Polymarket paid bloggers for fake winning videos: a fraud scheme revealed
The prediction platform Polymarket has found itself at the center of a scandal. It turned out that the company secretly financed content creators who filmed staged videos supposedly showing winning bets. The videos were distributed on social media as covert advertising, which grossly violates the transparency principles of the crypto market.
My analysis shows that the scale of the scheme is impressive. Dozens of creators were involved, receiving between $2,000 and $3,000 per month. In exchange for this money, bloggers agreed not to disclose the fact of their collaboration. For filming, lookalike websites were used—exact copies of the Polymarket interface displaying non-existent trades.
Special attention should be paid to student George Makihara. In January, he published a video in which he supposedly won $100,000 on a bet that Donald Trump would publicly say the word "McDonald’s." In reality, it was a complete setup. From January to mid-May, Makihara showcased 145 bets worth nearly $410,000 in his videos—none of which were real.
The marketing agency hired by Polymarket promoted these videos on social media. The result is impressive: 1,105 videos from 10 sponsored creators, published from December to mid-May, garnered over 140 million views. This is a massive reach that created a false impression of the platform's popularity and reliability.
After the details of the scheme became public, many creators deleted their videos. Polymarket also shut down the lookalike websites used to record the staged materials. However, the damage to its reputation has already been done.
This is not the first warning sign for the platform. Earlier, analysts at Bubblemaps discovered 80 bets on Polymarket regarding U.S. military action against Iran with suspicious accuracy, hinting at possible manipulation or insider information.
My expert opinion: This scandal undermines trust in the entire prediction market sector. If platforms are willing to pay for fake videos to attract users, how much can their data and forecasts be trusted? Investors and traders should be extremely cautious—in the world of cryptocurrencies, transparency remains a luxury, not a standard.