Paris airport hairdryer "fiddles" with the temperature, manipulates Polymarket weather prediction markets, profits $34k

Golden Finance reports that, according to market sources: The Paris airport hairdryer “altered” the temperature, manipulating the Polymarket weather prediction market and profiting $34k. It is reported that the Polymarket Paris temperature prediction market relies on a single unattended sensor near the runway at the French Meteorological Agency’s Charles de Gaulle Airport for settlement. A trader bought the obscure contract “22°C” at a very low price (the market generally expects 18°C), then used a portable heating device to blow heat close to the sensor, causing the temperature reading to spike briefly and be recorded as the day’s highest temperature.
The temperature reading quickly returned to normal, but the market had already settled based on the tampered data. The individual profited twice using this method on April 6 and April 15. The French Meteorological Agency has discovered the incident and filed a lawsuit.