According to POLITICO, Polymarket's Chief Marketing Officer transferred over $2.5 million to over 800 people via personal PayPal accounts within 14 months, with at least $350,000 paid to influencers who promoted the cryptocurrency market on X but did not disclose the payment.
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Key Takeaways
- Key points:
- According to POLITICO, Polymarket's Chief Marketing Officer Matthew Modabber transferred over $2.5 million to more than 800 people via personal PayPal in just 14 months.
- According to POLITICO, at least 20 hired creators posted over 490 posts about Polymarket on the X platform, but none disclosed any related information.
- Polymarket spent $112 million to acquire an exchange with a CFTC license to push its return to the U.S. market.
Transferred $2.5 million via personal PayPal account
According to an investigation published by POLITICO on Friday, Polymarket Chief Marketing Officer Matthew Modabber transferred over $2.5 million through his personal PayPal account to over 800 people between January 2025 and February 2026. At least $350,000 of that flowed to social media creators promoting the marketplace on the X platform. The report revealed that about twenty of them posted nearly 490 times, but did not disclose the fact that they received payment.
For example,
The beneficiaries spanned all camps of the political spectrum, including figures like Nick Shirley, Riley Gaines, and Brian Klasenstein. About one-third of the posts package the regular changes in Polymarket's betting odds as "breaking" or "latest" updates. According to reports, the email address registered by this account is related to a salad shop co-founded by Modabber. An anonymous creator interviewed by POLITICO said that Polymarket not only provided the script but also specified the exact time the post would be published. "They actually told us, 'This order must be sent out immediately,' as if we were livestock," the person said. According to POLITICO, Shane Ginsberg, who received at least $77,000, runs a street interview video project called "Street Poller," whose interviewers sometimes promote the platform without naming names.
These payments stand in stark contrast to Polymarket's public image. Last August, a user on X posted that the platform's brand recognition was "impossible to fak," and Modaber later reposted the post with the caption: "Impossible to forge." " The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requires influencers to disclose their substantial connections to the brands they promote. A former FTC official told POLITICO that paid promotions must be clearly and conspicuously disclosed.
When POLITICO interviewed Polymarket about this article, the company's spokesperson described working with influencers as standard business practice but declined to comment on the company's disclosure policy or Modabber's use of personal accounts. The report does not accuse these payments of being illegal in themselves, and as of press time, no regulatory agency has announced any action.
These disclosures come at a sensitive time. Polymarket has returned to the forefront of the booming prediction market alongside competitor Kalshi—even though just a few days ago the company had accused Kalshi of commercial espionage—while the company is striving for regulatory approval, and undisclosed paid promotions could complicate the process. Previously, the company was scrutinized for paying American influencers during the 2024 election, when sponsored posts tagged with hashtags like #PMPartner were widely circulated. This time, POLITICO's records show that funds quietly flowed through an executive's personal account, and the content creator packaged it as news report.