A Wall Street Journal investigation says prediction-market platform Polymarket ran a covert marketing operation that paid young influencers to make trading profits look real. According to the report, the company created cloned versions of its system so creators could simulate trades with no financial risk, then present the results to large audiences as genuine wins.
The investigation says dozens of college-age students and young adults were recruited and paid thousands of dollars a month. They filmed themselves supposedly placing large bets, including $100,000 trades on remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump and on Federal Reserve interest-rate decisions. The videos were portrayed as authentic trading clips, but were actually generated through a separate simulation system.
Polymarket also allegedly used subcontractors to run a wider social-media commenting network. Their job was to spread the videos, post comments that appeared organic, and remove any obvious branding from their accounts, creating the impression that ordinary users were independently making money on the platform. The campaign was estimated to have generated more than 140 million views.
The report comes as Polymarket faces rising competition from Kalshi, which operates under U.S. regulation and, according to the article, recently recorded twice Polymarket’s trading volume. That pressure is heightened because Polymarket has been barred from the U.S. market since a 2022 settlement with regulators, even though the campaign was aimed at American users who could allegedly bypass geo-blocks with VPNs. TikTok and YouTube began restricting or removing accounts linked to the network after the report, citing failures to disclose paid content and attempts to mislead users. Polymarket said it is committed to fair, orderly markets and will conduct a broad internal review of its promotional content and influencers.
