Polymarket Degens Distastefully Bet on California Wildfires, Create Memecoins on Pump.fun
While California residents are franticly seeking refuge from the raging fires sweeping across Los Angeles, crypto degens on Polymarket and Pump.fun are betting on the latest "trend" - the Palisades wildfires.
At least five people have been killed and more than 17,000 acres of land destroyed in what is being described as the most destructive fire ever in LA county.
But this hasn't stopped degens from wanting to make a buck or two.
Featuring as a top trending category on Polymarket's homepage, "Wildfire" now features 19 betting pools.
"How many acres will Palisades wildfire burn by Friday?" is the most popular pool, garnering over $166,000 in bets. 77% have placed their money on 20-25K acres.
Other bets include the date that the fires will be contained, whether the fires will reach Hollywood, and if Gavin Newsom will still be Governor afterwards. Some are even betting on whether arsonists will be arrested in connection with the fires, with 79% betting on yes.
Meanwhile, over on Solana memecoin generator website Pump.fun, a slew of wildfire-themed memecoins have been generated.
At the time of writing, 50 memecoins are live under the buzzword "wildfire." The strongest memecoin with a market cap of $9.6K is titled "California On Fire (WILDFIRE)." A slightly more distasteful memecoin is titled "hollywoodfire (Burntpedos)" with the caption "Burn it all."
Those familiar with Pump.fun will already know that the platform has been shrouded in controversy.
In November, the platform's live-stream service was plagued with pornography, animal abuse, child abuse, suicide threats, and other illicit activities.
Before long Pump.fun acknowledged the growing concerns about harmful and disturbing content on its platform and outlined steps to address the issue. The platform emphasized its commitment to ensuring user safety and stated that live streams will remain paused until a more robust moderation infrastructure is in place
Polymarket hasn't been shy of controversy either. Just this week, Polymarket was found to have been blocked in Singapore as part of an intensified crackdown on unlicensed gambling platforms. The Singapore Police Force, the agency in charge of blocking illegal websites, declined to comment on the matter when contacted by Blockhead.
When users attempt to access the site from Singapore, they are greeted with a stark warning citing Section 20 of the Gambling Control Act 2022, which imposes steep penalties for gambling with unlicensed operators.
In 2022, Polymarket settled with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) after being accused of operating an unregistered derivatives-trading platform. The settlement included a $1.4 million fine and a cease-and-desist order, prompting the platform to block U.S. customers.