Polymarket Wednesday said it has begun restoring access to its platform for American users, marking its first steps back into the United States after nearly four years of regulatory absence.
The company confirmed that its U.S. app is now being activated in stages for people on its waitlist, starting with sports markets and expanding into broader event categories as permissions are finalized.
What Happened
In a series of posts on X, Polymarket framed the relaunch as the start of its long-planned domestic return, telling users that invitations will continue to be issued gradually and that an Android version will follow once the iOS rollout is underway.
The platform’s re-entry is the result of a lengthy regulatory overhaul that began when the Commodity Futures Trading Commission charged the company in 2021 with running unregistered event-based options markets.
Polymarket ultimately settled with the agency in early 2022, paying a $1.4 million penalty and shutting out U.S. participants while restructuring its business.
A major turning point arrived on November 25 this year, when the CFTC approved a revised order for one of Polymarket’s affiliated entities, granting it the ability to operate as a regulated exchange that intermediates access for U.S. users.
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Why It Matters
Although the approval does not yet authorize unrestricted event trading across all contract types, it provides the regulatory foundation for the company to begin reopening its services within federal derivatives rules.
Polymarket has since begun reactivating its U.S. website in a controlled beta, giving waitlisted users limited early access while the remaining compliance steps are completed. The firm says sports-related markets will serve as the initial product set before expanding to additional categories once regulators sign off.
The move places Polymarket back into an increasingly competitive environment for supervised prediction markets in the U.S., where platforms such as Kalshi have seen rising interest among traders seeking regulated exposure to event contracts.
By securing CFTC oversight, Polymarket now joins a short list of operators permitted to run these markets within a formal regulatory framework.