P2P.me, a crypto payment platform, is facing questions about a $20,000 Polymarket bet linked to their own fundraising campaign after it was revealed that they had bet on the outcome before the round was public.
On March 27, P2P.me announced that it had sold a Polymarket position based on achieving their goal of $6 million in fundraising. The company stated that they placed these bets 10 days before the funding round officially began.
Large Polymarket profit sparks discussion about insider trading
P2P.me admitted that at the time of betting, it had already received a verbal commitment of $3 million from venture capital firm Multicoin.
Some legal experts believe that this verbal commitment of $3 million could be seen as significant, non-public information. Still, P2P.me stated that the outcome was uncertain as there were no signed documents.
P2P.me defended the trade and called the bet a 'sign of confidence.'
“We deliberately named the account 'P2P Team' – to send a marketing signal to the community and to show that we want to be transparent. But intention is not the same as action. Not disclosing it at that moment was a mistake we acknowledge. We took the time to investigate the legal implications before we spoke, which is why we have remained silent with a 'no comment' stance until now! – that is also fair criticism,” said the company.
Ultimately, P2P.me raised $5.2 million from external investors, allowing the company to close its Polymarket positions at $35,212. The trade yielded approximately $14,700 in profit from an initial investment of $20,500.
After the uproar, some investors and industry people said the incident was exaggerated. They believe it stemmed more from naivety than malice.
Simon Dedic, co-founder of Moonrock Capital and investor in P2P.me, defended the character and intentions of the team. According to him, the trade was a misplaced 'guerrilla marketing action' to showcase strength.
“No one with common sense would risk a fundraising of $6 million for $15,000. The idea was to show that they had so much confidence in the sale that they would even bet on themselves. That’s why they deliberately named the account 'P2P team.' Otherwise, you would have to say they are the most incompetent insider traders ever,” added Dedic.
As the criticism mounted, just before their scheduled initial coin offering, P2P.me announced that the proceeds from the trade would go to the MetaDAO Treasury. The company stated that MetaDAO was not aware of the trades in advance.
This incident occurs at a time when prediction markets are rapidly growing within the sector. Blockchain platform TRM Labs states that the transaction value in the sector has increased from $1.2 billion in early 2025 to over $20 billion in January 2026.
Due to this rapid growth, there are increasing concerns about regulation in decentralized prediction markets. Platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi have recently implemented stricter controls to combat insider trading.