CFTC examines whether Polymarket honored 2022 U.S. access ban

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating whether Polymarket violated a 2022 enforcement settlement intended to keep U.S. users off the company’s offshore platform. The inquiry covers the company’s methods for locating customers, its U.S. advertising and whether past safeguards adequately blocked American traders.

CNBC reported that the review forms part of a broader CFTC probe opened earlier this year, following Wall Street Journal allegations that Polymarket paid content creators to post videos depicting simulated trades and fabricated wins on dummy versions of its website. No start date for the latest settlement-compliance inquiry was disclosed.

The agency’s examination of the alleged historic breach is separate from Polymarket’s current operations. At the same time, the CFTC is reviewing customer-onboarding procedures and protection measures on Polymarket’s regulated U.S. platform, which launched in late December.

Polymarket agreed in January 2022 to restrict U.S. trading on Polymarket.com after the CFTC accused it of operating an unregistered derivatives platform. The company paid a $1.4 million civil penalty and agreed to stop providing trading access that did not comply with federal rules.

The CFTC had already opened a compliance investigation in 2024, while the Justice Department began a related inquiry. Both investigations closed in July 2025 without charges, and neither agency publicly explained the decisions. Polymarket said at the time that it had been cleared of wrongdoing.

The renewed scrutiny comes one week before the Nov. 3 midterm elections. Separately, Polymarket investigated dozens of election-related bets and referred at least two potential insider-trading or manipulation cases to the CFTC, as we reported Tuesday.