Senators demand CFTC investigate Polymarket over fake bets report
Bipartisan senators are pressing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to investigate Polymarket over allegations that the platform paid creators to stage fake winning bets in promotional videos. Sens. John Curtis and Adam Schiff urged the probe following a Wall Street Journal report that found some content creators placed simulated or fake trades, with one source claiming 70% of over 1,100 promotional events were staged. The senators' letter, sent June 29, questioned the CFTC's enforcement capabilities and raised concerns that influencers routinely portray prediction markets in ways that mislead consumers. Separately, the CFTC is already conducting an extensive investigation into Polymarket, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. That probe follows the CFTC and Department of Justice dropping previous inquiries into the platform in July 2025. The senators' intervention signals escalating congressional scrutiny of how prediction market platforms market through social media and influencer channels.
Polymarket must now answer to the CFTC on two tracks — an agency probe and a congressionally demanded investigation — while the staged-bet finding is fresh. Any determination that the tactic was systemic rather than isolated puts its CFTC exchange designation at direct risk.
Two separate CFTC probes of Polymarket are now running in parallel — one agency-initiated, one lawmaker-demanded — while Kalshi joins it in defending against state crackdowns in Minnesota and Kentucky, sharpening the regulatory pressure on every CFTC-registered prediction market platform.