Daily Crypto Market Digest: Polymarket Under Fire, Secret Network Hacked for $4.7 Million, and Japanese Pension Fund Enters Crypto
The digital asset market started the day on June 22 in a sideways movement. Bitcoin (BTC) is fluctuating near the $63,889 mark, setting a 24-hour low of $63,221 and a high of $64,712. Ethereum (ETH) is also consolidating, trading around $1,731.
Among the top 10 by market cap, Tron shows the best daily performance (+0.51%), while Solana leads the weekly gains (+3.49%). The largest 24-hour drop was recorded by Hyperliquid (-5.97%), and over seven days, Dogecoin (-6.64%) saw the biggest decline. In the top 100, Aerodrome Finance stands out with explosive weekly growth (+34.93%), while Audiera experienced a sharp drop (-68.18%) over the same period.
Polymarket accused of fabricating bets to attract users
Prediction market platform Polymarket has found itself at the center of a new scandal. An investigation revealed that the company paid dozens of bloggers to film fake bets and winnings on counterfeit copies of its website. Of the 1,105 videos reviewed, none of the bets shown, totaling approximately $1.9 million, were real. In one video, a student demonstrated a "win" of $100,000, even though that bet was actually lost by over 50 users.
Bloggers were paid between $2,000 and $3,000 per month on the condition that they did not disclose the collaboration. Notably, Polymarket has been banned from operating with users in the US since 2022, although the marketing campaign was specifically targeting Americans. This is the second scandal in a month: earlier, it was revealed that the marketing director paid for non-native advertising through a personal PayPal account. Polymarket has promised to audit its promotional content.
Major Secret Network bridge hack: infinite minting vulnerability
The Secret Network bridge was exploited for $4.67 million through a vulnerability in a smart contract. The attacker used a contract that did not verify the source of incoming transfers and created unbacked wrapped tokens: saUSDT, saUSDC, saWETH, saWBTC, and others.
The attack occurred on June 10 but was only discovered a week later—after a transaction failed due to insufficient funds in a depleted account. The stolen assets were converted to ether and distributed across approximately 30 wallets, then withdrawn to exchanges. This hack is one of the largest in a series of June attacks, the number of which has exceeded 22.
Japanese pension fund allocates 1% to cryptocurrency
The National Corporate Pension Fund from Okayama (Japan), serving about 1,200 small and medium-sized enterprises, plans to allocate approximately 1% of its assets to purchase cryptocurrency in the 2026 fiscal year. With assets of around 21.3 billion yen ($130 million), the fund will invest in a passive fund managed by a major hedge fund that already holds several crypto assets. This move is seen as part of a diversification strategy: currently, 80% of the fund's assets are denominated in yen and 15% in dollars.
Expert commentary from Cryptalist: The decision by the Japanese pension fund is a significant signal for institutional investors across Asia. Even a modest 1% allocation from such structures opens the door for billions in liquidity inflows. However, the Polymarket scandal reminds us that the industry still suffers from opaque marketing practices, which could undermine regulatory trust in the prediction market sector.