P2P.me is a payment platform using cryptocurrency that is facing scrutiny over a $20,000 USD bet on Polymarket related to its own fundraising campaign after revealing that the company had traded on this outcome before the official public round opened.
On March 27, P2P.me announced that the company had sold its betting position on Polymarket regarding the ability to achieve a fundraising goal of 6 million USD. The company revealed that they had placed the bet 10 days prior to the official fundraising launch.
Massive profits in Polymarket raise the issue of insider trading.
P2P.me acknowledges that during the betting period, it received a verbal commitment of 3 million USD from the venture capital firm Multicoin.
Some lawyers stated that the 3 million USD commitment could be considered material non-public information. However, P2P.me clarified that the absence of signed documents means the outcome remains uncertain.
P2P.me also defended this trade and sees the betting as a 'vote of confidence' in itself.
We intentionally named the account 'P2P Team' with a purpose – to serve as a marketing signal of our presence in the community and reflect our intention to be transparent. However, intention does not equal action; the lack of disclosure at that time was a mistake we take responsibility for. We took time to study the legal aspects before speaking out. That is why we have not commented until now – this issue can also be criticized fairly.
Ultimately, P2P.me was able to raise 5.2 million USD from outside investors, allowing the company to close its Polymarket position at 35,212 USD, with this trade generating a profit of approximately 14,700 USD from an initial investment of 20,500 USD.
After facing backlash, some investors and industry figures commented that this incident was blown out of proportion, viewing this trade as stemming from naivety rather than malicious intent.
Simon Dedic, co-founder of Moonrock Capital and investor in P2P.me, defended both the team and their intentions. He sees this trade as a misguided 'guerrilla marketing' effort meant to demonstrate confidence.
No one with common sense would risk raising 6 million USD for a profit of only 15,000 USD. The idea was to demonstrate strong confidence in the sale, to the extent of betting on themselves. This is why we intentionally named the account 'P2P team'; otherwise, it would have to be said that this is the most incompetent insider trading ever, Simon Dedic added on X.
Amid increased scrutiny before the initial coin sale, P2P.me announced that it would direct the proceeds from the trade into the MetaDAO Treasury, and the company clarified that MetaDAO had no prior information about this trade.
This incident occurred at a time when the prediction market was rapidly growing in the industry. The blockchain platform TRM Labs indicated that transaction volumes in this sector surged from 1.2 billion USD in early 2025 to over 20 billion USD by January 2026.
Due to this rapid growth, there are increasing regulatory concerns about decentralized prediction markets. Platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi have implemented stricter oversight measures to regulate insider trading.