Polymarket is officially back in the U.S. after a nearly four-year hiatus.
The prediction market announced on Wednesday the opening of event contract trading in the U.S. for users who signed up for the company’s waitlist. In September, Polymarket prepared for its U.S. reentry by asking potential users to join a waitlist to receive notice of its relaunch in America. Polymarket made its prediction market platform available to select users on its waitlist. The company made its waitlist available to the public in July 2025.
The prediction market reentered the U.S. after exiting in 2022, following a settlement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The settlement required Polymarket to pay a $1.4 million civil monetary penalty for failure to register as a designated contract market (DCM). It also failed to register as a swap executive facility.
Polymarket makes an acquisition to reenter the US
Polymarket paved the way for a return to the U.S. after acquiring federally registered derivatives exchange QCX and its affiliated clearing house in a deal valued at $112 million.
Polymarket is offering sports event contracts to select members of its waitlist with event contracts that resemble moneyline betting markets already available for upcoming NFL and NBA games. As noted in the announcement, the app is only offering sports initially before expanding into other markets.
CFTC & DOJ investigate Polymarket
Polymarket is also back in the U.S. after the CFTC and the Department of Justice (DOJ) ended their investigations into the company, which were spearheaded by the Joe Biden administration.
The probes investigated whether Polymarket continued to accept money from Americans despite no longer offering event contract trading in the U.S. after its CFTC penalty. The investigations included an FBI raid of the home of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan.
The DOJ and CFTC formally ended their investigations into Polymarket in July, finding the prediction market did not take action from U.S.-based users despite a total trading volume of more than $3 billion on the 2024 presidential election between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Polymarket receives major investment
Polymarket is back in America after receiving a fresh injection of capital from Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange.
ICE agreed to invest up to $2 billion in Polymarket, valuing the prediction market at roughly $8 billion. The transaction signaled Polymarket’s viability as a U.S. business and also made ICE a distributor of Polymarket’s event-driven data and a collaborator on blockchain initiatives.
Polymarket also garnered support from the NHL, making the hockey league the first U.S. professional sports league to officially enter the prediction market space.
Another big partner for Polymarket is PrizePicks, which plans to incorporate Polymarket contracts into its app at some point in the future.
