Prediction markets have kicked into high gear this week as several major geopolitical and political storylines shift rapidly. Across Polymarket, PredictIt, and Metaculus, traders and forecasters are reacting in near real-time to developments around the U.S. presidential race, Russian internal dynamics, and economic outlooks in the second half of 2024. As of this morning, the top three markets by volume on Polymarket are the 2024 U.S. presidential winner, Biden’s odds of dropping out before November, and whether inflation in the U.S. will drop below three percent by September. On PredictIt, attention is split between Republican vice presidential nominee speculation and the tight Senate race in Montana. Meanwhile, Metaculus is seeing a surge in activity around probabilities related to AI regulation announcements before the end of quarter three.

The sharpest price movement in the last 48 hours came from Polymarket, where the market on Biden withdrawing from the race surged. His chance of bowing out jumped from 17 percent to 32 percent as of this morning. That movement followed reports of mounting pressure from Democratic lawmakers to consider an alternative nominee and rumors of a potential health-related announcement. That spike is particularly notable because it upends the quiet stability the market had maintained for several weeks, with Biden holding steady around the low 80s in probability to be the nominee. This change indicates a real perception shift, not just a flurry of rumor-based trades. Traders appear to be interpreting silence from Biden himself as uncertainty rather than confidence.

Another eye-catching shift occurred on Metaculus, where aggregated user forecasts now give a 42 percent chance that Russia will experience a leadership change before December. That figure was below 28 percent just two days ago. The adjustment came after a Belarusian intelligence leak pointed to significant domestic pressure mounting on the Kremlin from factions within the Russian military apparatus. That development has not yet been publicly confirmed, but it was enough to move opinions sharply among forecasters. For context, the same crowd forecast stood below 20 percent just two weeks ago.

A trend that is becoming more evident across platforms is the increasing momentum of AI-related markets, especially ones tied to regulatory or legislative steps. On Polymarket, a sleeper market about whether the U.S. Congress will pass a federal AI oversight bill before November suddenly doubled in volume overnight and now gives a 35 percent chance, up from 18 just last week. On Metaculus, a similar AI market regarding Federal Trade Commission actions moved five percent higher over the same period. This handful of shifts suggests that beyond tech companies and policymakers, retail traders are beginning to weigh AI regulation as a near-term political variable rather than a long-term issue.

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