Polymarket faces new CFTC probe over US users on offshore platform

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is again looking into whether Polymarket broke a 2022 deal to keep US users off its offshore platform. Reuters reported the news, citing two people familiar with the matter.

According to Reuters, the probe is part of a wider CFTC investigation into the prediction market that began earlier this year. TNW has not independently verified the report, and both the CFTC and Polymarket declined to comment to Reuters.

Investigators are looking at how Polymarket checks where its customers are, the sources told Reuters. They are also looking at its US advertising and its past controls. The CFTC is also reviewing Polymarket’s separate US platform, including how it signs up customers and protects them.

New York-based Polymarket agreed to the 2022 settlement after the CFTC said it had operated illegally in the US since its 2020 launch. Under the deal, it paid a $1.4m penalty and stopped offering its main market to US users.

This is not the first such inquiry. In 2024, the CFTC opened a probe into whether Polymarket was keeping to the deal, and the Justice Department started a related investigation. FBI agents searched the New York home of chief executive Shayne Coplan that November.

However, in July 2025, Coplan said both agencies had closed their investigations without finding wrongdoing.

A week later, Polymarket bought CFTC-licensed exchange QCEX for $112m, which became the base for its US platform. That service started rolling out late last year.

Polymarket says it has since overhauled its controls and bans virtual private networks (VPNs) and similar tools that hide a user’s location.

Those controls have been tested before. In April, US prosecutors charged a soldier, Gannon Ken Van Dyke, with making about $400,000 from insider bets on Polymarket’s offshore platform. According to the indictment, he used a VPN to appear to be abroad. He has pleaded not guilty.

The new probe also lands as Polymarket grows fast. Earlier this year, a $1bn funding round led by Donald Trump Jr’s fund, 1789 Capital, valued the company at $21bn.

A probe does not always mean a company has done anything wrong, and many CFTC probes end with no action taken.

Story by Alina Maria Stan

Alina Maria Stan builds connections that people actually feel. As co-founder and COO of Tekpon, she turns product intuition into real moment (show all) Alina Maria Stan builds connections that people actually feel. As co-founder and COO of Tekpon, she turns product intuition into real moments of discovery, shaping how teams find and adopt SaaS every day. Since 2020, she has led Tekpon’s brand voice, media strategy, and growth plays with a clear focus on human outcomes behind every metric. Before Tekpon, Alina followed curiosity across industries and countries. She was CEO of King Casino Bonus and led affiliate and brand strategy at Extremoo Media and Fable Media in Denmark, where she learned how to build partnerships that last. Early on, she sharpened her CRM and pricing instincts at K.H. ApS, always asking why customers choose what they choose. Her approach is rooted in more than a decade of international experience and two master’s degrees, one in Sustainable Consumption from the Technical University of Munich and one in Consumer Affairs Management from Aarhus University.