Reuters: Unidentified Man Made Billion-dollar Bets On Oil Ahead Of Trump's Statements

• 8.05.2026, 13:55

The trader could have made hundreds of millions of dollars.

An unidentified short-seller was betting on falling oil prices totaling $7 billion just before U.S. President Donald Trump's statements on Iran.

This was reported by Reuters.

Experts have documented unusual and concentrated amounts of "short" bets on Brent, WTI, diesel and gasoline futures on the ICE and CME exchanges. The discovered amount of $7 billion is significantly higher than the $2.6 billion already under investigation by the US Department of Justice.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has previously said it is monitoring the suspicious trades, but has not officially confirmed the investigation.

Episodes of suspicious trading

The investigation highlighted several key moments when massive asset sales occurred minutes before political announcements:

March 23: 15 minutes before Trump's announcement to delay strikes on Iran, 20,000 lots of Brent and WTI were sold for 1.35 billion, 122 million in diesel and 81 million in gasoline. Prices fell 15% after the announcement.

April 7: $2.12 billion in sales took place before the announcement of the two-week ceasefire. Brent fell to 15%.

April 17: minutes before the Iranian Foreign Ministry's statement on the Strait of Hormuz, $2 billion worth of assets were put on the market.

April 21: an $830 million bid was made 15 minutes before Trump extended the cease-fire.

According to analysts, such transactions could have generated hundreds of millions of dollars in profits. Who exactly was behind these bets has yet to be identified.