Polymarket faces renewed CFTC inquiry into U.S. access to offshore platform

Polymarket faces a renewed U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission inquiry into whether it complied with a 2022 settlement restricting Americans’ access to its offshore prediction market, CNBC reported on Oct. 27, citing a person familiar with the matter. The agency is also examining safeguards on the company’s separate U.S. platform.

The CFTC is examining controls designed to determine where offshore customers are located and Polymarket’s advertising in the United States, CNBC’s source said. Reuters separately reported the inquiry, citing two people familiar with the matter, according to crypto.news. The inquiry has produced no announced finding that Polymarket breached the settlement.

What the CFTC is examining on Polymarket’s U.S. platform

CNBC’s source described the settlement inquiry as part of a broader CFTC investigation opened earlier in 2026 and said it concerned previous conduct, rather than the offshore platform’s present operations. The source did not give a start date for this part of the inquiry. Polymarket declined to comment on the investigation, CNBC reported, and the CFTC did not respond to its request for comment.

Why the 2022 Polymarket settlement matters

In 2022, Polymarket stopped U.S. users from accessing its platform and paid a $1.4 million civil penalty under a CFTC enforcement settlement, according to CNBC. The renewed inquiry asks whether the restrictions the company used met its obligations under that agreement. Whether Americans subsequently accessed the offshore platform has not been established.

The CFTC opened a previous investigation in 2024 into whether Polymarket was complying with the agreement, while the Justice Department opened a related investigation, CNBC reported. Both agencies closed those investigations in July 2025. Crypto.news reported that the earlier investigations ended without charges; federal authorities did not publicly explain their decisions.