Zelensky's suit caused a scandal on the Polymarket crypto forecast exchange

Crypto prediction exchange Polymarket has come under fire for a controversial bet on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s appearance during his visit to the NATO summit in late June. The dispute is over whether the head of state’s attire was considered a classic suit. The bet was worth more than $210 million in cryptocurrency, Wired reports.

The bet with the query "Will Zelensky wear a suit by July?" appeared on the platform back on May 22. The conditions stipulated that the result would be "yes" if Zelensky was captured wearing a suit in a photo or video confirmed by "reliable sources." Zelensky did indeed appear in formal attire at the NATO summit in June, but a debate erupted over whether his attire could be considered a suit.

Despite the initial record of the result as "yes", users who bet on "no" massively appealed the decision. The case was referred to UMA, a decentralized dispute resolution system that bills itself as a "truth machine". However, the community questioned the objectivity of the system, noting that large UMA players may have a conflict of interest by placing bets on Polymarket in parallel with voting on the dispute.

A final decision on the suit bet is expected to be made soon. Currently, most participants believe that the result will be recognized as "no", that is, it is not a classic suit. Regardless of the final result, the incident has dealt a significant blow to Polymarket's reputation as a platform that seeks to act as the "arbiter of truth."