Polymarket FAQ & Support - How It Works, Funding, Risks, Taxes

Polymarket is the world's largest prediction-market platform. Users trade shares in the outcomes of real-world events - elections, sports, crypto prices, economic data, geopolitics. A share pays $1 if its outcome happens and $0 if it doesn't, so the share's price reads as a probability. It was founded in 2020 by Shayne Coplan and reached a $15B valuation in April 2026. Full background: <a href="/en/guide/getting-started/">What Is Polymarket? Beginner Guide</a>.

Every market has at least two outcomes. Each outcome has its own share, traded on a central limit order book (CLOB) denominated in pUSD (a 1:1 USDC-backed stablecoin). When the event resolves, winning shares pay $1; losing shares pay $0. The price reflects the market's aggregate estimate of the probability. A YES share at $0.62 means the crowd estimates a 62% chance YES wins. Deeper read: <a href="/en/guide/getting-started/">Beginner guide</a> and <a href="/en/guide/order-book-guide/">Order book guide</a>.

Legally, since November 2025 it's a CFTC-regulated Designated Contract Market in the US - the same framework as commodity futures, not gambling. Mechanically it's peer-to-peer trading: prices are set by traders on an order book, not by a house. There's no house edge, no vig built into odds, and winning accounts are never banned (a routine practice at sportsbooks). The closest analogue is a futures exchange for event outcomes.

Polymarket Inc., founded by Shayne Coplan in 2020 and headquartered in New York. ICE (parent of the NYSE) invested $2B in October 2025 at a $9B valuation, then $600M more in March 2026. As of April 2026 the platform crossed $63.4B all-time cumulative volume, with $10.57B in March 2026 alone. Roughly 2.5M wallets have traded; February 2026 hit 688K monthly active users.

Three structural differences. First, prices are set by other traders on an order book - not by a bookmaker baking in a 5-15% vig. Second, you can sell your position anytime before resolution at the current market price. Third, profitable traders are never banned (sportsbooks routinely limit winners). The trade-off: prediction markets only exist for events with verifiable outcomes, and resolution can occasionally be disputed.

Same idea, different platforms. Kalshi is a US-licensed CFTC exchange that runs its own internal resolution and takes ACH/wire/card deposits in USD. Polymarket is decentralized on Polygon, uses pUSD/USDC, and resolves via the UMA optimistic oracle. Polymarket has wider category coverage (politics, crypto, geopolitics) and 0% taker fees on geopolitics; Kalshi has simpler US onboarding and 1099 tax forms. Side-by-side: <a href="/en/guide/polymarket-vs-kalshi/">Polymarket vs Kalshi</a>.

Mixed but generally good. Iowa Electronic Markets beat polling 74% of the time across five US presidential elections (Berg et al., 2008). In 2024 Polymarket priced Trump at 57% to win while polls showed a coin-flip; he won. But a Vanderbilt study put Polymarket's overall accuracy at 67%, lower than PredictIt (93%) and Kalshi (78%), citing whale-trader influence. Prices are a useful real-time crowd estimate, not a guarantee.

The Polygon smart contracts have been audited five times by ChainSecurity with no successful on-chain exploit to date. Funds are non-custodial - they sit in a smart-contract wallet only your key can move. The biggest non-zero risks are: a December 2025 breach at Magic Labs (the third-party login service), phishing on lookalike sites (>$500K stolen in 2025), and your own wallet hygiene. See the full risk inventory in <a href="/en/guide/risks/">Every Risk of Trading Polymarket</a>.

Three options. (1) Email - Polymarket sends a 6-digit code via Magic Labs and creates a smart-contract proxy wallet for you in the background. (2) Google or Apple - same flow, OAuth instead of email. (3) Connect a Web3 wallet - MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, Rabby, or any WalletConnect-compatible wallet, which gives you full self-custody from day one. Full walkthrough: <a href="/en/guide/account-setup/">Account Setup Guide</a>.

No. Email or Google sign-up is enough to start - Polymarket creates a proxy wallet for you. But for serious amounts, most experienced traders later export their key (at reveal.magic.link) and switch to MetaMask or Rabby for self-custody. After the December 2025 breach at Magic Labs, the wallet-login path became the recommended option for security-conscious users.

On the international platform (polymarket.com), no - direct wallet trading is open. KYC happens upstream at the exchange where you buy USDC. On the US platform (polymarket.us), full KYC is required before any trading: government ID, live selfie, and age 18+, under CFTC rules. Country-specific details: <a href="/en/guide/country-guide/">Country Guide</a>.

18 minimum on Polymarket Global. The US platform also enforces 18+ under CFTC DCM rules and may add state-level restrictions. Some restricted jurisdictions require 21+.

There's no protocol minimum - you can place a real trade with $1. Most beginners start with $20-50 while learning the interface. Polymarket sometimes offers a $20 first-deposit bonus for new accounts depositing $20+. The platform-wide median bet size is just $10, which is the realistic scale for casual users.

Pick a market in a category you actually follow (politics, sports, crypto). Use a limit order at the midpoint to pay 0% taker fees. Start at $5-$20 - small enough that a mistake doesn't hurt, large enough to give the platform mechanics a real workout. Step-by-step with screenshots: <a href="/en/guide/first-trade/">Place Your First Trade in 5 Steps</a>.

Politics (US elections, state races, legislation), sports (NFL, NBA, soccer, UFC, esports), crypto (BTC/ETH price targets, 5-min markets, ETF approvals), economics (Fed rates, CPI, GDP), geopolitics (wars, ceasefires, sanctions), science & tech, pop culture (Oscars, Grammys), and weather. Sports + politics + crypto are ~90% of total volume. Full taxonomy: <a href="/en/guide/market-types/">Types of Markets</a>.

We maintain a full glossary of every term that appears on the platform - CLOB, NegRisk, UMA, proxy wallet, EIP-712, pUSD, FOK/FAK/GTC, and so on. See <a href="/en/guide/glossary/">Polymarket Glossary</a>.

For any amount above $50, the cheapest path is to buy USDC on a major exchange (Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, Bybit, OKX) and withdraw on the Polygon network to your Polymarket-connected wallet. Total fee is usually $0.10-$1 flat regardless of size. A $5,000 crypto transfer costs about $0.50. The same deposit by card runs $145-$225. Full comparison: <a href="/en/guide/deposit-guide/">Deposit Guide</a>.

Yes - Polymarket integrates MoonPay for card buys. Fees are 1-4.5% depending on amount, country, and card type. It's the simplest path for small first-time deposits but not cost-effective at scale. For US users on the DCM platform, debit card, ACH, and Apple Pay work natively at lower cost.

Polymarket lives on the Polygon PoS chain. USDC on Ethereum and USDC on Polygon are technically different tokens. They share the same Circle reserves but live on different blockchains. If you send USDC from an exchange on the Ethereum network to a Polymarket address, one of two things happens: it lands on Ethereum (recoverable via bridge) or it's lost on a wrong chain (often unrecoverable). Always pick Polygon. If you slipped, see the next answer.

Usually recoverable. Every Polymarket wallet is a standard EVM address, so it exists on Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, etc. Email/Google users export their private key from reveal.magic.link/polymarket and import into MetaMask. Wallet users already control the address on Ethereum. Switch MetaMask to Ethereum mainnet to see the funds. Then bridge to Polygon using Polygon's official bridge, Across, or Hop. Cost: $5-$20 in Ethereum gas. Don't try this on a phishing site - only use the official tools.

pUSD is Polymarket's native settlement stablecoin, launched April 2026 in the V2 upgrade. It's fully collateralized 1:1 by USDC reserves and converts automatically: deposit USDC, receive pUSD; withdraw, get USDC back. Same dollar value, same Circle backing. You don't do anything different. Background and rationale: <a href="/en/guide/pusd-migration/">pUSD Migration Guide</a>.

Not as a direct on-chain transfer - the address only accepts USDC on Polygon. But MoonPay's card flow accepts BTC, ETH, SOL, and others, converting them to USDC before crediting. That carries the 1-4.5% card-equivalent fee. The cheaper route is sell your BTC/ETH/SOL on an exchange for USDC, then withdraw to Polygon.

Effective minimum is about $1-5, depending on method. Card buys via MoonPay have a $5 floor. Some exchanges set a $1-10 USDC withdrawal minimum. To claim the $20 new-user trading bonus when it's running, deposit at least $20 on first deposit.

No. Polymarket runs a relayer that pays the Polygon gas for every action - wallet deployment, USDC approvals, trades, withdrawals. You sign EIP-712 meta-transactions and the relayer submits them. In 2024, Polymarket's total relayer gas spend was about $27,000 covering millions of user transactions.

First time you trade on a new wallet, Polymarket asks you to approve USDC spending for four contracts: Exchange, NegRisk Exchange, CTF Exchange, and Conditional Tokens Framework. The approval grants permission - it does NOT move your USDC. The contracts have been audited by ChainSecurity. The approval is gasless and persists on that wallet so you only do it once. Critical: only approve on the real polymarket.com. Lookalike phishing sites stole over $500K in 2025 via fake approval popups.

Generally no. Moving USDC between wallets you own is not a taxable event. Buying USDC with USD is not taxable - a dollar-pegged stablecoin is just dollars. Taxable events kick in when you convert one crypto into another (BTC → USDC) or realize profits from trading. Country-specific detail in <a href="/en/guide/tax-guide/">Polymarket Taxes 2026</a>.

Makers (limit orders that rest in the book) pay 0% and earn rebates of 20-25% of taker fees. Takers (orders that fill immediately) pay a dynamic fee that varies by category: 0% on geopolitics, 0.75% sports, 1.00% politics/finance/tech, 1.25% economics/culture/weather, 1.80% crypto - all measured at the 50% probability point. Fees decline as prices approach $0 or $1. Defaulting to limit orders is the single biggest no-skill edge available on Polymarket.

Limit order, almost always. It pays 0% fees, qualifies for maker rebates, and lets you pick your exact price. Use a market order only in three cases: (1) news just broke and speed matters, (2) the market is liquid enough that the spread is negligible, (3) your trade is small enough that the spread costs under a dollar. Most retail losses come from defaulting to market orders out of habit.

$1 for market orders. Limit orders need at least 5 shares. In practice you can start at $5-$10 and place real trades. Median bet across the whole platform is $10.

Not on standard prediction markets. Buy 100 YES shares at $0.60 and your maximum loss is $60. No margin, no leverage, no liquidation on these markets. The exception is Polymarket's perpetual futures product (BTC, NVDA, Gold, launched April 21 2026), which carries up to 10x leverage and liquidation risk. Perps is a separate product - see <a href="/en/guide/perpetual-futures/">Perpetual Futures Guide</a>.

The spread is the gap between the highest bid and the lowest ask. If the spread is $0.03, buying and selling immediately at market costs you 3 cents per share before any fees - that's the round-trip cost. Tight spreads ($0.005-0.01) show in the most liquid markets; thin markets can hit $0.08-0.10. Always check the spread before placing a market order.

Slippage is the gap between the price you expected and the price you got. It happens when your order is large relative to available depth and you eat through several price levels. Mitigation: check book depth before placing, split large orders into 5-10 smaller pieces, use limit orders with price caps, and stick to liquid flagship markets when you need size.

Yes, any time before resolution, with no lockup. Go to Portfolio → your position → Sell. Market sell exits at the best bid; limit sell rests at your chosen price. Exiting early is the norm for active traders - it frees capital and locks in P&L. Community rule of thumb: 60-70% of max gain for take-profit, -40% of position value for stop-loss. Full mechanics: <a href="/en/guide/selling-positions/">Selling Positions</a>.

Mechanically equivalent. Buying 100 YES at $0.62 and selling 100 NO at $0.38 give the same exposure ($62 risk, $100 payout if YES wins). Polymarket aggregates the order book so the side with better liquidity is picked automatically. The shares themselves are different tokens, but the position is the same.

A maker places a limit order that rests in the book before filling - it 'makes' liquidity available. A taker places an order that fills immediately by crossing the spread - it 'takes' liquidity. Makers pay 0% fees plus rebates; takers pay the category fee. Any limit order placed inside the current spread that eventually fills counts as a maker order. Mechanics: <a href="/en/guide/order-book-guide/">Order Book Guide</a>.

Risk 0.5-2% of your bankroll per position. Most pros use quarter-Kelly sizing - one-fourth of what the Kelly criterion suggests - which keeps most of the long-term growth with drawdowns you can actually live through. Never risk more than 5% on a single position no matter how confident. Full math: <a href="/en/guide/position-sizing/">Position Sizing on Polymarket</a>.

A binary market has two outcomes (YES/NO). A multi-outcome market has 3+ outcomes - presidential candidates, sports champions, award nominees - where exactly one outcome can win. Most binary markets resolve cleanly. Multi-outcome markets use Polymarket's NegRisk system to make capital efficient. Background: <a href="/en/guide/market-types/">Market Types Guide</a>.

NegRisk is Polymarket's capital-efficiency system for multi-outcome markets: since only one outcome can win, the smart contract treats holdings as a basket and caps required collateral at $1 per share - up to 9.5× more efficient than holding each outcome's tokens separately. Full mechanics: <a href="/en/guide/multi-outcome-guide/">Multi-Outcome &amp; NegRisk Markets</a>.

Most Polymarket markets resolve via UMA's Optimistic Oracle. After the event, a whitelisted proposer posts the outcome backed by a $750 USDC bond. If nobody disputes within ~2 hours, the outcome stands and the market settles. If disputed, UMA token holders vote through the Data Verification Mechanism, which takes 48-96 hours. Deeper: <a href="/en/guide/resolution-explained/">Resolution &amp; Payouts</a>.

A dispute is when someone challenges the proposed outcome by posting a counter-bond. UMA voters then decide. The wrong side loses the bond. Disputes happen on roughly 5% of markets but are concentrated in geopolitics and politics where rules can be ambiguous. Notable disputes: Ukraine Minerals ($7M), Fort Knox Gold ($3.5M), UFO ($16M), Iran Ceasefire ($280M volume). Survival playbook: <a href="/en/guide/uma-disputes/">UMA Disputes Survival Guide</a>.

Read the rules tab before trading - UMA resolves by the literal text, not by what 'should' have happened. Ambiguous rules tend to trigger disputes. The 'does NOT qualify' clause inside the rules is the most overlooked part. The April 2026 Iran Ceasefire dispute happened because Trump announced a ceasefire on Truth Social but Iran never confirmed - and the rules required both sides to agree.

Once UMA finalizes the outcome (typically 0-2 hours for uncontested, 48-96 hours if disputed), winning shares become $1 each in your pUSD balance automatically. Losing shares become $0 (you paid for them at purchase). No manual claim needed. The resolved market appears in Portfolio → History.

Yes - a handful of high-profile cases where UMA voters ruled against what most observers considered the obvious answer. Notable: the 2024 Iran airstrike market and Ukraine Minerals. The platform itself follows whatever UMA decides; the underlying issue is that UMA voting is token-weighted, and about 40% of voting power sits with a small set of wallets. For very large or controversial positions, some pros prefer Kalshi's internal CFTC-supervised resolution.

Managed Optimistic Oracle V2, a UMA upgrade from August 2025. Result proposals are now limited to whitelisted addresses that pass a quality bar (5+ proposals, 95%+ accuracy over a rolling 6-month window). Since launch: 59% fewer bad proposals and 68% fewer disputes. The whitelist grew from 37 to 177 addresses through 2025-2026.

Very high. Crypto markets (5-min, monthly price targets) resolve automatically via Chainlink Data Streams - the same oracle Aave, Compound, and GMX use. No human judgment, no dispute risk. Sports markets resolve to official scores within minutes of the final whistle. Disputes cluster heavily in geopolitics, politics, and any market with subjective rules.

Not directly - market creation is currently limited to Polymarket's team. They favor markets with clear rules, solid data sources, and real demand. You can request a market via Discord or the platform's 'Request a Market' button. Polymarket typically launches 50-200 new markets per week.

Portfolio → Withdraw → enter amount and destination address (your exchange's USDC-Polygon deposit address). pUSD converts to USDC automatically. The transfer happens on-chain on Polygon and usually arrives within minutes. Full steps with screenshots: <a href="/en/guide/withdraw-guide/">How to Withdraw from Polymarket</a>.

Polygon settles in 2-10 minutes. The receiving exchange may add a hold of 15 minutes to a few hours before the USDC is tradable on the centralized side. Total wallet-to-bank time is usually 30 minutes to 24 hours depending on the exchange and your home country's banking rails.

Polymarket itself charges 0%. The relayer covers the on-chain gas. Your receiving exchange may charge a deposit or off-ramp fee (varies widely - some are free, some charge 0.1-1%). Withdrawing to a self-custody wallet you own is the cheapest path; the off-ramp fee only hits when you convert USDC to local fiat.

Not directly from Polymarket Global. You withdraw USDC to an exchange (Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, Bit2C, Bits of Gold, etc.), then sell USDC for your local currency, then withdraw the fiat to your bank. Polymarket US users on the CFTC DCM can withdraw to ACH/wire/debit directly in USD.

Often, yes - especially for withdrawals above local thresholds (e.g. €10K in the EU, $10K in the US under CTR rules). Keep your exchange's KYC documents, your Polymarket trade history, and tax records ready. Banks in Israel, India, the EU, and the US increasingly request source-of-funds documentation for crypto-origin transfers. Use regulated on-ramps and keep clean records.

The withdrawal itself isn't taxable - you're moving your own funds. The taxable event happened earlier when you realized gains or losses on closed positions. Some jurisdictions also tax the USDC → fiat conversion as a separate crypto disposal. See <a href="/en/guide/tax-guide/">Polymarket Taxes 2026</a> for jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction rules.

Polygon transactions occasionally pend if network gas spikes. Check the transaction hash on polygonscan.com - if it's confirmed there, the issue is on the receiving side (exchange hold, wrong network selected, address typo). Polymarket's relayer handles the broadcast, so it's rarely Polymarket-side. Contact the receiving exchange's support with the transaction hash.

Polymarket Global sends no 1099, no W-2G, no annual statement. Self-reporting is on you. Polymarket US (the CFTC DCM) sends statements to US users. For Polymarket Global, your on-chain transaction history on PolygonScan is your permanent record. Crypto tax tools (CoinTracker, Koinly, CoinLedger) can import Polygon transactions but often need manual reconciliation for prediction-market positions.

Funds live in non-custodial smart contracts on Polygon - Polymarket cannot touch or seize them. ChainSecurity has audited the contracts five times with no successful on-chain exploit. But two real risks exist: (1) third-party login risk (the December 2025 Magic Labs breach), and (2) your own wallet hygiene. Both can be mitigated. Full inventory: <a href="/en/guide/risks/">Every Risk of Trading Polymarket</a>.

Attackers exploited a vulnerability in Magic Labs - the third-party service that handles email/Google logins. Login OTP codes were only 3 digits long and brute-forceable. A 'limited' number of email/Google users were affected. Polymarket's smart contracts were NOT compromised. Browser-wallet users (MetaMask, Rabby) were NOT affected. Fix: codes upgraded to 6 digits, 2FA recommended, and the wallet-login path promoted. Details in <a href="/en/guide/account-setup/">Account Setup Guide</a>.

A browser wallet (MetaMask or Rabby) with a hardware wallet attached (Ledger, Trezor) for any meaningful balance. This gives you a Gnosis Safe (1-of-1 multisig) where you alone hold the key, with no third-party dependency on Magic Labs. Store the seed phrase offline in 2-3 secure locations - never digitally, never photographed. Pair with 2FA via authenticator app (never SMS - SIM-swap attacks are real).

Yes, after the December 2025 breach this is strongly recommended for all email/Google users. Use a TOTP authenticator app (Google Authenticator, Authy, 1Password) - never SMS, which is vulnerable to SIM-swapping. Settings → Two-Factor Authentication. Save the 16-character backup code in your password manager.

Three active patterns. (1) Comment-section phishing on real markets, linking to lookalike sites that prompt fake 'verification' popups copying malicious code to your clipboard - over $500K stolen this way in 2025. (2) Fake trading bots distributed via hijacked GitHub orgs like dev-protocol (568 followers). (3) Fake 'wallet recovery' tools that exfiltrate seed phrases. Rules: never click links in market comments, only use code from github.com/Polymarket, and the only real recovery tool is recovery.polymarket.com.

While a position is open, USDC sits in the Polymarket smart contract. After redemption (or on withdrawal), funds are in your self-custody wallet. The protocol cannot freeze redemption. The front-end can geo-block users (so users in restricted countries can lose interface access while keys still work). The smart contracts also have no admin keys that can pause user funds - this was a deliberate architectural choice.

If you signed up by email/Google through Magic Labs: recover the email, then magic-link login restores access; you can also export your private key from reveal.magic.link as a backup. If you signed up with a self-custody wallet and lost both the seed phrase and the device: funds are permanently inaccessible. There is no recovery line. This is the trade-off of true self-custody. Always back up the seed phrase offline before depositing any meaningful amount.

Defaulting to market orders instead of limit orders. Limit orders pay 0% fees and earn maker rebates. Market orders pay 0.75-1.80% per trade. Over 100 trades of $200 each, that's $150-360 straight out of your bottom line - completely avoidable. Reading resolution rules is a close second; it prevents the most common surprise losses. Full list: <a href="/en/guide/common-mistakes/">Why 84% of Traders Lose Money</a>.

About 7.6% of wallets are net-profitable, 8.3% break even, and 84.1% are in the red, based on an independent on-chain analysis of 2.5M wallets (Sergeenkov, April 2026). The top 0.04% capture over 70% of all realized profit (~$3.7B). Among active traders with 20+ trades, profitability rises to roughly 13-17%. Most losses come from a small set of fixable habits, not from a lack of intelligence.

In nearly every country, yes. The taxable event is when you realize a gain or loss - typically when you sell a position or it resolves. Buying USDC, depositing it, and withdrawing it back to your own wallet are not taxable on their own. Country-by-country details: <a href="/en/guide/tax-guide/">Polymarket Taxes 2026</a>. We are not tax advisors - confirm with a local CPA.

Most CPAs treat Polymarket positions as short-term capital gains (Form 8949 + Schedule D) - winnings shorter than a year held at ordinary income rates, gains longer than a year at long-term rates (0/15/20%). Some accountants apply gambling treatment (Schedule 1), but the capital-gains path lets losses offset gains dollar-for-dollar and carries forward indefinitely. Perpetual futures usually qualify as Section 1256 contracts (60/40 long/short-term, marked to market at year-end).

Mixed. HMRC may treat winnings as gambling (tax-free) OR as professional trading income (20-45% income tax) based on volume and frequency. Casual users usually fall on the gambling side; high-frequency traders look more like a trade or business. Document your volume and frequency carefully and consult a UK crypto tax specialist if you're active.

Crypto-style treatment with a one-year holding exemption. Positions held over 12 months can exit tax-free; under 12 months are taxed at your personal income rate (up to 45% plus solidarity surcharge). For active traders this rarely helps because positions usually resolve in weeks, not years.

A flat 25% capital gains tax on realized gains, reported on the Schedule D equivalent. Israeli banks may ask for source-of-funds documentation on USDC withdrawals. Use regulated Israeli on-ramps (Bit2C, Bits of Gold) and keep exported trade history and deposit records ready. Full Israel-specific section: <a href="/en/guide/tax-guide/">Tax Guide</a>.

India: flat 30% VDA tax with no loss offset, plus 1% TDS on transfers - the harshest regime among major markets. Singapore: no personal capital gains tax for individuals trading for themselves. UAE: also no personal CGT. Canada: capital gains treatment with 50% inclusion rate. Australia: CGT applies, 50% discount on assets held over 12 months. Always confirm with a local advisor.

Under US capital-gains treatment: losses offset gains dollar-for-dollar; up to $3,000 of net losses offset ordinary income each year; excess carries forward indefinitely. Under gambling treatment: losses only offset gambling winnings and only if you itemize - much worse. This is one reason most crypto CPAs recommend capital-gains treatment for prediction markets when defensible.

Polymarket Global (polymarket.com) works in most countries but is geo-blocked in 33+ jurisdictions including France, Germany, the UK, Russia, China, Australia, Singapore, and most sanctioned regions. Polymarket US (polymarket.us) is open to US users with KYC, except New York and Nevada. Rules change often - the current restricted-country list lives on Polymarket's site. Country-by-country detail: <a href="/en/guide/country-guide/">Country Guide</a>.

Yes. Polymarket bought CFTC-licensed QCEX for $112M in July 2025, received DCM approval November 25 2025, and re-launched in the US December 3 2025. As of April 2026 the US platform is invite-only with sports markets only; broader access is expected Q3-Q4 2026. The waitlist is roughly 1 million users at a few thousand cleared per day. Several states (NV, NY, NJ, CT) actively challenge access, but a federal court ruled the Commodity Exchange Act preempts state gambling laws for sports event contracts.

Technically possible, but it violates Polymarket's Terms of Service and can result in account freeze. If you're US-based, use the official DCM platform or a CFTC-licensed alternative like Kalshi - VPN'ing into the international site puts your funds at risk. If you're in France, China, or a sanctioned country, there is no safe lawful path.

Yes. Israeli users access polymarket.com directly via Web3 wallet or email signup, with no geo-block. The Israel Tax Authority treats profits as capital gains (25%). Israeli banks often ask for source-of-funds documentation on USDC withdrawals - keep your trade history and Bit2C/Bits of Gold records exported. Israel-specific guidance: <a href="/en/guide/tax-guide/">Tax Guide</a>.

Technically yes, but it's a regulatory gray area. Crypto gains are taxed at 30% under India's VDA rules with no loss offset, plus 1% TDS on transfers - among the harshest regimes globally. Most users buy USDC on WazirX or CoinDCX and bridge to Polygon. If you run meaningful volume, consult an Indian crypto-specialized CA.

Yes for both. The French regulator ANJ actively blocks Polymarket. The UK Gambling Commission considers it unlicensed for UK residents. There's no safe lawful access path in either country today. VPN use breaks the ToS and local rules - not recommended.

Depends on where you live and what you trade. Kalshi is the easier path for US users: native USD deposits, 1099 tax forms, CFTC-supervised resolution. Polymarket has wider categories (politics, crypto, geopolitics), 0% fees on geopolitics, deeper books on flagship politics markets, and global access. Many active traders use both. Side-by-side: <a href="/en/guide/polymarket-vs-kalshi/">Polymarket vs Kalshi</a>.

As of April 2026, the US platform offers sports markets only - no politics, no crypto, no perpetual futures yet. Coverage will expand through 2026. Account minimums and trade limits are stricter than the international platform under CFTC DCM rules. NY and NV are blocked at the state level.

Yes, three APIs. CLOB (clob.polymarket.com) handles trading - authenticated, signs orders via EIP-712. Gamma (gamma-api.polymarket.com) serves market discovery and metadata - public. Data (data-api.polymarket.com) provides historical analytics - public. Official SDKs: py-clob-client for Python, @polymarket/clob-client for TypeScript. Full reference: <a href="/en/guide/api-guide/">Polymarket API Guide</a>.

Yes - Polymarket exposes official APIs and SDKs. Programmatic trading is permitted. What's prohibited: multi-accounting (one person operating multiple wallets) and market manipulation. The 5-minute crypto markets and liquidity-reward markets are designed with bot participation in mind.

Yes - this is where most API users earn. Polymarket distributes about $5M/month in general liquidity rewards plus $5M+/month in sports-specific rewards. The formula favors orders near the midpoint with real size and time on book. Daily payouts at 00:00 UTC. Background: <a href="/en/guide/liquidity-rewards/">Liquidity Rewards Playbook</a>.

We maintain a 32-chapter tutorial series covering stack choice (Python/Rust/Node), VPS hosting, the CLOB and Gamma APIs, order execution patterns, eight strategy templates, paper trading, going live, and real postmortems. Start here: <a href="/en/guide/polymarket-bot-tutorial/">How to Build a Polymarket Trading Bot - 32-Chapter Series</a>.

The collateral asset address in CLOB order signatures changed from USDC.e (0x2791Bca1f2de4661ED88A30C99A7a9449Aa84174) to the new pUSD contract. Order EIP-712 payloads, allowance approvals, and balance queries must reference pUSD. Orders signed against the old USDC.e address were cancelled at the snapshot block on April 28 2026. py-clob-client 0.40+ handles this automatically; older versions fail signature verification. Migration details: <a href="/en/guide/pusd-migration/">pUSD Migration Guide</a>.