Geopolitics mixed · 0–6 months
A what‑if from the future

What if ransomware freezes the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp?

Ransomware freezing Rotterdam/Antwerp for ten days is a contained European logistics and modest goods-inflation event, correctly scaled small here - a cyber cousin of a port closure, not a financial-system shock. No clean analogue; closest is the 2017 NotPetya hit that crippled Maersk's terminals for weeks. Northwest Europe's hinterland (Germany, Benelux) is the exposed importer; the forward angle is cyber recovery is faster than physical salvage, so the ten-day backlog clears quicker than an Ever-Given-style grounding.

15%
our model probability
over 0–6 months
prediction markets — the market's odds
loading live odds…
Anchored to measured history 15% · 90% range 4–26% · 40 dated precedents behind it — a wider range means thinner evidence

Every number ships with its receipt — the odds, the range, the precedents, and a public grade at Reality Check. The statistical machinery that produces it is proprietary.

The butterfly cascade

How this trigger trickles across markets, left → right — the root shock, its first‑order moves, then the ripple effects. Drag any node; tap a market for its real price history.

Resolution timeline — how this probability is moving

Our model's odds (electric blue) over time vs the market's (Polymarket, amber), from the past toward the 0–6 months horizon. Each dot is a real macro event that nudged the probability — green pushed it up, red pushed it down. Tap a dot for the source. Loading the probability audit trail…

loading the timeline…

What it would mean

If this plays out, it is a mixed shock. Ransomware cripples Rotterdam and Antwerp terminal operating systems, freezing Europe's largest gateway for ten days. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — European energy ▲ · Inflation surprise ▲ — which propagate through our causal graph to the markets below.

Methodology. Probability and impact are anchored to history and scored against what actually happens — wins and losses, in public, at Reality Check. Market odds live from Polymarket & Kalshi. By Vikas Singh, Quantitative Strategist. Updated 2026-08-13.