Polymarket CMO routed $2.5M via personal PayPal for…

A Politico investigation has found that Polymarket's chief marketing officer, Matthew Modabber, sent more than $2.5 million to over 800 recipients through a personal PayPal account between January 2025 and February 2026. At least $350,000 of that total went to content creators, with 20 influencers posting about Polymarket more than 490 times on X without clear sponsorship disclosures.

Why it matters

Routing marketing payments through a personal account rather than corporate channels raises immediate questions about disclosure compliance, tax reporting, and internal financial controls. The FTC requires influencers to clearly label paid promotions, and the absence of disclosures across nearly 500 posts is a material compliance exposure — not a minor oversight. For a prediction market already operating in a legally sensitive space, the reputational and regulatory risk compounds quickly.

Market impact

Polymarket acknowledged that influencer partnerships are standard business practice but declined to address questions about the personal-account payments, disclosure policies, or tax obligations — a non-answer that typically signals ongoing legal review. Platforms in the prediction and derivatives space are already under heightened regulatory scrutiny; this investigation adds another vector of exposure and could accelerate regulatory attention on Polymarket's marketing practices specifically.