WSJ Says Polymarket Used Fake Betting Videos in Social Media Push
Summary
- A report said Polymarket used fake betting scenes and fabricated profit-verification videos in its social media promotion.
- The report said analysis showed that bets presented as totaling $1.9 million and profit examples totaling $900,000 were all fake transactions, and that the trades would have produced more than $166,000 in losses if they had been real.
- The report said the allegations surfaced as Polymarket seeks a return to the US market, an initial public offering (IPO) and an expansion of prediction markets tied to private-company valuations.
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Polymarket, the decentralized prediction-market platform, is facing allegations that it produced and distributed fake betting videos as part of a social media marketing campaign.
The Wall Street Journal, citing a June 21 report from The Block, said Polymarket paid dozens of content creators to make videos showing staged bets rather than real wagers, along with fabricated clips claiming trading profits.
The Journal said it analyzed 1,105 videos posted by 10 creators from December 2025 through mid-May 2026. About 70% included betting scenes, but all wagers shown as totaling $1.9 million were not actual trades.
In one example, a college student creator claimed to have made $100,000 by betting on whether US President Donald Trump would mention a specific word. But the footage used in the video had been filmed two months earlier, and actual users who took part in that market all lost money, the report said.
According to the report, Polymarket also created fake webpages resembling its real site. It used addresses that could easily be mistaken for the actual domain, and 118 videos featured fabricated profit claims totaling $900,000. Had those trades been real, they would instead have resulted in losses of more than $166,000, the Journal reported.
Creators were paid $2,000 to $3,000 a month and were asked not to disclose the sponsorship, the Journal said. It also reported that the marketing campaign primarily targeted US users. Polymarket has been barred from offering services in the US since its 2022 settlement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, though the platform remains accessible through tools such as VPNs.
Polymarket told the Journal that it is committed to running accurate, fair and transparent markets and plans to conduct a comprehensive audit of its promotional content.
The controversy comes as Polymarket seeks to reenter the US market, pursue an initial public offering and expand prediction markets tied to private-company valuations. Earlier in June, the company's chief marketing officer also faced allegations of paying influencers for promotion without disclosing the ads.
Suehyeon Lee
shlee@bloomingbit.ioI'm reporter Suehyeon Lee, your Web3 Moderator.
