Polymarket Trading Paused After Vendor Security Breach

Polymarket, a leading prediction market platform, temporarily halted trading on its international platform for about an hour on Thursday. This pause occurred due to a security issue involving an external software vendor. Reports emerged in Polymarket’s official Discord channel, an online chat forum, around 1:30 p.m. that some user wallets were compromised.

Amid growing concerns, Polymarket reassured affected users, stating they would be fully compensated for any loss incurred. Polymarket, which allows wagers on events ranging from political elections to video game releases, transitioned into a ‘cancel-only’ mode around 2 p.m. This change permitted users to cancel transactions but blocked new trade orders.

The compromised vendor, DebugBear, provides performance and debugging services, and is located in the United Kingdom. A source familiar with the situation, preferring anonymity, indicated this as the root cause of the issue. Polymarket contacted UK authorities to report the incident.

DebugBear has not replied to requests for comment but acknowledged the ongoing security issue on social media. They advised users with their web-monitoring tools to remove them from their sites.