A U.S. Army Special Forces soldier has pleaded not guilty to federal charges accusing him of using classified knowledge to profit on a prediction market, a case that is drawing fresh scrutiny to how insider information can be exploited in emerging betting platforms.

Gannon Ken Van Dyke, 38, entered his plea Tuesday in Manhattan federal court. Prosecutors say he used nonpublic details tied to a U.S. mission targeting Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro to guide bets on Polymarket, an online platform where users wager on real-world outcomes.

According to the charges, Van Dyke turned roughly $33,000 in wagers into more than $400,000 by betting on developments linked to Maduro’s removal from power. Investigators say his role in planning the operation gave him access to sensitive timelines and likely outcomes before they became public.

Case centers on classified information and betting

Federal prosecutors have brought multiple counts, including theft of government information, commodities fraud, wire fraud and unlawful financial transactions. They say the case will lean on a wide range of evidence, from cryptocurrency exchange records to social media activity and materials obtained through search warrants and subpoenas.

Authorities contend the bets were placed shortly before key developments in a covert operation carried out between late 2025 and early 2026, which ultimately led to Maduro’s capture. Van Dyke has been released on $250,000 bail with travel restrictions tied to his work and residence. A pretrial conference is set for June.

First major insider trading case in prediction markets

The case stands out because it is the first criminal prosecution centered on insider trading in prediction markets filed by the DOJ, marking a significant expansion of how U.S. authorities apply fraud and commodities laws.

These platforms, including Polymarket, allow users to trade on the likelihood of events, functioning in ways that can resemble financial markets but with looser historical oversight.

Platforms and regulators step up oversight

Polymarket itself prohibits trading based on nonpublic, market-moving information and says it monitors for suspicious activity. In this case, officials say the platform flagged the betting patterns and alerted authorities, highlighting growing industry efforts to police misuse.

At the same time, regulators are beginning to respond more aggressively. Legal experts say the case underscores that prediction markets are not exempt from insider trading rules and that existing laws can be applied to the misuse of confidential information in these environments.

Growing concerns about insider trading risks

Experts say insider trading in prediction markets works similarly to traditional financial markets: someone with advance knowledge of an event can place bets before the information becomes public, locking in profits once the outcome shifts market prices. The rapid growth and often pseudonymous nature of these platforms have made enforcement more challenging, raising concerns about potential loopholes and market integrity.

Van Dyke has not commented publicly beyond his plea. As the case moves forward, it is expected to test how existing fraud and securities-style laws apply to this fast-growing corner of online wagering.

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2025 saw a huge compression in the valuation of new tokens, with the steepest losses in infrastructure and gaming

The $2 trillion financial services firm has rolled out cryptocurrency trading capabilities on its E*Trade retail brokerage platform.

The tussle between the Trump family-linked World Liberty Financial (WLFI) and Justin Sun is getting worse with every passing day. On Monday, World Liberty Financial shared a post on its official handle on X (formerly known as Twitter), where the DeFi project revealed that it filed a defamation lawsuit against Justin Sun, founder of the TRON blockchain. 

In the thread, World Liberty Financial accused Justin Sun of launching a coordinated media smear campaign against World Liberty. Also, he allegedly ignored warnings when the DeFi project tried to confront him with the truth. 

What World Liberty Financial Says About Its Lawsuit Against Justin Sun

The legal action came to light on May 4, after Justin Sun’s earlier lawsuit against the project. WLFI charged some serious allegations against Justin Sun, who was one of the major investors of the project. WLFI stated that Justin Sun has intentionally spread false and misleading statements about their project to damage its reputation. By doing this, he allegedly wanted to scare away users and investors and gain financial benefit for himself. 

According to the official statement, this tussle started when Blue Anthem, an entity linked to Justin Sun, purchased a large number of WLFI tokens. “In Nov. 2024, Sun’s entity, Blue Anthem, purchased $WLFI tokens. Sun’s entities later engaged in prohibited transactions, including transfers of $WLFI tokens to Binance,” stated in the post. 

After some time, the entity linked to Justin Sun transferred some tokens in ways that violated the agreed-upon rules. In response to this matter, the project decided to freeze those tokens to protect the project and community. This decision was also shared in the signed and public documents. According to the project, this was the pain point where Justin Sun got disappointed. 

The project stated in the post on X, “Sun didn’t seek a good faith resolution. Instead, he launched a coordinated smear campaign. He called our governance a “scam,” claimed we installed “backdoors,” and accused us of treating the community as an ‘ATM.’”

Instead of resolving the matter privately, Justin Sun launched a public attack on social media. Using his large following on X and paying influencers and bots, he called the project a scam. He also accused WLFI of having a secret backdoor that freezes tokens unfairly, and claimed the team treated users like a personal ATM. 

WLFI argues that Sun knew that these statements were false or made them without caring about the truth, even though he had earlier praised the project publicly and said he was fully on board with it. 

The post stated that, “Sun’s claims are demonstrably false. The authorized freeze function Sun complains about was disclosed in our Terms of Sale and his own agreements. The governance process is transparent and community-driven. Yet he weaponized his platform to spread lies to more than 4 million followers.”

WLFI allegedly mentioned that Sun launched a campaign after they turned down his demands. They say that he even threatened, through his lawyers, to set World Liberty on fire with lawsuits if the project did not give in. His intention was to drop the token’s price to “to shit.”

In the lawsuit, World Liberty Financial is asking the court for money damages and a public apology. It means a correction and an apology is needed from Justin Sun. They called their filing legal as a last option to protect their token holders, team, and the entire community. 

What is Justin Sun Side’s Story?

In response to this counter lawsuit, Justin Sun shared a post on X, calling it a PR stunt. “As an investor, I have a clear conscience and look forward to prevailing in court,” he said. 

(Source: Justin Sun on X)

Justin Sun said that he put in tens of millions of dollars because he believed the project followed the rules of decentralization. 

According to Sun, the dispute started when WLFI secretly integrated dangerous features into the smart contract. Sun claimed that they installed a backdoor blacklisting function that was not properly disclosed to investors. This allowed the team or anonymous wallets to freeze his tokens without any good reason. 

According to Justin Sun, this freezing was not fair, and it was targeted. After some of his tokens became tradable, WLFI froze a large portion of his holdings. He stated that he was treated differently from other investors and that the freeze occurred after he refused pressure to invest even more money, specifically hundreds of millions, into the project’s stablecoin and other initiatives. 

He also slammed World Liberty Financial for using anonymous multisig wallets and a single guardian address that can freeze anyone’s tokens. He called this mechanism a dictatorship. 

“I have tried in good faith to resolve this situation with the World Liberty project team without resorting to litigation. But the project team has refused my requests to unfreeze my tokens and restore my rights as a token holder. They have left me with no choice but to turn to the courts,” he said.

WLFI Soars 10% After Hitting All-Time Low

On May 4, WLFI-3.68% token witnessed a spike of 10% on a daily chart following the project’s lawsuit against Justin Sun. This rebound in the cryptocurrency helps it to soar to around $0.06531 with an impressive market capitalization of around $2.07 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. This upward momentum in cryptocurrency comes amid bullish sentiment in the overall crypto market after Bitcoin broke above $80,000.

The surge in cryptocurrency comes after WLFI hit an all-time low on May 2, slipping below $0.05201 following Justin Sun’s lawsuit and regulatory challenges from Democrats. This uptick in the cryptocurrency market could provide temporary relief after the recent prolonged decline and this could also boost investor confidence.

Also Read: Ethereum Foundation Sells $47M ETH to BitMine Amid Staking Pullback

Pseudonymous crypto analyst Doctor Profit is predicting a steep Bitcoin (BTC) correction after the asset reclaimed the $82,000 level, warning that retail buyers flooding back into the market are walking into a trap.

In a lengthy post on X, they laid out a detailed short strategy targeting the $82,000-$85,000 zone, with a price target of $50,000 or below for the eventual downside move.

The Setup, According to Doctor Profit

Doctor Profit’s core argument is that the current bounce off the $71,000 low is not a new bull run. It is, in his words, “a beautiful trap, to tap as many retails as possible before the next downside move.”

He said the thesis has been in place since February, when he publicly predicted Bitcoin would recover to the $79,000-$85,000 range before rolling over, with the move playing out in May or June.

“Most people forget my words from February,” he wrote. “I gave the exact plan on what to do.”

He credits the same analytical framework he used to short Bitcoin at what he describes as the $115,000-$125,000 top in 2025.

On sentiment, he is blunt:

“I can see a lot of low IQ content on X, many altcoin calls, and accounts shouting for $100K or more right now. The fear is gone, retail has been piling back in since 76K at a very strong pace, and soon they will realize it was a big mistake.”

That retail re-entry, he argued, is exactly the fuel a distribution top requires.

What the Charts and Broader Market Are Saying

Not everyone shares the bearish read. Strategy co-founder Michael Saylor posted three words on X Sunday morning: No More Bears,” with Doctor Profit replying directly, telling Saylor he warned him to sell at $120,000, and was met with a laughing emoji.

“Now I’m telling you that the days for BTC above 80K are numbered,” he wrote. “You are lucky if we see 85K, and overall the crash will start from this region.”

Meanwhile, crypto analyst Ash Crypto noted on Sunday that Bitcoin had just closed its first weekly candle above $82,000 since January 26, with the weekly MACD printing a bullish crossover and the RSI climbing to 52, back in neutral-to-bullish territory.

He also drew a structural comparison to Google’s stock, which broke above its 2021 highs, retested the breakout zone, and then entered an expansion phase. According to him, Bitcoin may be following the same sequence, one cycle behind.

Another technical analyst, Ali Martinez, added that the breakout above the 200-day simple moving average near $82,500 will open room for gains towards $94,000, whereas failure to do so may lead to declines towards $75,000, where the 50-day SMA is located.

BTC hit $82,500 early Monday before pulling back below $81,000 after President Donald Trump publicly rejected Iran’s latest nuclear proposal as “totally unacceptable,” reintroducing geopolitical risk that had briefly faded from traders’ minds.

The post Is Bitcoin’s Rally Fake? Analyst Sees Massive Downside Ahead appeared first on CryptoPotato.

New York City’s gambling landscape shifted in a major way this week as a long-running slots venue in Queens officially transformed into the city’s first full casino with live table games.

The expanded Resorts World New York City, located near Aqueduct Racetrack and John F. Kennedy International Airport, opened Tuesday with a ceremonial dice roll and a newly built gaming floor featuring more than 200 live-dealer tables. Blackjack, craps, baccarat and roulette are now available alongside more than 2,500 slot machines already operating at the site.

The opening marks the first time traditional table games have been offered within New York City limits, a milestone for a market that had previously required gamblers to travel upstate or to neighboring states for that experience.

The Queens facility has operated for more than a decade as a “racino,” offering only slot-style video lottery terminals. Its transition to a full-scale casino follows the awarding of new downstate gaming licenses, positioning Resorts World as the first of three approved projects to begin operations. Other planned casino developments in Queens and the Bronx remain years away.

A bigger vision taking shape

Company officials say the launch is just the first phase of a much larger plan. The operator, Genting Americas East, has outlined a $5.5 billion expansion that would turn the site into a full resort destination. Plans include a hotel, additional gaming space, restaurants, a 7,000-seat entertainment venue and more than a dozen acres of public green space.

With our planned $5.5 billion expansion, this is only the beginning of something much bigger for Resorts World and for New York,” said Robert DeSalvio, president of Genting Americas East, according to the Associated Press.

NYC’s casino competition begins to take shape

The opening ceremony drew local officials and public figures, including rapper Nas, who joined executives in rolling the first dice to mark the launch.

The project arrives as New York pushes to expand legalized gambling in the downstate region. State regulators approved three casino licenses in late 2025, aiming to generate tax revenue and economic activity while bringing casino-style gaming closer to the city’s population.

For now, Resorts World has a significant head start. Competing proposals, including an $8.1 billion casino complex near Citi Field and a $4 billion development in the Bronx, are still in earlier stages and are not expected to open for several years.

Queens casino takes early lead in downstate rollout

That timing gives the Queens casino a unique window as the only full-service gaming venue in the nation’s largest city. Company leaders say more table games and slot machines will be added later this year as operations ramp up.

The debut marks a turning point for New York City, where full-scale casino gambling has long been debated but is now becoming a reality.

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