Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin Made $70K Betting Against 'Crazy Mode' on Polymarket
Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co-founder, revealed his Polymarket prediction strategy: he seeks out markets with extreme or irrational bets and wagers that such “crazy” events will not occur, such as Trump winning a Nobel Peace Prize or the U.S. dollar collapsing. By betting against dramatic market sentiment, Buterin claims to have made a 16% profit ($70,000 on $440,000 staked) in 2025. He encourages others to exploit irrational sentiment for profit, highlighting that prediction markets can correct for emotional extremes and provide rational signals. Buterin also addressed the vulnerabilities of oracles—the data providers linking real-world events to blockchain-based prediction platforms. He cited a Polymarket example where a hacked account falsely altered outcomes during the Russia-Ukraine conflict, causing disproportionate payouts. Buterin emphasized that oracle security is inadequate and proposed either using trusted central sources or token-based voting mechanisms to improve reliability, arguing that secure oracles are crucial for DeFi and real-world blockchain applications such as property or election prediction.
