CFTC Investigates Polymarket Over U.S. User Ban Violations

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is investigating whether prediction market operator Polymarket violated a 2022 settlement agreement. Under the terms of that deal, Polymarket committed to banning United States users from its main overseas platform. The current probe examines the company's historical controls for verifying customer locations, its advertising activities within the U.S., and the onboarding processes for its recently launched U.S.-specific platform.

This inquiry revives a similar investigation previously conducted by the CFTC and the Department of Justice, which closed in 2025 following the transition to the Trump administration. The renewed scrutiny follows a recent indictment of a U.S. soldier for placing insider bets on the offshore platform, raising questions about the effectiveness of the company's geographic restrictions.

Polymarket maintains that it has revamped its controls and prohibits the use of VPNs to bypass restrictions. Shana Bautista, the company's global head of investigations and intelligence, stated that U.S. users circumventing these restrictions was not "a really prevalent issue."