Polymarket Seeks U.S. Return as CFTC Chair Weighs Ban Lift

Polymarket has asked the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to lift a four-year ban so its main on-chain exchange can reopen to American users. The request now rests with CFTC Chair Michael Selig, the agency’s only sitting commissioner.

If the chair approves the petition, U.S. traders would regain access to Polymarket’s primary platform for the first time since a 2022 enforcement action required the company to bar U.S. residents.

The 2022 enforcement targeted Polymarket’s parent company, Blockratize Inc., over an unregistered platform that allowed trading of contracts tied to real-world outcomes. The company paid a $1.4 million penalty, agreed to wind down those markets and barred U.S. residents from its main exchange. Polymarket’s primary venue settles trades in stablecoins on the Polygon blockchain.

After the enforcement action, Polymarket acquired a regulated exchange for $112 million and launched a separate U.S. product routed through brokerages. That domestic platform, marketed as Polymarket US, has operated in limited beta and focuses on sports contracts.

The petition is before Selig alone because four of five commission seats are vacant. Over the past year he has publicly defended the CFTC’s authority over event contracts, warned that state regulation could lead to litigation, issued staff guidance on event-contract compliance and opened a rulemaking notice to invite public comment on how the sector should be governed.

Industry analysts and lawyers say the request raises governance and legal questions. Dominick John, an analyst at Zeus Research, described concentration of authority at the agency as “a fragile precedent,” warning that a single vote could grant legitimacy to on-chain prediction markets without broad consensus and increase the chance of later reversals and legal uncertainty.

Julian Tuerling, product and research lead at xⁿ Research, noted that a USDC-collateralized exchange that settles on Polygon could become the first crypto-native venue operating under federal derivatives rules. He added that reopening to U.S. customers would likely bring deeper liquidity and easier retail access while requiring choices about preserving on-chain features or offering a more conventional user experience.

Yuriy Brisov, a partner at Digital & Analogue Partners, cautioned that lifting the 2022 ban would not be routine and could be revisited by a future commission. He said approval would remove the underused domestic product and eliminate VPN workarounds some Americans have used to reach on-chain venues.

Polymarket and the CFTC did not respond to requests for comment. The petition arrives amid ongoing disputes between state authorities and federal regulators over how prediction markets should be overseen. A decision by the chair would determine whether Polymarket’s main on-chain exchange can operate for U.S. users under current federal oversight.