Polymarket Considers Mandatory KYC As Authorities Pressure Sanctions Violations And Geoblocks Iran, Russia, North Korea

Polymarket is reportedly considering mandatory user verification requirements more in line with Know Your Customer (KYC) standards as global authorities apply pressure over sanctions violations and other legal risk to the company.

The Cointelegraph account says Polymarket had “geoblocked” 35 countries as of Wednesday, restricting residents from placing orders on the platform, including Iran, Russia and North Korea.

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Cointelegraph also describes Polymarket users as being allowed to operate under pseudonyms, which it says generally prevents the public from knowing their identities.

The same Cointelegraph report links the platform’s pseudonym model to a case where a US soldier was revealed as the Polymarket user who bet on the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, allegedly using classified information that resulted in a $400,000 payout.

Cointelegraph adds that it reached out to Polymarket for comment on The Information report but did not receive an immediate response.

US President Donald Trump took to Truth Social on Tuesday to express his support for the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) having “exclusive jurisdiction” over prediction markets.

Cointelegraph says Trump’s statements matched those of CFTC Chair Michael Selig, who has filed lawsuits against state-level authorities cracking down on platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket.

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The TradingView account adds that the move comes as multiple countries have blocked or restricted access to the predictions market platform over concerns about illegal gambling.

TradingView also says Polymarket listed several event contracts related to the US-Israel war with Iran, placing the platform’s offerings in the center of the regulatory debate.

TradingView further reports that Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., is a strategic adviser to Kalshi and an adviser to Polymarket, while lawmakers in the US House of Representatives announced a probe into Kalshi and Polymarket citing risks of elected officials engaged in insider trading.

Spain opened sanction proceedings against Polymarket and Kalshi and ordered their websites blocked while regulators investigate whether the two prediction-market platforms operated without required gambling authorization.

The Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego, Spain’s gambling regulator, treats prediction platforms that let users wager on uncertain future events as gambling products, according to the Crypto Adventure report.

Crypto Adventure says the blocking order is a precautionary measure while the case moves toward a final decision, a process expected to take roughly three to four months.

In the same report, Spain’s focus is described as licensing, access controls and consumer safeguards, including that licensed gambling operators in Spain must block minors and self-excluded users.

Crypto Adventure frames the immediate effect for users in Spain as access, while describing the larger issue for prediction markets as whether global growth can continue without country-by-country licensing, stronger geo-blocking, clearer identity checks and tighter market-surveillance controls.