Iran duties and Maduro, the ‘lucky’ market operations before Trump’s moves

The latest case dates back to March 23, 2026, writes the WSJ. Monday morning Trump announced on Truth Social that he would postpone the attacks to Iranian power plants thanks to “productive” talks with Tehran. About 15 minutes before the post, a sudden influx of activity hit the oil futures market and in the span of two minutes from 6:49 to 6:51 a.m. (Eastern time), Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude futures worth more than $760 million were tradedaccording to market data from Dow Jones. A similar wave of activity occurred in S&P 500 futures at the same time.

According to detractors, someone knew the tycoon’s move in advance and was profiting illegally from it, although there is no evidence of leaks or insider trading . “Who did it? Trump? A member of his family? A member of the White House staff? This is corruption. Stunning corruption,” dem senator Chris Murphy attacked on X. “All federal employees are subject to government ethics guidelines that prohibit the use of non-public information for financial gain. However, any suggestion that administration officials engaged in such activities without evidence is unfounded and constitutes irresponsible reporting,” a White House spokeswoman clarified.

But it is not the first time that similar incidents have occurred. On February 28, 2026, shortly after the attack in Iran, the blockchain analysis company Bubblemaps identified a group of alleged insiders who earned $1.2 million by betting on an attack through Polymarket, a cryptocurrency-based prediction market. Not only that, an hour before capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro by the US military, a mysterious trader has placed his latest bet, for a total of around $34,000 in winnings on bets started in December on events linked to Venezuela. And again last October 10, irritated by Chinese restrictions on rare earths, Trump threatened an additional 100% tariff against Beijing.

Shortly before, two accounts bet large sums on the Hyperliquid crypto platform with a profit of $160 million. On April 9th, just beforeannouncement of a 90-day halt to US duties A wave of options trading activity linked to the SPY exchange-traded fund has begun in dozens of countries. The trades involved short-term bullish call options that would only profit if the index closed sharply higher that afternoon. “Crazy, someone knew,” tweeted Unusual Whales, a whistleblower of sorts for potential insider trading activity.