Polymarket обвиняют в фейковых сделках
Polymarket, the crypto-based prediction market, is facing accusations that it paid influencers to stage fabricated trades and winnings as part of a nationwide marketing push. The practice, revealed in a Wall Street Journal investigation, could trigger fresh regulatory scrutiny.
The report found that none of the roughly $1.9 million in “wins” showcased across more than 1,000 videos were authentic. Instead, Polymarket allegedly paid mostly college-age creators to simulate bets on copycat websites designed to mimic its platform.
Audit pledged after revelations
On Tuesday, a Polymarket spokesperson said the company would conduct a “comprehensive audit of active promotional content to ensure it complies with our standards, as well as applicable regulatory and legal disclosure requirements.”
The revelations cut against Polymarket’s core pitch: that every trade is transparently settled on a public blockchain. While genuine trades are executed on the Polygon blockchain and resolved through UMA’s permissionless oracle, the marketing campaign relied on unverifiable wagers staged on fake sites.
Fairness, disclosure, and authenticity are some principles that prediction market participants expect from a platform like Polymarket. But because of the fake wins, not only did they mislead viewers, but they also distorted perceptions of profitability and possibly even lured new users under false pretenses.
Trust is central to mainstream adoption; without it, prediction markets risk being dismissed as gambling schemes rather than legitimate financial instruments.
Fabricated wins and misleading clips
The WSJ reviewed 1,105 videos from 10 creators between December and mid-May. Roughly 70 per cent depicted bets, none of which were genuine. In one clip, a creator claimed a $100,000 win after Donald Trump supposedly said “McDonald’s” in January. The footage was recycled from an older video, and public records show more than 50 real accounts lost money on that wager.
Moreover, across the 118 videos, creators were seen celebrating fake wins totalling about $900,000. Yet in reality, those bets would have lost more than $166,000. The report also sheds light on the fact that creators were allegedly paid $2,000-$3,000 per month and were told not to reveal their arrangements. In addition, a marketing firm was hired to amplify the clips to more than 140 million views, echoing earlier disputes over market resolutions that eroded user trust.
Our @WSJ investigation into Polymarket’s deceptive marketing campaign in print today.
— Caitlin Ostroff (@ceostroff) June 22, 2026
Full article here: https://t.co/ZuszmSLfFN pic.twitter.com/45OzWzQf2W
Regulatory history and offshore operations
Polymarket’s regulatory troubles are not new. In 2022, U.S. regulators fined the company $1.4 million for operating an unregistered market and ordered it to wind down hundreds of non-compliant contracts.
The firm later relocated to Panama, sharing office space with law firms tied to FTX, before securing a regulated U.S. market entry. Despite this, the fake campaigns specifically targeted American users who accessed the offshore site via VPNs.
This change highlights both the risks of past enforcement and the precedent-setting approval that now governs its U.S. operations. Furthermore, the downfall of FTX is a prime example of the erosion of user trust when transparency is no longer provided. Contrastingly, regulated platforms like Kalshi strive to meet compliance requirements and provide transparency, positioning themselves as safer alternatives.
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