Short answer: yes. Polymarket US has been live since December 2025 as a CFTC-regulated exchange, and US traders can use it after completing identity verification. This is a genuine reversal — for the three years before that, US persons were prohibited outright.
The important nuance, and the part most coverage gets wrong: Polymarket is now two separate venues. The regulated US exchange and the international on-chain book do not share an order book, a settlement layer, or a transparency model. Which one you are looking at changes the price, the rules, and what you can see.
This guide covers what changed, how the two venues differ, what verification is required, and where Kalshi still holds an advantage.
What Changed: From Prohibition to a Regulated US Exchange
The old restriction traces to January 2022, when the CFTC charged Polymarket with offering binary event contracts to US persons without proper authorization. Polymarket settled for $1.4 million and agreed to geoblock US users and prohibit US persons in its terms of service. That was the state of play through 2024 and most of 2025.
The path back ran through acquisition rather than appeal. Polymarket acquired QCEX — an entity already holding CFTC designations — in July 2025, followed by a CFTC no-action letter in September 2025. Polymarket US opened to traders in December 2025, operating as a designated contract market (DCM) and derivatives clearing organization (DCO), with National Futures Association oversight.
That is the same regulatory category Kalshi occupies. It is not a grey-area workaround, a DFS wrapper, or an offshore product with a US-facing skin.
The international book still exists, still runs on Polygon, and is still closed to US persons. Both statements are true at once, and conflating them is the single most common error in current Polymarket coverage.
The Two Venues, Side by Side
| Polymarket (international) | Polymarket US | |
|---|---|---|
| Legal form | Offshore, unregulated | CFTC-designated DCM + DCO, NFA oversight |
| Open to US traders | No | Yes |
| Settlement | On-chain, Polygon, USDC, self-custodied | Off-chain, USD via approved intermediaries |
| Identity verification | None | Full — government ID, SSN, proof of residency, live selfie |
| Public holder data | Yes — every position in a contract is publicly viewable | No — account data is authenticated and scoped to you |
| Order book | Its own | Its own — separate liquidity, different market slate |
The two prices are not interchangeable. Separate liquidity pools with no arbitrageur legally standing in both means the same event can trade at meaningfully different prices on each venue, and stay that way. If you are reading a Polymarket price quoted anywhere — including on this site — check which book it came from before acting on it.
The transparency trade is real and it runs both directions. The international book's on-chain design is why wallet-tracking and leaderboard tools exist at all: every holder in every contract is publicly viewable. Polymarket US publishes none of that. A US trader who signs up onshore holds no public wallet and leaves no visible footprint — which is better for privacy and worse for anyone hoping to follow the flow. Our Polymarket leaderboard ranks the international book for exactly this reason; there is nothing on the US venue to rank.
Which States Can Trade?
Availability on Polymarket US varies by state. This is a change from the old blanket prohibition, which applied uniformly to all 50 states with no exceptions.
The regulated-venue picture is closer to Kalshi's than to a sportsbook's state-by-state licensing map, but it is not identical to either, and it has been moving. Check the current availability at signup rather than trusting any list — including this one — to be current. Our State Availability Map tracks where the CFTC-regulated venues are live.
What Verification Actually Requires
Polymarket US is a regulated exchange, so onboarding looks like a brokerage account, not a crypto wallet connection:
- Government-issued photo ID
- Social Security number
- Proof of residency
- A live selfie for identity matching
Funding is in US dollars through approved intermediaries, held as an internal balance. There is no wallet to create, no gas fee, no bridging, and no USDC.
This is the opposite of the international book, which requires no identity verification at all — your wallet is your account. If you have read older guidance saying "Polymarket does not require KYC," that described the international venue and does not apply to the US exchange.
Polymarket US vs. Kalshi
| Feature | Polymarket US | Kalshi |
|---|---|---|
| Regulatory status | CFTC DCM + DCO | CFTC-authorized DCM |
| US availability | Varies by state | All 50 states |
| Settlement currency | USD | USD |
| Identity verification | Yes | Yes |
| Market slate | Narrower than the international book | Politics, economics, sports, weather |
| Dispute resolution | Regulated exchange process | Regulated exchange process |
| Public holder data | No | No |
We treat Kalshi as the primary US venue, and the reason is coverage and economics — not legality. Kalshi lists a broader set of event contracts, is live in all 50 states, and runs deeper books in the categories our tools cover. That case stands on its own merits and does not depend on Polymarket being unavailable, which it no longer is.
Where Kalshi's depth is most visible:
NFL game markets and player props run year-round at volumes neither Polymarket venue matches for US sports. During the regular season, Kalshi lists game-winner contracts, player prop markets, and playoff outcome markets.
State-level political markets are Kalshi's specialty — governor races, ballot initiatives, state legislative control. These attract traders who know a local information edge exists. Polymarket concentrates liquidity on federal and global events.
The Fed rate decision markets (the KXFED series) are among the highest-liquidity contracts on Kalshi and among the most actively traded prediction markets in the US. Fed decision trading draws institutional-grade capital because the underlying is macro-critical and the settlement is clean.
Track live Kalshi markets on the daily movers feed and use the Cross-Platform Arb Scanner to spot pricing gaps.
How the International Book Works
If you are outside the US, or you are reading international prices as a reference, the mechanics are unchanged:
- Create a crypto wallet — MetaMask or any Polygon-compatible wallet
- Buy USDC — the settlement currency, on the Polygon network
- Connect your wallet — no account creation; your wallet is your identity
- Trade markets — positions are held in your wallet, not with a centralized custodian
Minimum deposit: no formal minimum, but Polygon gas fees make deposits under $10–20 USDC impractical.
Supported chains: Polygon (primary). You can bridge USDC from Ethereum mainnet at added cost. Direct deposits from Base, Arbitrum, or Solana are not supported.
Identity verification: none. The international book relies on geoblocking and terms-of-service prohibition for US compliance rather than verifying identity at account creation — which is precisely why the US exchange had to be built as a separate product.
What Each Venue Does Poorly
International book — settlement disputes carry no appeal. It uses decentralized oracles and a UMA dispute resolution system. Most of the time it works. When it does not, there is no regulator to call and no exchange-level dispute process. Both CFTC-regulated venues remove that risk.
International book — crypto infrastructure is a barrier. Wallets, gas fees, and on-chain transactions are a real learning curve if you have not done it before.
Polymarket US — a narrower slate and a shallower book. It is a young venue. The market breadth that made Polymarket famous largely lives on the international side, and the US exchange lists a subset.
Polymarket US — no public flow. Off-chain settlement means the position transparency that made Polymarket analytically interesting simply is not there.
The Practical Path for US Traders in 2026
- Kalshi as your primary venue — broadest US-listed slate, all 50 states, deepest books in the categories most of our tools cover.
- Polymarket US as a legitimate second venue — check whether it lists a contract you want, and whether it is available in your state.
- The international book as a data reference only — its prices are informative and publicly visible, but they are not the prices you can trade as a US person, and the gap between the two books is real.
- Use the cross-platform arb scanner to see where venues disagree — and note which book a quoted price came from before acting on it.
The prediction market landscape has moved faster in the last eighteen months than in the previous five years. The US access question is now settled; the interesting questions are about venue depth, slate coverage, and where separated liquidity pools let prices drift apart.
Last updated August 2, 2026. Substantially revised: this guide previously stated that US residents were prohibited from Polymarket, which was accurate until Polymarket US launched in December 2025. This article does not constitute legal advice. If you are a US resident with questions about prediction market participation, consult a legal professional familiar with current CFTC guidance.
Where Polymarket fits next to the other US-regulated venues: Kalshi vs Polymarket is the direct head-to-head. DraftKings vs Polymarket covers the sports-and-politics overlap between the two. Kalshi vs DraftKings and FanDuel vs Kalshi explain the broader CFTC-regulated landscape. Running cross-platform combos? The Kalshi parlay calculator prices joint probability across any pair of markets.