Polymarket has launched an audit of third-party startups participating in its Builders Program after discovering that some were marketing tools designed to help users copy trades from accounts suspected of using nonpublic information, The Information reported on April 14, 2026. The prediction market platform, currently valued at roughly $20 billion, began reviewing the apps after the program’s own products became a vector for potential market abuse.
The Builders Program, launched in November 2025, invited outside developers to build on top of Polymarket’s infrastructure. Two startups at the center of the audit, Polycool and Kreo, offer apps that generate lists of traders with strong winning streaks, flag bets with unusual sizing or timing, and allow users to set up bots to automatically mirror those positions for a subscription fee. The Information reported that these apps drove hundreds of millions of dollars in additional trading volume on the platform.
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Polycool published what it called a “guide to Polymarket insider trading” on its website, arguing that decentralized prediction markets operate under different rules than traditional financial markets. Kreo markets its tool as helping users “find insiders before everyone else.” Both companies were operating openly within the program before the audit began.
The review comes after months of public scrutiny over insider trading on prediction markets. In March 2026, blockchain analytics firm Bubblemaps identified a Polymarket trader who had won 93% of dozens of bets on U.S. and Israeli military strikes against Iran, with several wagers placed hours before publicly unannounced operations. Polymarket introduced updated market integrity rules last month but faces the challenge of enforcing standards against tools it helped create.
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