Platform review
Polymarket review
Largest on-chain prediction market by volume
In United States: The international polymarket.com site is closed to US residents: no deposits and no trades. The help centre lists the US as blocked and the API docs list it as close-only. US residents are sent to the separate Polymarket US app, run by QCX LLC (a CFTC DCM). Polymarket US state-level eligibility was not verified because its ToS page loads its text client-side.
Our verdict
The deepest order book in the category, and the venue to beat on price if you can use it. Contracts settle on-chain in USDC, both sides are quoted independently so the spread is visible rather than buried, and the headline markets are genuinely two-sided. Two things temper that.
Its own help centre lists 39 countries as completely restricted and names the United States among them, which is more restrictive than much of the coverage written about it. And the published fee schedule now charges takers, so the old "no trading fees" framing is out of date.
Getting in needs no identity document by its own account, though that is an absence of a stated requirement rather than a promise. Best for someone outside the restricted list who wants tight pricing on a well-known question and reads the depth beside the quote.
Risk flags
- HighNo licence stated. The operator’s documents name no regulator or licence, so disputes and frozen funds are settled by its own process. Every platform’s licence →
- NoteRestricted for US residents. The record marks US access as restricted — the availability section says how. Platforms open in the US →
Flags are rules over the facts on record, the same for every platform — how they work.
Verified documents & product scope
Check country eligibility
Choose the country you want to check. This lookup does not change your site region or establish individual account approval.
Where is Polymarket available?
Country and subnational restrictions apply. Close-only access allows existing positions to be closed but does not allow new ones. Polymarket US is a separate product; eligibility there does not establish access to polymarket.com.
What fees does Polymarket charge?
Taker fee = shares × category rate × price × (1 − price). For 100 crypto shares at $0.50 with rate 0.07, the fee is $1.75 on a $50 purchase: 3.5% of purchase cost, not 1.75%. Rounding and any rebates must be considered separately.
These are document checks, not a funded-account test. Access may depend on residence, physical location, account approval and the contract category. Check the operator’s current terms before depositing.
Learn how play-money and real-money markets differ, use the fee and payout tools, or read our review methodology.
See our Platform documentation audit for the method and downloadable source register.
- Geographic restrictions — checked
The documentation distinguishes complete blocks, close-only access and frontend-only restrictions. This record concerns polymarket.com, not Polymarket US.
- Trading fees — checked
Taker fees depend on price, quantity and category. The dollar charge and the percentage of trade cost have different denominators; maker fees are zero.
- CFTC press release 8478-22 — order against Blockratize, Inc. d/b/a Polymarket — checked
On 3 January 2022 the CFTC settled charges against "Delaware-registered Blockratize, Inc. d/b/a Polymarket" for offering off-exchange event-based binary options without designation as a DCM or registration as a SEF: a $1.4 million civil monetary penalty, a wind-down of non-compliant markets on Polymarket.com, and a cease-and-desist order.
Pros and cons
What works
- Deepest liquidity in the category on major markets
- Fastest listing of new events
- No maker trading fees under the published schedule
- Public API with full order book access
What doesn’t
- Requires a wallet and USDC — no fiat rails
- International product has country restrictions; Polymarket US is separate
- Thin depth on long-tail markets
- Network fees apply to deposits and withdrawals
Public website & interface
Dated website captures for identification and interface context. Displayed prices are historical; these images do not establish account eligibility or a funded-account test.
Polymarket public website, captured 16 September 2026 · Source website · View full image
Prices and liquidity
We do not currently publish live quotes for Polymarket. Check the platform’s order book before placing an order: the last trade can differ from the price available for your position size.
How to assess liquidity and spreads →How Polymarket works
Polymarket is an order-book exchange for binary event contracts settled on-chain in USDC. You buy shares in a YES or NO outcome at a price between 1¢ and 99¢, and that price is the market’s implied probability: a contract trading at 42¢ is the market saying roughly 42%. A correct share settles at $1, a wrong one at nothing.
Because it is an order book rather than an automated market maker, both sides are quoted independently and the two asks do not have to sum to a dollar. The gap between them is the spread, and it is your real cost on every trade — there is no separate commission line to look at instead.
Getting an account needs no identity document. Polymarket’s own sign-up guidance offers three routes in — a Google account, an email address plus a six-digit code, or a self-hosted crypto wallet such as MetaMask, Rabby or Phantom — and mentions no verification step anywhere. That is an absence of a stated requirement rather than a promise that none exists, and it is not the same thing as “no KYC”: a check can fire later, at withdrawal or above a threshold.
Markets and liquidity
The headline markets carry the tightest spreads in this category, and on the contracts we track the books are genuinely two-sided rather than nominally so. When we sampled the Fed and Israeli election markets on 8 September 2026, six of eight carried live prices on both sides; the other two reported no book at all, which is the normal condition for a long-tail contract rather than a fault.
Depth thins fast away from the headline questions. A market can show a plausible price and have almost nothing behind it, so an order large enough to matter will move the price against you. Read the size beside the quote, not only the quote.
Our own live board withholds any Polymarket price older than a few minutes rather than showing a stale one, which is worth knowing when comparing our figure against the venue’s: if we show nothing, it means we would rather print nothing than a number that has stopped being true.
Fees and costs
Polymarket charges taker fees on selected market categories. Makers pay no trading fee under its published schedule. Read the current parameters for the specific market before placing an order.
The spread, trading fee and any funding or intermediary charges all affect the cost of a position. A displayed probability alone does not show the price available for your order size.
Market resolution
Resolution is the part of a prediction market that decides whether the price meant anything, and it is where the differences between venues are sharpest. Polymarket publishes resolution criteria per market, and those criteria — not the market’s title — are what the contract settles on. Two markets with almost identical titles on two venues can settle differently, which is exactly why this site will not put a Polymarket price beside another venue’s until an editor has confirmed both sets of criteria describe the same event.
Where a market cites an external source, that source becomes the arbiter. Its Fed markets, for example, name a specific federalreserve.gov release; a reader who disagrees with a settlement is really disagreeing with that document.
Where you can and cannot use it
The geographic policy distinguishes complete blocks, close-only access and frontend restrictions. Close-only permission is not permission to open new positions. Rules can apply to a province or region as well as a whole country.
This review concerns polymarket.com. Polymarket US is a separate product. Use the dated country findings and official sources above; an unlisted country is not automatically verified as eligible.
In the news
Polymarket in the news
Official platform and regulator headlines from the last 60 days that mention Polymarket. Each opens the original publication; when one changes a fact on this page, we update the review.
Dates belong to the original publications. These links do not imply endorsement or verified trading eligibility.
Polymarket guides
- Polymarket not opening or not working? The usual causes
Most of the time Polymarket is not down: it is blocking your location, you are on the wrong Polymarket for where you are, or a VPN or browser setting is breaking it. How to tell which, and what Polymarket itself tells you to do.
- The Polymarket leaderboard: what it shows and how to read it
Polymarket ranks its traders by profit or volume over a day, a week, a month or all time. The figures are public, the same data is available free through its API, and the ranking has limits worth knowing before you copy anyone on it.
- The Polymarket API: market data, trading and Polymarket US
Polymarket’s market data is free to read with no API key; trading through its API needs credentials derived from your wallet and is blocked from restricted countries, including the US. US traders use a separate Polymarket US API. What each part does and how to start.
- Polymarket stock: can you buy shares in Polymarket?
No. Polymarket is a private company: it has no ticker and its shares trade on no exchange. Here is who owns it, what its filings show, and what the “shares” and the token on Polymarket actually are.
- Is Polymarket legal in the US? Polymarket vs Polymarket US
Two exchanges carry the Polymarket name. Polymarket US is a CFTC-designated exchange open to US residents; polymarket.com, the international one, blocks them. Here is what each is, and where states have pushed back.
- How does Polymarket make money? Fees, rebates and investors
Polymarket earns from taker fees on most of its markets, keeps what is left after paying part of them back to market makers and active traders, and charges separately on Polymarket US and on perpetuals. It does not bet against its users — and it does not publish its revenue.
- Can you bet on war? What prediction markets may list on world events
Not on a US-regulated exchange: federal rules bar contracts on war, terrorism and assassination, so Kalshi and PredictIt list diplomacy and foreign elections instead. The international Polymarket, which the CFTC does not regulate, lists hundreds of war markets — and the rules may be about to change.
- Are prediction markets legal in the US?
Yes, under federal law, on exchanges the CFTC has designated — Kalshi, Polymarket US, Novig, ProphetX and others. But states are fighting sports contracts in court, and orders in Nevada, Washington and Michigan already block some. Offshore sites such as polymarket.com exclude US residents altogether.
Polymarket FAQ
- Is Polymarket available in my country?
Availability varies and the badge at the top of this page reflects what we have verified for your region. Where we have not verified a market, we say so rather than guessing.
- Is Polymarket legit?
It is a real exchange with an order book that settles on-chain in USDC, but how far you can rely on it depends on which Polymarket you mean. The international polymarket.com names no regulator or licence in its documents and is closed to US residents.
In January 2022 the CFTC fined its operator, Blockratize, Inc. d/b/a Polymarket, $1.4 million for offering event contracts without being a designated contract market, and ordered it to wind down non-compliant markets. In the US, Polymarket US is run by QCX LLC, a CFTC-designated contract market since 9 July 2025.
- What does a price of 62¢ mean?
It means the market is pricing that outcome at roughly a 62% chance. A winning share settles at $1, so buying at 62¢ pays 38¢ of profit if you are right.
- What fees does Polymarket charge?
Taker fee = shares × category rate × price × (1 − price). For 100 crypto shares at $0.50 with rate 0.07, the fee is $1.75 on a $50 purchase: 3.5% of purchase cost, not 1.75%. Rounding and any rebates must be considered separately.
- Is Polymarket regulated?
Two distinct things carry the Polymarket name and this record describes the offshore one. The CFTC’s own Designated Contract Market register lists “QCX LLC d/b/a Polymarket US — Designated — 07/09/2025”, with the register’s own remark that “QCX LLC is now operating under the assumed name of Polymarket US” (cftc.gov DCM register, read 31 July 2026). That designation is held by that US entity.
The book reached at polymarket.com — the venue this record covers — holds no licence or registration we can name, and Polymarket’s own documentation places the United States on its close-only list: “United States (US)” appears among the “Regulatory-Restricted Jurisdictions” whose users “may close their existing positions but cannot open new ones” (docs.polymarket.com/api-reference/geoblock, read 31 July 2026), and the help centre lists the United States among its blocked countries (help.polymarket.com “Geographic Restrictions”, read 31 July 2026).
Neither source differentiates between US states, and neither names a single one, so no state-scoped rule is entered. UNRESOLVED: the operator entity and jurisdiction of incorporation behind polymarket.com, and whether a US resident’s route onto Polymarket US is the same product a reader of this page thinks they are getting.
- What is the minimum deposit on Polymarket?
$2, as stated in Polymarket’s published terms. This is the documented figure, not one we have confirmed with a funded account.
- Does Polymarket have a mobile app?
Yes. Polymarket has apps for iOS and Android.
- Does Polymarket have an API?
Yes. Polymarket documents a public API for market data and trading.
- What can you trade on Polymarket?
Event contracts on politics, sports, crypto, economics, entertainment, science and other events. Individual markets open and close, so check the live list before depositing.
Alternatives to Polymarket
Chosen by similarity — the same kind of venue, overlapping markets, and whether you can use it where you are — then by Editor Score.
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Head-to-head: Kalshi vs Polymarket · Polymarket vs Crypto.com Prediction Markets · Polymarket vs Manifold Markets · Polymarket vs Polymarket US · Polymarket vs Predict.fun · Polymarket vs PredictIt