Polymarket pauses international trading after third‑party security breach

Polymarket, a cryptocurrency‑based prediction market, stopped trading on its international platform on Thursday after detecting a security incident that involved a third‑party provider. The suspension lasted about one hour before operations resumed later that afternoon.

The company said the interruption was initiated "out of an abundance of caution" after it identified and remedied the vulnerability. In a post on X, Polymarket announced that it would fully reimburse any traders who were impacted by the breach and that it had referred the matter to a law‑enforcement agency in the United Kingdom.

Investigations linked the source of the incident to DebugBear, a UK‑based firm that supplies website performance‑monitoring tools. DebugBear’s own website was offline during the same period, and the company posted on X that it was "impacted by an ongoing security incident" and advised clients to remove the affected embed code from their sites.

Polymarket did not provide details on how many users were affected or the precise financial impact of the breach. The platform’s statement emphasized that anyone who suffered losses would be "made whole," but no specific reimbursement figures were disclosed.

The incident highlights the risks associated with integrating external services into cryptocurrency platforms. While Polymarket has restored trading and pledged compensation, the episode may prompt other firms to reassess their reliance on third‑party monitoring tools and to strengthen incident‑response protocols.