The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is conducting a broad investigation into Polymarket that reportedly covers staged trades and fabricated winning bets, Bloomberg reported Friday, extending federal scrutiny beyond the platform's previously reported influencer scheme.
CNBC also reported Friday that the CFTC has an ongoing investigation into the platform. Bloomberg said the probe includes Polymarket's social media activity, citing a person familiar with the matter. Together, the reports add a market-conduct dimension to what began as an advertising-disclosure inquiry. The CFTC has not issued any public filing or press release confirming the investigation or its scope.
The reporting follows a letter sent Thursday by Senators Adam Schiff (D-CA) and John Curtis (R-UT) to CFTC Chairman Michael Selig, asking whether the agency was examining Polymarket's use of simulated trading websites, staged transactions, and undisclosed paid influencer campaigns. The senators set a July 10 deadline for a written response.
As The Defiant previously reported, the bipartisan letter cited a Wall Street Journal investigation that found Polymarket paid mostly college-aged creators between $2,000 and $3,000 a month to film fake trades on dummy websites built to mimic the live platform. The campaign covered more than 1,100 videos posted between December 2025 and mid-May 2026, per WSJ. Creators were instructed not to disclose their compensation, the senators' letter said.
