Polymarket Accused of Using Fake Winning Bets to Fuel Viral Growth
Source: Yahoo! Finance, based on The Wall Street Journal.
BeIn Crypto
Polymarket Accused of Using Fake Winning Bets to Fuel Viral Growth
Lockridge Okoth
Sun, June 21, 2026 at 5:33 AM EDT 3 min read
Polymarket paid mostly college-age creators to stage fake winning bets on copycat versions of its website. A Wall Street Journal investigation found none of the roughly $1.9 million in bets shown across 1,105 videos were real. ... The findings run counter to the company's core pitch. Polymarket settles every real trade on a public blockchain that anyone can audit. Its growth campaign relied on the opposite, staged trades on fake sites that no ledger could verify.
How Polymarket's Alleged Fake Bets Worked
Real Polymarket trades run on the Polygon blockchain and settle in USDC. Markets resolve through UMA's permissionless oracle, where anyone can propose or dispute an outcome by posting a $750 bond. Every position is public. ... The marketing operation lived entirely off that ledger. The Journal reportedly reviewed 1,105 videos from 10 promoted creators between December and mid-May. Around 70% showed a bet, and none were genuine.
One video showed a creator winning $100,000 after Trump appeared to say the word McDonald's in January. Trump never said it publicly that month, and the clip was older.
Link to tweet
ref_urlhttps://beincrypto.com/polymarket-fake-bets-wsj-investigation/
On the real market, public data shows more than 50 accounts made that bet, and all lost. ...Many clips were filmed on dummy sites such as poiymarket.com, built to mirror the real platform. Across 118 videos, creators celebrated roughly $900,000 in fabricated wins. The same bets would have lost more than $166,000. ... Creators earned about $2,000 to $3,000 a month and were told not to disclose the payments. A hired marketing firm then pushed the clips past 140 million views. The pattern echoes an earlier market resolution dispute that dented user trust.
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Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/crypto/articles/polymarket-accused-using-fake-winning-093322795.html
The Federal Trade Commission will get right on this.
Hat tip, Joe.My.God.
https://www.joemygod.com/2026/06/polymarket-paid-creators-to-stage-fake-winning-bets/
Here's the source for the investigation. I do not have a subscription to The Wall Street Journal.
https://www.wsj.com/business/media/polymarket-social-media-bets-prediction-market-441cdeb5
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Exclusive Visual Investigation
They Looked Like They Were Getting Rich on Polymarket--but None of It Was Real
The prediction market has flooded social media with deceptive videos by paid creators, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation
By Katherine Long, Caitlin Ostroff, Neil Mehta and Brenna T. Smith Design & Graphics by Audrey Valbuena and Drew An-Pham
June 20, 2026 8:30 pm ET
In his videos, George Makihara appears to have a lucrative side hustle making bets on Polymarket.
In January, the college student posted a video that showed him winning $100,000 on a wager that President Trump would publicly say the word "McDonald's" that month.
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https://www.wsj.com/news/author/katherine-long
https://www.wsj.com/news/author/caitlin-ostroff
https://www.wsj.com/news/author/neil-mehta
https://www.wsj.com/news/author/brenna-t-smith
https://www.wsj.com/news/author/audrey-valbuena
https://www.wsj.com/news/author/drew-an-pham
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