Bipartisan senators demand CFTC investigate Polymarket over fake bets report
Senators John Curtis and Adam Schiff sent a bipartisan letter to CFTC Chair Michael Selig on Thursday demanding the agency investigate Polymarket over reports of fake bets in creator marketing videos. The senators raised concerns about the CFTC's enforcement capabilities and whether content creators are misleading consumers about prediction market products. The letter follows a Wall Street Journal report that some Polymarket promoters placed simulated or fake trades in promotional videos. Separately, Bloomberg and others reported that the CFTC is already conducting an extensive new investigation into Polymarket, which comes after the commission and the Department of Justice dropped previous inquiries into the platform in July 2025.
The CFTC is already conducting an extensive investigation into Polymarket, according to reports published Friday.
Polymarket must now fend off a live CFTC investigation and fresh Senate scrutiny simultaneously, with any market-integrity finding putting its exchange designation at direct risk. The bipartisan pressure also signals Congress may force tighter marketing rules on all CFTC-registered prediction market platforms.
This is the fifth concurrent action this week bringing federal pressure to bear on Polymarket, following the CFTC's own newly opened investigation and parallel lawsuits against Minnesota, Kentucky, and New Mexico.