Polymarket is back in the regulatory crosshairs, and this time the scrutiny goes well beyond its usual territory.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is conducting a broad investigation into the blockchain-based prediction market platform, covering staged trades and fabricated winning bets, Bloomberg reported on June 26. CNBC separately confirmed the expanded scope of the probe on the same day. The investigation follows a Wall Street Journal exposé published June 23 that revealed Polymarket had contracted content creators, many of them college students, to produce misleading videos of staged trades on sites designed to mimic the platform.
From influencer scheme to federal investigation
This isn’t Polymarket’s first brush with the CFTC. The platform settled with the agency back in 2022, paying a $1.4 million penalty for offering unregistered event-based binary options.
The WSJ report detailed a coordinated effort in which Polymarket allegedly hired creators to film videos showing themselves placing trades and celebrating wins on what appeared to be the platform. The videos were designed to look organic, the kind of content that might go viral on TikTok or Instagram and draw new users into the ecosystem.
