Polymarket built its credibility on fake winning bets and paid influencers who never said a word

The Wall Street Journal revealed this week that Polymarket paid more than 800 creators over $2.5 million to post staged winning-bet videos, with instructions to hide the paid relationship. The campaign ran while the platform was pitching itself to institutional investors including the NYSE's parent company, ICE, which put $1.6 billion into the company. It's the clearest sign yet that crypto-native platforms adopt the look of compliance without internalizing what it requires.