The best-performing gambler on Polymarket is a pseudonymous account that made $12mn trading on sports events under the name “swisstony”, FT analysis of blockchain data has revealed. Using data since April 2026, the FT has analysed 170mn bets made by 1.2mn retail accounts on the gambling site to identify the accounts that made the most money over that time. The analysis reveals a mixture of strategies among these highest-profit wallets.
Some lucked out on a few big swings, often risking more than $1mn in a single wager, while two of the top 10, including swisstony, pursued high-volume strategies that appear to be algorithmically determined. The swisstony account took 184,000 positions on the betting market in the period in 113,112 different markets. For a period starting in June, the account bet at least once an hour for 26 straight days.
One of the other top 10 accounts, joseph00677, was a more traditional sports gambler, placing a small number of large, successful bets on European international football, Champions League and the English Premier League. The account dropped from ninth to 10th place in the ranking this weekend after a heavy loss from backing Chelsea to beat Tottenham Hotspur. The other leading accounts, however, were all accounts betting very large sums — often more than $1mn on a single event — on a few matches during the men’s football World Cup.
Wagers of this size would be difficult to place with traditional betting companies, which often impose deposit and stake limits. Some gamblers in jurisdictions with tighter gambling laws might also struggle to find legitimate local bookmakers. Polymarket, which allows most users to trade without passing know-your-customer processes and by connecting an anonymous cryptocurrency wallet, offers a new outlet for these high-stakes gamblers.
Polymarket said it monitored large positions, especially “in markets where the risk of manipulation is higher”. The company added that although it did not perform ID checks, it screened for sanctioned cryptocurrency wallets and surveilled its markets alongside partners, including Chainalysis. The second highest-performing account, mintblade,successfully backed Saudi Arabia to hold off Uruguay in the World Cup and New Zealand to survive against Iran.
The third-biggest winner was a similar type of user with the handle fishalive. The account took two positions — both on Spain’s World Cup match against Cabo Verde. They bet $440,000 that Spain would not beat the tiny archipelago, a position that had implied odds of just 9 per cent and would net them $4.7mn in profit.
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