The Curious Case of Zelensky’s Suit, PolyMarket, UMA and the New Politics of Truth

The Curious Case of Zelensky’s Suit, PolyMarket, UMA and the New Politics of Truth

In this episode we untangle how a single photograph of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s black jacket became a $150-million flash-point on Polymarket, the largest crypto prediction exchange.

The platform’s “optimistic oracle,” UMA, stalled three times on the question of whether Zelenskyy had “worn a suit before July,” then looked ready to rule No, even as mainstream outlets ran headlines calling the outfit a suit.

We explain how UMA’s four-code voting system works, why one wallet with 1.3 million UMA tokens could swing a verdict, and how similar whale manoeuvres upended a $7 million Ukraine-minerals wager in March and forced Polymarket to over-ride its own oracle in last year’s Barron-Trump meme-coin dispute.

The episode also charts Polymarket’s meteoric rise, from billions in 2024-election volume to a 2025 funding round that puts the company’s valuation above $1 billion, and asks what happens to “truth on-chain” when the incentives, the rules, and the money all point in different directions.


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00:00 Opening – The Jacket That Launched a $150M Bet

02:15 Act 1: The Bet – A Gold Badge and a Sure Thing

12:30 Act 2: The Oracle – Why UMA Keeps Saying “Too Early”

25:00 Act 3: Precedent Problems – Whales, Flips, and Overrides

35:40 Act 4: Retail Risk – How Clear Rules Could Fix It

43:00 Credits & How to Support the Show


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