CFTC Renews Probe Into Polymarket’s U.S. Access Controls

Two people familiar with the inquiry say the CFTC is again examining whether Polymarket adequately kept U.S. customers off its offshore prediction market, reopening scrutiny of the platform’s compliance controls. In January 2022, the CFTC ordered Blockratize Inc., Polymarket’s operator, to pay a $1.4 million civil penalty for offering off-exchange event-based binary options without registering as a designated contract market or swap execution facility. The order required Blockratize to wind down noncompliant markets and stop offering trading access unless it complied with the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC rules. Blockratize accepted the order’s findings without admitting or denying them.