Polymarket has reportedly fired its marketing chief, also a close friend of the CEO
- Polymarket fired its chief marketing officer, Matthew Modabber, after an internal investigation into several incidents, including an alleged scheme involving fake trades, The New York Post reported.
- The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating claims that Modabber’s team created a webpage featuring videos of users profiting from fake trades, though no wrongdoing has been proved.
- Polymarket’s board reportedly concluded that Modabber was hindering efforts to improve the prediction market’s image as it considers a potential initial public offering.
Leading decentralized betting platform Polymarket has fired its chief marketing officer, Matthew Modabber, who is also a close friend of the company’s CEO Shayne Coplan, according to the New York Post.
The termination happened after an internal probe into several embarrassing episodes, including a reported scheme built on fake trades, that worried investors, the Post said, citing unnamed sources. Per one source, the firm is finalizing a separation agreement. Modabber had been chief marketing officer since January 2024.
CoinDesk has reached out to Polymarket for comment.
Polymarket is a prediction market, a platform where users bet on the outcome of real-world events, from elections and sports to the weather and the Oscars. It runs on crypto and blockchain technology.
The platform gained notoriety in the run-up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election, when its odds were widely quoted. Coplan, 28, became the country’s youngest billionaire as a result, according to the Post.
One of Modabber’s alleged misconduct was reported by The Wall Street Journal in June. The report said his team built a fake webpage to highlight videos of Polymarket users making money on fake trades.