Polymarket CMO Sent Millions via Personal PayPal to Pay Social Media Influencers
Transaction records reveal over $2.5 million sent from Matthew Modabber's personal account to more than 800 people as creators posted about the prediction market without disclosures.
At a glance
- What happened
- Polymarket CMO Matthew Modabber sent over $2.5 million from a personal PayPal account to over 800 recipients between January 2025 and February 2026.
- Why it matters
- At least 20 content creators published nearly 500 promotional posts for Polymarket without required sponsorship disclosures under FTC guidelines.
- Who is affected
- Polymarket, social media influencers, prediction market competitors, and online betting audiences.
- What's next
- No next step announced.
- Primary source
- yahoo.com: ‘Unbelievable how accurate’: How paid influencers hype Polymarket’s odds
Key points
- Polymarket CMO Matthew Modabber transferred over $2.5M to 800+ people via personal PayPal between January 2025 and February 2026 1.
- At least 20 paid influencers posted 490+ times promoting Polymarket on X without disclosing financial relationships 1.
- Polymarket defended creator collaborations as standard practices but did not address the use of personal PayPal accounts 1.
Matthew Modabber, the chief marketing officer of prediction market Polymarket, distributed over $2.5 million from a personal PayPal account to more than 800 recipients between January 2025 and February 2026, according to payment records reviewed by POLITICO 1.
An analysis of the transactions revealed that at least $350,000 went to social media content creators, including conservative influencer Alex LoRusso, progressive commentator Brian Krassenstein, and Fox News contributor Riley Gaines 1. Independent verification identified roughly two dozen creators who received funds from Modabber 1. At least 20 of these creators subsequently promoted Polymarket on social media, generating at least 490 posts on X without disclosing any paid partnership during the 14-month timeframe 1.
Undisclosed Campaigns and Regulatory Scrutiny
Federal Trade Commission guidelines mandate that social media creators disclose any material connection when endorsing products 1. None of the analyzed posts from the 14-month window included sponsorship disclosures, even though X's commercial policies require designations like "ad" or "sponsored" 1. Recipients included Nick Shirley, who received $3,100 from Modabber before featuring Polymarket branding in viral videos, and Shane Ginsberg of Street Poller, who received at least $77,000 while deploying street interviews to promote the platform 1.
A Polymarket spokesperson defended the influencer engagements as standard business practices, stating the firm routinely collaborates with independent creators across the political spectrum 1. The company declined to address why Modabber conducted corporate marketing payments through a personal PayPal registered to an unaffiliated salad business, or whether the outlays were reported to the IRS as business expenses 1. The revelations emerge as the platform seeks re-entry into the US market under the administration of President Donald Trump, who dropped two federal investigations into Polymarket in the summer of 2025 1.
Sources
- [1] ‘Unbelievable how accurate’: How paid influencers hype Polymarket’s odds — yahoo.com, October 23, 2026
Written by Basis Desk's newsroom system from the primary sources above and machine-verified against them before publication. Market figures marked "at the time of writing" come from live exchange data. Report an error: corrections@basisdesk.news · corrections policy.
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