Donald Trump’s Truth Social Is Launching a Polymarket Competitor
“If you had to give a reason [crypto prediction markets] If you can come back to the United States, you have to point the finger at the Trump administration,” says Zach Hamilton, founder of crypto startup Sarcophagus, in an interview with WIRED. “Donald Trump. I mean, that’s it.
Even before Truth Predict came along, the Trump family had a financial interest in the spread of prediction markets in the United States.
In January, Donald Trump Jr. joined Kalshi as a strategic advisor. Then, in August, Polymarket received an investment from 1789 Capital, a venture capital firm in which Trump Jr. is a partner. As part of the deal, Trump Jr. joined Polymarket’s advisory board.
The ties between the Trump family and Polymarket, forged just as Polymarket was seeking to reenter the United States, have drawn attention from critics who say the investment could amount to a conflict of interest. They say the deal creates an opportunity for the Trump family to take advantage of policy changes initiated by the Trump administration.
“No one is saying that members of the president’s family can’t engage in normal capitalist activities in a capitalist country,” says Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project, an organization that seeks to scrutinize the behavior of elected officials. “But Polymarket is the subject of intense political controversy. As such, the investment reflects a significant and avoidable conflict of interest.”
“Neither the President nor his family have ever engaged, nor will ever engage, in conflicts of interest,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to WIRED.
Polymarket, TMTG and 1789 Capital did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The launch of Truth Predict also evokes a scenario in which different facets of the Trump family’s business empire could effectively compete with each other.
“From a venture capital perspective, a lot of us don’t like investing in competing projects. We try to avoid that,” says Chris Perkins, managing partner at crypto-VC firm CoinFund. “We are trying to identify category winners.”
Already, companies linked to the Trump family operate competing Bitcoin treasuries. In June, a dispute erupted over which legal entities were allowed to launch an “official” Trump-branded crypto wallet.
