Polymarket audits startups potentially helping users copy insider trading: report

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Polymarket, the prediction platform startup seeking a roughly $20 billion valuation, has launched an audit of app startups that promise to help users track the activity of successful traders who could be guilty of insider trading, The Information reported Tuesday.

"Polymarket was already under pressure to curb insider trading when it launched a program late last year to support startups that sent trades to its prediction market," the outlet reported. "Those companies quickly began handing suspected insider trading accounts to their own customers, letting them copy those trades ... Now Polymarket has launched an audit of those startups."

The startups being audited build what are called "copy-trading apps." These apps help users track the activity of successful traders who might be privy to nonpublic information.

Both Polymarket and its chief rival, Kalshi, have faced scrutiny over insider trading. Last month, Polymarket introduced clearer rules around insider trading and enforcement.

Polymarket didn't immediately respond for comment.

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'Guide' to insider trading

The Information reported that one startup supported by Polymarket's developers program, Polycool, offers a "guide to Polymarket insider trading" on its website.

"This isn't the stock market, where using nonpublic information will land you in jail," Polycool says on its site. "The rules for decentralized prediction markets are a completely different game."

Another startup, Kreo, offers to help users "find insiders before the rest."

These apps participated in a Builders Program that Polymarket launched last November. The outside developers create apps built on top of Polymarket's technology.

"These copy-trading apps give their customers lists of Polymarket traders with good winning streaks, or flag unusually large or oddly timed bets that may be based on confidential information," said The Information. "Customers can use bots to copy the trades or can receive notifications of seemingly well-placed trades. The apps charge a fee to use their services."

The copy-trading apps have helped boost trading volume on Polymarket by hundreds of millions of dollars.