🧐In an 80-page paper titled “Network-Based Detection of Wash-Trading,” Columbia University researchers uncovered evidence suggesting that the rapid growth of the prediction market @Polymarket may be significantly inflated by artificial trading activity. The research, which has not yet undergone peer review, identified extensive wash-trading on Polymarket: Starting in July 2024, wash trades accounted for nearly 60% of the platform’s total trading volume that month. This activity persisted through late April 2025 before subsiding substantially. The researchers noted it once again increased to about 20 percent of volume in early October 2025. Over the past three years, the researchers determined that 25% of Polymarket’s total trading volume was attributable to this artificial trading. The study concludes that Polymarket, a platform experiencing rapid growth, is rife with what the Columbia researchers term "artificial trading."