct the Commission polices on any designated contract market."
        },
        {
          "label": "Polymarket trading fees",
          "url": "https://docs.polymarket.com/trading/fees",
          "note": "\"Makers are never charged fees. Only takers pay fees.\" The basis for charging the tape's fee field entirely to the taker in the net-of-fee figures."
        },
        {
          "label": "Polymarket Data API — wallet activity",
          "url": "https://data-api.polymarket.com/activity",
          "note": "Used to calibrate the first-seen dates: a stratified sample of 500 wallets was checked against the earliest activity record the venue holds, and 500 of 500 resolved."
        },
        {
          "label": "Vultax: Polymarket prices tested against 6,776 resolved markets",
          "url": "https://vultax.com/research/prediction-market-fair-value-calibration",
          "note": "The favourite-longshot effect measured from the price side rather than the wallet side"
        },
        {
          "label": "Vultax: 1.6% of Polymarket wallets never sleep",
          "url": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-wallets-that-never-sleep-trading-cadence",
          "note": "The wallet population these flagged wallets sit inside, measured by cadence"
        },
        {
          "label": "Vultax: where Polymarket profits go",
          "url": "https://vultax.com/research/best-polymarket-traders-leaderboards",
          "note": "Realised profit and loss per wallet, and how little of it persists"
        },
        {
          "label": "Vultax methodology",
          "url": "https://vultax.com/methodology",
          "note": "How Vultax measures, and what it does not claim"
        },
        {
          "label": "Polymarket activity API documentation",
          "url": "https://docs.polymarket.com/api-reference/core/get-user-activity",
          "note": "Oldest public trade per wallet; read 19 September 2026."
        },
        {
          "label": "Vultax wallet-age check, 500 wallets",
          "url": "https://vultax.com/datasets/polymarket-wallet-first-seen-history-audit/wallet-age-audit.csv",
          "note": "First recorded fill against oldest public trade; addresses replaced by sample numbers."
        }
      ],
      "measurement": {
        "kind": "observed",
        "temporalCoverage": "2025-01-01/2026-04-28",
        "population": "Polymarket categories with at least 600 qualifying bets, one category per bet",
        "methodology": "One bet is one wallet-market-side episode whose rolling one-hour stake reached $2,500 over fills where the side held was priced at 35 cents or less. Stake is shares times entry price; gross profit is winning shares minus stake."
      },
      "id": "by-category-table",
      "kind": "published-table",
      "description": "The screen used to flag insider wallets on Polymarket — $2,500 or more inside an hour on an outcome at 35 cents or less — run across every settled Polymarket market from January 2025 to April 2026: 113,863 bets by 17,858 wallets, $1.24bn staked, 24.4% won, a return of −3.67%.",
      "articleUrl": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-longshot-insider-screen-base-rate",
      "sectionUrl": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-longshot-insider-screen-base-rate#by-category",
      "publishedAt": "2026-09-21",
      "modifiedAt": "2026-09-21",
      "version": "f646bc53a9d4d08566836d16d692b9100c5868658b04b27259ed80f0c3e37db9",
      "isLive": false,
      "limitations": "Published research snapshots and calculations; these exports do not contain current quotes or live account data. Observation windows and populations are stated in the source captions and methodology. Missing metadata is unknown, not zero. Figures describe Polymarket fills between 1 January 2025 and 28 April 2026 in markets that had settled by the end of that window. A screen is a filter on public trading records, not a finding about any person, and no wallet it selects is accused of anything here. Not a recommendation to trade, and not financial advice.",
      "downloads": {
        "json": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-longshot-insider-screen-base-rate/data.json?dataset=by-category-table",
        "csv": "https://vultax.com/research/polymarket-longshot-insider-screen-base-rate/data.csv?dataset=by-category-table"
      }
    }
  ]
}