Polymarket Investigates Dozens of Midterm Election Bets; Two Cases Submitted to CFTC

ChainCatcher report: According to NPR, the prediction market platform Polymarket has launched investigations into dozens of bets related to the U.S. midterm election on November 3, focusing on potential insider trading and market manipulation. Sources familiar with the matter said at least two cases have been referred to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Shana Bautista, Polymarket’s Global Intelligence and Investigations Lead, stated that the company has assembled a 16-person team and deployed a new election trading monitoring system that generates hundreds of risk alerts daily. The system monitors both U.S.-compliant platforms requiring identity verification and international platforms permitting anonymous cryptocurrency transactions. It analyzes social media data, Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, cryptocurrency transaction logs, bank partner information, and statistical models to identify anomalous accounts and trading patterns.