Polymarket is seeking approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to bring its primary prediction market back to US users.
The company has discussed lifting the ban on U.S. traders with U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission officials in recent weeks, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The ban has been in place since Polymarket settled with the agency in 2022 and moved its main exchange overseas.
Last November, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) approved a separate U.S.-only Polymarket platform after the company acquired a registered exchange. The website is not fully launched yet.
Prediction markets allow users to trade contracts related to future events, such as elections, sports matches, or economic data. These markets have come under increasing scrutiny from various states, which consider them to be unlicensed gambling operations.
The CFTC needs a vote to lift the block on Polymarkt in the US. The process may be simpler now that four commission seats are vacant, leaving Chairman Michael Selig as the only current commissioner.
Selig has argued in the past that states do not have the ability to regulate prediction markets, and that prediction market authority falls within the purview of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The meeting comes after authorities charged a soldier with using a virtual private network (VPN) to access Polymarket’s international exchange and making more than $400,000 from transactions based on confidential information.
Polymarket declined to comment.
