CFTC Probes Whether Polymarket Violated 2022 Settlement by Allowing US Users

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating whether Polymarket, the prediction market operator, violated a 2022 enforcement settlement in which the company promised to ban US users from its offshore platform, according to two people familiar with the matter. The probe is a revival of an earlier inquiry that the agency closed last year without bringing charges.

The CFTC is examining Polymarket's controls for determining customer locations and its advertising activities in the United States, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential enforcement matters. One person said the scrutiny is focused specifically on Polymarket's past controls and processes for keeping US users off the platform.

The agency is also reviewing Polymarket's US-facing platform, which the company began rolling out late last year, including its customer onboarding processes and consumer protections. Polymarket is headquartered in New York and operates an offshore entity registered in Panama. The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, and other outlets first reported in June that the CFTC had broadly opened an investigation into Polymarket, but Reuters is the first to report the settlement-violation and advertising elements of the probe. Polymarket has said it has extensive controls to prevent restricted users from accessing its offshore platform.