Users trying to jump into a possible airdrop from Polymarket have become more cunning — now it’s harder to deny them a reward. All this is happening amid reports that the project plans to launch its own token after returning to the US market — most likely in 2026.
Back last year, expecting a token launch right after the US elections, many farmers started actively buying and selling large positions just to inflate volumes. They hoped to get into the top ranks and receive more tokens during the distribution, which is usually aimed at the most active participants.
This scheme quickly became annoying: regular users complained that the entire activity feed was clogged with fake deals. One of the largest Polymarket players under the nickname Fhantom Bets even promised to personally report such ‘farmers’.
Now both Fhantom Bets and the well-known Polymarket user with the nickname CSP Trading say that farmers seem to have gotten ‘smarter’ — the previous scheme has almost disappeared.
‘Before, everything was obvious. They were pumping in $50,000, making deals with themselves — the classic volume-boosting scheme. Now I don’t see this anymore in the sports markets where I act as a market maker. I think either they’ve gotten smarter or just given up,’ says CSP Trading.
Fhantom Bets agrees that aggressive farming, like last year, has really decreased. But he is sure that people are still doing it. It used to be easy to spot farmers. They would run the same shares between two accounts.
Now, he assumes, they’re doing the same thing, just through hundreds of different wallets so the stats can’t be easily tracked. Fhantom himself is now working on a project to help detect such schemes.
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One anonymous trader nicknamed Shady admitted that he also farms the airdrop — but does so without any volume manipulation. Instead, he outlined four criteria that he believes will be considered in the distribution: trading volume, profit, liquidity provision, and the number of markets the user participates in.
‘I think the distribution will be tiered or on a logarithmic scale — after all, the lion’s share of volume and liquidity is created by a very small circle of users. There are guys and bots who spin eight-figure volumes every month, while the average user probably doesn’t even reach six. If you distribute the reward linearly by volume, the entire airdrop will go to the top,’ explains Shady.
As a result, Shady simply uses the platform as efficiently as possible to fit possible criteria and not miss the chance for a solid reward.
CSP Trading says he doesn’t mind if such a user actually gets a reward in the airdrop. But Fhantom Betsjokingly adds: he’d prefer that only he and his friends could earn.
Meanwhile, Myriad users estimate the probability that the Polymarket token will be announced this year at less than 15%. Just a week ago, the odds were higher — 16.4%. According to sources, even if the announcement happens this year, the full token launch will still be postponed until 2026 — the platform is still focused on returning to the US market, from which it was de facto pushed out in 2022.
