Polymarket is seeking approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to bring its flagship prediction market back to US users.
The company has been discussing lifting its ban on US-based traders with CFTC officials in recent weeks, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the talks. The ban has been in place since Polymarket reached a settlement in 2022 with the agency and moved its main exchange overseas.
The CFTC approved a separate US-only Polymarket platform last November after the company acquired a registered exchange. That site is not yet fully launched.
Prediction markets let users trade contracts linked to future events, such as elections, sports betting or economic data. These markets have come under increasing scrutiny from various states that claim they operate as unlicensed gambling operations.
The CFTC would have to vote before it could remove Polymarkt’s US block. That process may be simpler now because four commission seats are vacant, leaving Chairman Michael Selig as the only sitting commissioner.
Selig has previously argued that states do not have the ability to control prediction markets, whose authority falls under the CFTC’s purview.
The talks also come after authorities accused a soldier of using a virtual private network (VPN) to access Polymarket’s international exchange and make more than $400,000 from trades based on classified information.
Polymarket declined to comment.
