Polymarket CEO Announces CFTC ‘Green Light’ for US Operations Launch

2025/09/04 02:50

Polymarket has received CFTC clearance to operate in the United States through a no-action letter covering event contracts.

The regulatory relief caps a remarkable year of strategic moves that positioned the $2.6 billion platform for rapid U.S. expansion, including a $112 million acquisition, high-profile board appointments, and massive institutional backing.

“Polymarket has been given the green light to go live in the USA by the @CFTC,” CEO Shayne Coplan wrote on X, crediting the Commission for “impressive work” completed in “record timing.”

The breakthrough allows the prediction market platform to offer compliant contracts to U.S. users for the first time since 2022, when it was forced to block American access following regulatory enforcement.

CFTC Provides Narrow but Key Relief

The CFTC’s Division of Market Oversight and Division of Clearing and Risk issued the no-action position specifically for QCX LLC, a designated contract market, and QC Clearing LLC, a derivatives clearing organization that Polymarket acquired earlier this year.

Under the relief, neither entity nor its participants will face enforcement action for failing to comply with certain swap-related recordkeeping requirements or for not reporting binary options and variable-payout contract transactions to swap data repositories.

While the no-action letter applies only in narrow circumstances and mirrors similar relief granted to other designated contract markets, it provides Polymarket with the regulatory framework needed to offer compliant prediction contracts to U.S. users.

The breakthrough shields participants from enforcement related to reporting and recordkeeping requirements specifically tied to event contracts and binary options, giving Polymarket the regulatory cover needed to scale in the U.S. market.

Strategic Year of Positioning Pays Off

The regulatory clearance caps a considerable series of strategic moves that positioned Polymarket to capitalize quickly once regulators indicated an opening.

In July, Polymarket’s strategic $112 million acquisition of Florida-based derivatives exchange QCEX secured the regulated infrastructure necessary for U.S. operations.

That same month, the Department of Justice and CFTC closed their investigations into Polymarket without pursuing further action, clearing the platform’s earlier compliance case and paving the way for a relaunch.

Earlier in June, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund led a $200 million funding round that valued the company at $1 billion, confirming institutional confidence in the platform’s prospects.

Most recently, Donald Trump Jr. joined Polymarket’s advisory board in August, as his venture capital firm, 1789 Capital, invested tens of millions of dollars, further expanding the platform’s U.S. political reach.

The platform has maintained explosive growth despite being officially closed to U.S. users since a 2022 CFTC settlement, processing over $6 billion in bets during the first half of 2025 alone.

Beyond the U.S. market, Polymarket has secured high-profile partnerships, including a collaboration with Elon Musk’s X platform to integrate prediction markets with AI-powered analysis from the xAI chatbot Grok.

Rival platform Kalshi recently won a court victory against the CFTC over political betting contracts. This win suggests that regulatory appetite for prediction markets is improving.

However, the no-action letter represents case-by-case relief rather than blanket approval for prediction market operations. There are still some questions about the durability of this regulatory opening.

Polymarket still faces restrictions in several international markets, including France, Belgium, Thailand, and Singapore, where authorities have cited gambling law violations.

The platform has also confronted allegations of market manipulation, though none have resulted in formal charges, and continues to operate under scrutiny from multiple regulatory bodies worldwide.

For now, the CFTC’s decision provides Polymarket with a key foothold in the world’s largest financial market, which could potentially influence other countries’ decisions on crypto-based prediction platforms.

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