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Polymarket Faces Probe After Payment Processor Flagged $10M in Stolen‑Card Deposit Attempts

The disclosure shows weaknesses in onboarding and withdrawal controls at Polymarket’s CFTC‑regulated US platform and has led to leadership changes and an internal investigation.

Overview

  • A payment processor told Polymarket in February that thousands of deposits were made with stolen debit cards and at one point classified more than 80% of the deposits it handled as fraudulent.
  • Reporting describes roughly $10 million in attempted flows onto Polymarket US but notes that the figure refers to attempts rather than confirmed completed losses because many transactions were rejected by the processor.
  • Journalistic accounts say Polymarket relaxed a rule that required withdrawals to return to the original payment source and that this, combined with weak identity checks, opened a route for fraudsters to try to cash out.
  • A separate late‑July account‑creation flaw affected about 500 US customers and Polymarket said it would cover losses for those users while multiple executives have left and the company launched an internal probe.
  • The events raise fresh regulatory and reputational risk for Polymarket’s US QCX dollar product and could spill over to its international blockchain offering as regulators weigh whether existing controls meet CFTC obligations.