Hackers drain millions from Polymarket accounts

The company identified and fixed an issue impacting its international platform and temporarily halted trading. In an X post, a Polymarket-related account stated that the breach occurred after one of its 3rd party providers was compromised.

Several media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, reported that the third-party provider was DebugBear, a UK-based performance-monitoring platform. DebugBear advised clients using its RUM product to remove the embed code from their website.

According to Business Today, citing blockchain analytics firm Bubblemaps, as many as 700 Polymarket accounts were affected. Users reported unauthorized withdrawals and sudden balance liquidations.

The breach only affected Polymarket’s flagship platform. Polymarket US, which operates independently as a federally regulated financial exchange, was spared.

Previous incidents and regulatory scrutiny

Polymarket suffered another breach as recently as June, with hackers getting their hands on more than $2 million. The company promised to reimburse all affected users.

In recent years, Polymarket and its major rival, Kalshi, have been at the center of multiple scandals. These involve insider trading by American officials and military personnel, with several US states also accusing them of sidestepping gambling laws.

Last week, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth issued a directive specifically warning service members against using classified material to bet on prediction markets.

Earlier this year, US Army Green Beret Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke was arrested and charged with illegally profiting from advance knowledge of a US operation to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Prosecutors alleged he placed more than $32,500 in Polymarket bets, mostly on January 2, hours before the attack on Caracas. He allegedly raked in $400,000 by betting on Maduro’s removal from power.

Newly created Polymarket accounts also placed suspiciously timed bets shortly before US President Donald Trump announced an April US-Iran ceasefire, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits. The White House subsequently warned staff against trading on confidential information.

In late August, Trump’s long-time teleprompter operator, Gabriel Perez, was ordered to pay $65,000 to settle a case related to his unlawful prediction-market trading about the president’s speeches. The White House aide was also required to give up $107,000 in ill-gotten profits from his wagers on Kalshi.