Polymarket reportedly seeking CFTC approval to reopen main exchange to U.S. traders

If approved, the move would help Polymarket compete with Kalshi in the U.S., and bring more event-trading activity under CFTC regulatory oversight.

What to know:

• Polymarket is seeking CFTC approval to lift the ban on U.S. users from its main, overseas prediction market, a restriction stemming from a 2022 settlement.
• If approved, the move would help Polymarket compete with Kalshi in the U.S. and bring more event-trading activity under CFTC regulatory oversight.
• The CFTC must vote on the matter, a process simplified by four vacant seats. The talks also follow a high-profile insider trading case on the platform.

Polymarket is seeking approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to bring its main prediction market back to U.S. users.

The company has discussed lifting its ban on U.S.-based traders with CFTC officials in recent weeks, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the talks. The ban has been in place since Polymarket reached a 2022 settlement with the agency and moved its main exchange overseas.

The CFTC cleared a separate U.S.-only Polymarket platform last November after the company acquired a registered exchange. That site has yet to fully launch.

Prediction markets let users trade contracts tied to future events, such as elections, sports games or economic data. These markets have drawn increasing scrutiny from various states, which argue these function as unlicensed gambling operations.

The CFTC would need to vote before it could remove Polymarkt’s U.S. block. That process may be simpler now because four commission seats are vacant, leaving Chairman Michael Selig as the only sitting commissioner.

Selig has in the past defended that states do not have the ability to police prediction markets, whose authority falls under the CFTC’s purview.

The talks also come after authorities accused a soldier of using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to access Polymarket’s international exchange and make more than $400,000 from trades based on classified information.

Polymarket declined to comment.

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