Polymarket, one of the world’s most popular prediction market exchanges, has released a new security update that bans ghost trade accounts. According to a public post uploaded to the Binance News Square account, “Polymarket has identified and banned multiple clusters of ‘ghost trade’ accounts that were created before the recharge wallet system went live.”
Ghost trade accounts have become more prevalent with the popularity of prediction market services. They can create fake trades that haven’t been settled on-chain. They can also create transactions that result in market manipulation through distortion of volume.
Legitimate human users can be misled by the activity of ghost trade accounts, and correspondingly be priced-out of a particular market. The elimination of Polymarket’s “rogue accounts” is part of a larger security update package that will be released this week, according to Binance News.
Although Polymarket received formal approval from the CFTC to re-launch in the United States late last year, its iOS app has yet to be fully rolled out. Traders located within the US are currently on a waitlist to use the forecasting services.
Moreover, Polymarket is still seeking CFTC approval to open its main exchange to domestic US customers. It acquired QCEX in July 2025, but must await a separate green light from the federal agency to roll out its USDC product throughout the country. The exchange, once and if it becomes available in the US, would heavily rely on election and sports-related event contracts – putting it in direct competition with Kalshi.
On April 24th, federal authorities arrested Gannon Ken Van Dyke, a US Army special forces soldier accused of using Polymarket to profit over $400,000 through his knowledge of insider information. The DOJ claims that Van Dyke used a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to log-on multiple times to Polymarket’s international exchange in 2025, leading up to US military operations in Venezuela – that Van Dyke allegedly participated in.
The fallout from the arrest has resulted in numerous legislative proposals on both the state and federal level. Most recently, Pennsylvania state lawmakers Tarik Khan (D-194th) and Jeremy Shaffer (R-26th) are proposing a bipartisan bill that takes aim at insider trading on prediction market exchanges.
“We can’t have rigged systems,” stated Khan in a May 2026 interview with FOX 43 Harrisburg. The state congressman added that individuals trading on insider information are “causing people who are busting their ass trying to build a living for them and their family – and they’re losing money to people who have insider information – that’s not right.”
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