President Donald Trump says he is directing federal agencies to declassify UFO files. For traders betting on aliens, that could mean a very earthly payday.
“Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs), and any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Thursday night.
Earlier on Thursday, Trump took aim at former President Barack Obama, accusing him of improperly discussing classified material when speaking about extraterrestrial life on a recent podcast.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that Obama “gave classified information” and wasn’t “supposed to be doing that,” adding that he could get him “out of trouble” by declassifying the relevant files.
Obama said in a tongue-in-cheek exchange with podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen last week that aliens are “real” and that they’re not “being kept” at Area 51. He later clarified in an Instagram post that there was no evidence during his presidency that aliens “have made contact with us.”
Aliens have always had a niche following. In prediction markets, aliens are tradable assets.
On the decentralized prediction platform Polymarket, guessing about aliens has become a high-volume betting category. Traders have poured millions of dollars into whether the US will confirm the existence of extraterrestrial life.
One of the platform’s largest markets asks whether the US will confirm that aliens exist before 2027. The market has drawn more than $4 million in trading volume as of Thursday.
Betting activity has also centered on whether a Trump administration would declassify UFO files before 2027, with odds climbing above 80% in December.
Polymarket users also placed bets on other extraterrestrial theories, including whether mysterious drones spotted over New Jersey were aliens.
If the files are released and contain anything definitive, longtime alien bettors may finally cash in.
Notable speculation about aliens and UFOs
In November 2024, unidentified drones were seen flying at night over New Jersey and other East Coast states.
The mysterious sightings unsettled residents and drew questions from local officials, fueling a wave of speculation about what — or who — was in the sky. Alien theories quickly gained traction.
At that time, Trump said the government “knows what is happening” but wasn’t sharing it.
“For some reason, they don’t want to comment. I think they’d be better off saying what it is. Our military knows, and our president knows, and for some reason, they want to keep people in suspense,” he said at Mar-a-Lago.
“Something strange is going on,” he added.
A Facebook group titled “New Jersey Mystery Drones — let’s solve it” has grown to more than 81,000 members as of writing. Users in the group continue to float the possibility of extraterrestrial involvement, alongside speculation about commercial or military craft.
