CFTC Renews Probe Into Polymarket’s U.S. Access Controls

Two people familiar with the inquiry say the CFTC is again examining whether Polymarket adequately kept U.S. customers off its offshore prediction market, reopening scrutiny of the platform’s compliance controls.

The review covers how the platform determines customers’ locations and its advertising in the United States. Investigators are also looking at customer onboarding and protections on Polymarket’s U.S. platform, the people said. The CFTC and Polymarket declined to comment. The inquiry has not resulted in a public finding that Polymarket violated the 2022 order or an announced enforcement action.

In January 2022, the CFTC ordered Blockratize Inc., Polymarket’s operator, to pay a $1.4 million civil penalty for offering off-exchange event-based binary options without registering as a designated contract market or swap execution facility. The order required Blockratize to wind down noncompliant markets and stop offering trading access unless it complied with the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC rules. Blockratize accepted the order’s findings without admitting or denying them.