Polymarket is in active discussions with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to lift a ban that has kept US traders off its main offshore exchange since 2022, Bloomberg reported on April 28, 2026. The talks, held over recent weeks, would let the prediction market platform unify its blockchain-based international operation with the smaller US-only exchange it brought online last year. CFTC clearance would put Polymarket in direct competition with Kalshi for American event-trading volume and reverse a key piece of the 2022 enforcement settlement that pushed it overseas.
A prediction market is a type of exchange where users bet on the outcome of real-world events such as elections, court rulings, or economic indicators, and prices on each contract reflect the crowd’s odds.
Key takeaways
- Polymarket and CFTC officials have held recent talks about lifting the four-year ban on US traders accessing its main offshore exchange, per Bloomberg on April 28, 2026.
- The proposal would merge the offshore platform’s blockchain technology with the licenses Polymarket acquired for its US-only exchange in November 2025.
- Approval could move quickly because four CFTC seats are vacant, leaving Chairman Michael Selig as the lone seated commissioner.
- A US return would intensify Polymarket’s fight with Kalshi, which has overtaken it in domestic prediction-market activity through 2026.
Published: April 28, 2026 16:30 UTC
What Polymarket is asking for
The talks revisit a wound that has shaped Polymarket’s business since the start of the decade. In January 2022, the company reached a $1.4 million settlement with the CFTC over operating an unregistered binary options market and agreed to bar US users from its main platform. That deal split Polymarket into two operations: a permissionless blockchain exchange that became the dominant global prediction market, and a much smaller US footprint.
That structure changed last November, when the CFTC cleared a US-only Polymarket platform after the company acquired a federally registered exchange to gain the necessary licenses. The Bloomberg report indicates Polymarket now wants to fold the offshore exchange’s operations into that licensed structure and run everything through a single blockchain-based system.
Why a return matters
A green light would solve two problems at once. It would give US users back the deeper liquidity of the main book, and it would let Polymarket consolidate fees, traders, and contract markets that have been split across jurisdictions for nearly four years.
It would also put Polymarket on the same regulatory footing as Kalshi, which has used CFTC oversight as a marketing pillar and overtaken Polymarket in US activity through 2026, according to an earlier Bloomberg report. Polymarket’s lead in international prediction-market volume has not translated into US dominance, and full US restoration is the most direct path to closing that gap. The April 28 push also follows news that the company is in talks for $400 million in fresh funding at a $15 billion valuation, capital it could deploy into compliance, market-making, and US user acquisition.
The political backdrop adds urgency. Authorities recently accused a US soldier of using a virtual private network to access Polymarket’s offshore exchange and earn more than $400,000 trading on classified information, a case that has put a spotlight on the workarounds users employ when shut out of regulated venues.
The CFTC math
Any restoration runs through the CFTC’s commissioner process. Four of the five commissioner seats are vacant, leaving Chairman Michael Selig as the only sitting member. That math could make a vote easier to schedule, since fewer commissioners means fewer holdouts, but it also raises questions about quorum norms and how much weight the agency wants to put on a single-commissioner decision.
Selig has previously argued that prediction markets fall under federal commodity regulation rather than state oversight, a position that has shaped CFTC clashes with state regulators over Kalshi’s election contracts. A clean approval for Polymarket would extend that posture from a small registered exchange to one of the most-trafficked prediction markets in the world.
How the technical structure would work
The merger under discussion, per Bloomberg, would have Polymarket operate strictly through its blockchain-based platform once the offshore operations and the US licenses are combined. Trades would settle on-chain, while the registered exchange entity Polymarket acquired in 2025 would carry the regulatory wrapper for compliance, surveillance, and customer protection rules.
That hybrid keeps the on-chain settlement model that defines Polymarket and gives US regulators a registered counterparty to supervise. It also lets Polymarket avoid running two separate order books and risk pools, a cost the company has carried since 2022.
What comes next
No timeline has been announced, and the CFTC has not commented publicly on the discussions. The agency would still need to vote before lifting the US block. With a single sitting commissioner and a Polymarket-Kalshi rivalry sharpening into a regulated turf war, the next disclosed step from either side will set the tone for how prediction markets get supervised in the US through 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Why was Polymarket banned from US users in the first place?
In January 2022, Polymarket settled with the CFTC for $1.4 million over running an unregistered binary options market. The agreement required it to block US-based traders from its main exchange, which the company then operated offshore, and led to its split into international and US-only platforms.
How is this different from the November 2025 CFTC clearance?
That clearance covered a US-only Polymarket platform built on a registered exchange the company acquired. The current talks are about bringing the much larger offshore exchange, which holds most of Polymarket’s volume, back to US users under that same licensed structure.
How does this affect Kalshi?
Kalshi has overtaken Polymarket in US prediction-market activity through 2026 by leaning on its CFTC-regulated status. A reopened Polymarket would compete directly with Kalshi for US event-trading volume, ending Kalshi’s structural advantage of being the only fully US-accessible regulated venue.
