Argentinian authorities have ordered a full national blockade of Polymarket after it predicted inflation data.
An Authoritarian Crypto Ban?Buenos Aires Lottery Regulators (Lotería de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires and the Cámara Argentina de Casinos y Bingos) argue that Polymarket is operating as an unlicensed online gambling platform, not just a neutral “prediction market”. This led to a case being brought by the City’s Special Prosecutor’s Office for Gambling (FEJA) and presided over by Judge Susana Parada.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office explained that despite the blocking order having already been issued, the implementation depends on ENACOM notifying all ISP’s so the companies can cut off access. Therefore, the full and final implementation will most likely be gradual.
A “Degen Casino” That Played With The Country’s InflationPolymarket presents itself as a prediction market, but in practice it’s a way to bet on almost anything that emerged during the pandemic and gained popularity during the election campaign between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, when the tycoon began promoting these markets because they gave him better results than the polls: 55.5% were literally betting on him.
A Global TrendIt its worth noting that prediction markets had become a popular way for global crypto traders to price political risk, inflation paths and macro events in real time, often anticipating official data. In line with this, this is not the first clash between Polymarket’s and regulatory entities. Besides Colombia, other earlier blocks or investigations have been registered in France, Taiwan and Singapore, in addition to the US regulatory pressure over unregistered derivatives and gambling concerns.
Argentina’s move reinforces a growing trend of regulators increasingly treating crypto prediction platforms as gambling first and market infrastructure second, which could fragment liquidity and push activity into friendlier jurisdictions or darker venues.
Cover image from Perplexity, BTCUSD chart from Tradingview
