Is Polymarket legal in the US? The block, the buyback, and what's actually available

By Melvin Tercan, Octagon Research Editor

Trading on the main Polymarket platform is geo-blocked for US users — a restriction from its 2022 CFTC settlement — while viewing prices is unrestricted. But "is Polymarket legal in the US" now has a second answer: in 2025 Polymarket acquired a CFTC-licensed US exchange and won regulatory relief, putting a compliant US product in motion. In the meantime, the regulated way for Americans to trade event contracts is Kalshi.

The three layers of the answer

• Looking is legal. Polymarket's prices are public information — journalists, researchers, and traders cite them freely, and no restriction touches reading them.
• Trading on the offshore platform from the US is blocked. The 2022 settlement ended unregistered US-facing markets; access from US IPs is geo-blocked, and circumventing that with a VPN violates the terms you trade under, with the risk landing on you.
• Polymarket US is a separate, regulated product — present tense. The 2025 acquisition of a CFTC-designated contract market plus staff no-action relief gave Polymarket a licensed US chassis, and a distinct Polymarket US product has been rolling out to US users through 2026. Which markets and users it covers is jurisdiction-specific and changing — Polymarket's own help center is the authoritative source on what the main site versus the US product currently offers.

Why this isn't a fraud story

The 2022 action was about registration: event-based binary options must trade on a designated exchange, and Polymarket wasn't one. The same product is perfectly legal on a licensed venue — which is why Polymarket's fix was to buy a license, and why Kalshi, which took the designation route from the start, has always been open to Americans. The regulatory distinction between the two platforms — and what it means for custody, settlement, and recourse — is the heart of our regulation and legal structure comparison.

State by state, and the moving parts

Federal designation doesn't end the story: states contest specific contract categories — sports above all — and availability varies by state on regulated venues too. The live map, covering both platforms and the categories in dispute, is maintained in who can legally use Polymarket and Kalshi by geography.

What US users typically do instead

Trade the same events on Kalshi, and read Polymarket as a second opinion. When both venues price the same event, the divergence between them is signal — a liquidity artifact or a genuine disagreement, either worth knowing about. Octagon's research covers both venues and surfaces exactly those gaps, alongside a model probability for every active market, at octagonai.co/markets.

Frequently asked questions

Can I legally use Polymarket in the United States?

The main Polymarket platform geo-blocks US users from trading, a restriction dating to its 2022 CFTC settlement. Viewing prices is unrestricted. The picture is changing: Polymarket acquired a CFTC-licensed US exchange in 2025 and received regulatory no-action relief, laying the groundwork for a compliant US product — so what's available to US residents depends on which Polymarket you mean, and it's evolving.

What happens if I use Polymarket with a VPN from the US?

It violates Polymarket's terms of service and the access restrictions arising from its CFTC settlement. Consequences fall on the user side: account restriction and difficulty proving ownership of funds if flagged. Beyond the personal risk calculus, positions held that way sit outside any US regulatory protection.

Why was Polymarket blocked in the US in the first place?

In 2022 the CFTC found Polymarket had offered off-exchange event-based binary options without registration, resulting in a settlement, a penalty, and the wind-down of US-facing markets. It's a registration issue, not a fraud finding — the same activity is legal on a designated exchange, which is exactly the path Polymarket later bought its way into.

What changed in 2025–2026?

Two things: Polymarket acquired QCEX, a CFTC-designated contract market and clearinghouse, in mid-2025 — buying a license rather than applying for one — and received CFTC staff no-action relief later that year. That put a compliant US re-entry in motion, developing through 2026.

What's the legal way to trade event contracts in the US today?

Kalshi — a CFTC-regulated designated contract market open to US residents with KYC'd, dollar-funded accounts. Brokerages have also begun offering event contracts through regulated intermediaries. For most US users, the practical answer is a regulated venue rather than a VPN.