Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has disclosed a unique trading strategy that earned him approximately $70,000 in profit on prediction markets in 2025, leveraging what he calls an “anti-madness mode” approach.
Vitalik Buterin just revealed his @Polymarket strategy
"I made $70,000 on Polymarket in 2025 on a stake of $440,000 (a gain of ~16%)," he said
The Ethereum founder looks for markets in "crazy mode" and bets they won’t actually happen
[ How it looks step by step ]He noted his… pic.twitter.com/fkRFYXQv02
— Breezy 4L (@breezyjpg) February 2, 2026
Speaking in a Jan. 28 interview with Foresight News, Buterin said he generated the gains using Polymarket, a blockchain-based prediction platform. His strategy focused on betting against emotionally driven market consensus during periods of excessive hype or panic.
Buterin reportedly invested around $440,000, achieving a return of roughly 16% by identifying markets where participants appeared irrationally optimistic or fearful.
Betting Against Extreme Outcomes
Rather than following popular sentiment, Buterin took contrarian positions on highly unlikely scenarios. Examples included markets predicting Donald Trump would win a Nobel Peace Prize or that the U.S. dollar would collapse within a year during periods of economic stress.
He explained that he primarily targets politically and technologically charged topics, where emotional reactions often distort probabilities.
According to Buterin, prediction markets can be profitable precisely because many participants trade based on narratives and fear rather than data-driven reasoning.
While some crypto investors continue to search for long-term altcoin opportunities, Buterin’s approach highlights how short-term behavioral inefficiencies can also create asymmetric returns.
Prediction Markets Explode in 2025, But Buterin Raises Concerns
Prediction markets saw explosive growth throughout 2025. Polymarket’s app installs surged by more than 1,200% year-over-year, while weekly trading volumes across prediction platforms jumped from roughly $500 million to nearly $6 billion.
Despite the rapid expansion, Buterin voiced concerns about the direction of the sector.
He criticized the growing focus on ultra-short-term bets, such as hourly Bitcoin price movements or sports outcomes, arguing that these markets offer limited long-term social value.
Instead, Buterin believes prediction markets should serve as a form of “social epistemology”, which is a system where participants financially back their beliefs to surface more accurate information, without relying on centralized experts.
Buterin Outlines Broader Blockchain Priorities
Beyond his trading strategy, Buterin also shared his vision for the future of blockchain technology.
He emphasized the importance of decentralized social networks and more sophisticated DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) governance models that move beyond simple token-based voting.
Buterin noted that current DAO systems can penalize users for voting truthfully if they end up on the losing side. To address this, he proposed governance mechanisms inspired by prediction markets—such as futarchy—where market signals help guide long-term decision-making.
Market participants are closely watching how these innovations could shape Ethereum’s ecosystem and influence ETH’s price trajectory in the years ahead.
