How to Use Polymarket in the US (Legal Status, Setup, and a Safer Path)

TL;DR

• Polymarket relaunched in the US through QCX LLC, a CFTC-designated exchange, after the CFTC issued an Amended Order of Designation in November 2025. Eligible residents can sign up directly now, no VPN or workaround required.
• Access is narrower than the main Polymarket site: the regulated US product is iOS-app only as of August 2026, with no Android or web version yet, and isn't available in at least eight states, including Arizona, Ohio, and Massachusetts.
• Polymarket removed its signup waitlist on May 12, 2026, so no invite code is needed anymore, but you still have to pass identity verification (KYC) before you can fund an account.
• If you're on Android, want browser access, or you're in an excluded state, Kalshi is the CFTC-regulated alternative that covers the same kind of event contracts on web, iOS, and Android nationwide.

That's the current shape of it. The rest of this guide walks through why Polymarket was off-limits for years, what changed, how to actually sign up and fund an account today, how a first trade works, and when Kalshi covers more ground than Polymarket US currently does.

Typed "how to use Polymarket in the US" into Google and landed on three different answers? That's because the real answer changed twice in the past year. Polymarket spent three years geoblocked from US traders entirely. Then it bought its way back in. As of today, eligible US residents can sign up for a CFTC-regulated Polymarket product directly, on iOS, no workaround needed, though the access is still narrower than what Polymarket offers the rest of the world.

Why Was Polymarket Blocked From the US in the First Place?

On January 3, 2022, the CFTC ordered Blockratize, Inc., the company behind Polymarket.com, to pay a $1.4 million penalty for running an unregistered facility for event-based binary options, what the order calls "event markets," without the required CFTC designation.

Polymarket had listed more than 900 of these markets since mid-2020. The settlement also required winding down every market on Polymarket.com that didn't comply with federal commodities law, which in practice meant excluding US persons from the platform's core trading products.

That order is the reason "Polymarket blocks US IPs" became conventional wisdom, and for three years it was simply true. No sign-up path existed for a US resident who wanted to trade directly on Polymarket.com. A VPN didn't change that; it just meant misrepresenting your location to get around a restriction Polymarket's own compliance settlement required it to enforce.

What Actually Changed, and When?

Polymarket bought its way back into the US market rather than waiting out an appeal. In July 2025, it acquired QCX LLC and QC Clearing, together known as QCEX, a CFTC-licensed derivatives exchange and clearinghouse, for $112 million. QCX already held the federal designation Polymarket needed. It didn't have to build one from scratch.

The CFTC issued an Amended Order of Designation for QCX LLC on November 24, 2025, letting the newly acquired exchange operate as "Polymarket US," a regulated, intermediated product distinct from the original Polymarket.com. Polymarket US launched on December 3, 2025, initially gated behind an invite-code waitlist. Six months later, on May 12, 2026, Polymarket removed that waitlist entirely. Anyone eligible can now register without an access code.

Separately, and this is the part that trips people up, Polymarket filed with the CFTC on April 28, 2026 for a bigger ask: bringing its main, crypto-native, globally-facing exchange onshore for direct US access, not just the narrower QCX product. That request was still under review as of a CFTC inquiry opened in June 2026. Until it clears, Polymarket US and Polymarket.com remain two different products with two different rulebooks.

Polymarket US or Polymarket.com: Which One Can You Actually Use?

If you're a US resident, the only Polymarket product you can lawfully sign up for is Polymarket US, run by QCX LLC under its CFTC designation. Polymarket.com, the original site with the platform's full global market list, still isn't open to US persons; that's the part of the 2022 settlement that hasn't changed.

Polymarket US is also a narrower product in practice, not just in name. As of August 2026 it's iOS-app only. There's no Android app and no browser access yet, and Polymarket hasn't announced a date for either. If you don't have an iPhone, there currently isn't a way to use Polymarket's own regulated US product at all, regulated or otherwise.

Which States Can't Use Polymarket US?

Polymarket US isn't available in at least eight states: Arizona, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, and Ohio, per third-party tracking of the app's own eligibility screen.

Minnesota is a separate, more tangled case: a state law banning prediction markets outright was set to take effect August 1, 2026, but a federal judge blocked its enforcement on July 27, 2026, in a suit joined by the Department of Justice, the CFTC, Kalshi, and Polymarket together. So Minnesota access currently continues, pending how that case resolves.

Several of those excluded states overlap with where Kalshi is separately fighting state gambling regulators over its sports contracts specifically, not its event contracts generally. That's a different, longer legal story, and our state-by-state breakdown covers the underlying litigation rather than just the access list.

How Do You Sign Up for Polymarket US?

1. Download the app. As of August 2026, that means the iOS App Store; there's no other way in yet. Polymarket's referral link works the same as a direct download.
2. Register and verify eligibility. No invite code is required since May 2026. The app checks your state during signup and will tell you directly if you're excluded.
3. Complete identity verification. Because Polymarket US operates under a CFTC designation, KYC (government ID and basic personal details) is mandatory before you can fund an account, not an optional step Polymarket added on top.
4. Fund your account, then browse markets by category.

How Do You Fund a Polymarket US Account?

Polymarket US accepts debit cards and Apple Pay through built-in on-ramp partners that convert a card payment into tradeable balance, along with direct crypto deposits for anyone who already holds USDC. In April 2026, Polymarket migrated its underlying trading collateral from USDC.e to a new native stablecoin called pUSD, backed 1:1 by USDC; the change is invisible in the app, where balances still display in dollars.

How Does Placing a Trade on Polymarket Actually Work?

Every Polymarket contract is a Yes or No position on a real-world outcome, priced between 1 cent and 99 cents, the same price-as-probability mechanic behind every prediction market. That price is the market's implied probability. A contract trading at 35 cents means traders collectively think there's roughly a 35% chance the event happens.

Take the Fed's September 2026 rate decision as a live example. If the "cut" contract is trading at a few cents, the market is pricing a cut as unlikely; buy it for that price and it resolves to $1 if the Fed actually cuts, or to zero if it doesn't. Sell before resolution instead, and you lock in whatever the current price implies rather than waiting out the outcome.

To place the trade itself: pick a market, choose Yes or No, enter a size, and confirm. You can close the position early instead of holding to resolution if the price has moved in your favor.

When Should You Use Kalshi Instead of Polymarket?

Kalshi is the other CFTC-regulated venue for this kind of contract, and it currently covers more ground than Polymarket US on two specific dimensions: platform and geography. Kalshi runs on web, iOS, and Android, so it doesn't have Polymarket US's iOS-only limitation. It funds by ACH bank transfer, debit card, or wire, without requiring a crypto on-ramp step.

And Kalshi doesn't carry the same state-exclusion list Polymarket US does for its event contracts generally, though it's fighting its own separate state-by-state battle specifically over sports contracts, covered in full in our Kalshi legitimacy review.

Neither platform is strictly better. Polymarket has deeper liquidity on international and crypto-native events once you're inside Polymarket.com (still not US-accessible) or matched on Polymarket US's own listed markets. Kalshi is the more accessible entry point today if you're on Android, want browser access, or live in one of the states Polymarket US currently excludes.

If broad access matters more to you right now than which brand is on the app icon, Kalshi's signup is the practical starting point. Our platform comparison lines up fees, market selection, and legality side by side if you're deciding between them rather than just picking whichever one will actually let you sign up today.

How Should You Manage Risk on Either Platform?

A contract price is a starting point for thinking, not a guarantee. A market pricing something at 8% isn't saying it won't happen; out of many similar situations, it happens roughly one in twelve times. Size any position around the maximum you're willing to lose before you enter, on Polymarket US or Kalshi alike, and don't treat a probability estimate as certainty in either direction.

How Does PredictionHero Fit Into This?

PredictionHero tracks markets across Polymarket, Kalshi, Limitless, Predict.Fun, and Opinion in one place, so you can see how the same event is priced across platforms without checking each one separately.

That's useful here specifically because Polymarket's US access is still uneven: if a market you want exists on Polymarket US but you're excluded by state or don't have an iPhone, checking whether the same event is listed on Kalshi (or one of the other three) tells you in seconds whether there's another way in, rather than hunting through four apps yourself.

Sources

• CFTC. "CFTC Orders Event-Based Binary Options Markets Operator to Pay $1.4 Million Penalty." January 3, 2022. cftc.gov
• PR Newswire. "Polymarket Acquires CFTC-Licensed Exchange and Clearinghouse QCEX for $112 Million." 2025. prnewswire.com
• CFTC. "Polymarket US Amended Order of Designation." November 2025. cftc.gov
• Yahoo Finance. "CFTC Amended Order Gets Polymarket One Step Closer to US Return." 2025. finance.yahoo.com
• Yahoo Finance (via Covers.com / InGame reporting). "Polymarket Removes Waitlist, Launches for US iOS Users." May 12, 2026. finance.yahoo.com
• Bloomberg. "Polymarket Seeks CFTC Blessing to Bring Main Exchange Back to US." April 28, 2026. bloomberg.com

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PredictionHero aggregates publicly available prediction market data for informational purposes only. This is not financial advice. Prediction markets may not be available in all jurisdictions, and Polymarket's US access specifically is limited by platform and state as described above.