Zohran Mamdani’s victory over Andrew Cuomo to become New York’s 111th mayor led to record voter turnout and $424 million in betting volume on Polymarket, leaving one trader suffering heavy losses after betting against him.
A bettor named “fuxfux007” lost $969,169 after betting against Mamdani. The trader appears to be new to Polymarket, according to Polymarket Analytics, with only two bets: one against Mamdani worth $973,757 and one for him worth $42,973.
On the other hand, the biggest winner of the night was a trader known as “Degraded” who pocketed $188,487 betting on Mamdani.
In the end, Polymarket correctly predicted the outcome of the election, aligning with the polls. Yet it was not without controversy: billionaire Bill Ackman claimed that prediction markets were rigged with malicious orders to make it appear that Mamdami’s odds were higher than expected.
The claims echo last year’s U.S. election debate, when mainstream media accused Polymarket of manipulation after a French trader’s multimillion-dollar bets inflated Donald Trump’s chances.
At the time, experts told CoinDesk that price rigging attempts were short-lived and usually self-correcting because professional firms’ arbitrage and liquidity quickly removed misprices.
Traders took the same stance in the run-up to the New York election, with some pointing out that a bet on Mamdani in the days before polls opened was actually a collateralized bond with 5% interest.
