Polymarket Launches U.S. Comeback Campaign After Four-Year Ban, Targets Policymakers and Regulators

After four years “in exile,” Polymarket began a U.S. comeback campaign aimed at convincing policymakers, regulators, the public and prospective customers that its onshore operation is more disciplined than the offshore exchange, AP reported.

“Polymarket bets on U”

@coindesk

The company has hired social media influencers to produce viral marketing on TikTok and other platforms and signed partnership deals with major sports teams and Major League Baseball, as well as news organizations ranging from CNBC to CNN.

@coindesk

Polymarket began operating again in the U.S. at the end of 2025 after buying the derivatives exchange QCEX to get the regulatory license to operate in the country, and executives say the U.S. exchange is “walled off from the international platform.”

Dan Lee, head of U.S. operations at Polymarket, said in an interview, “Trust is the product we are building here,” as the campaign depends on whether it can convince people that Polymarket U.S. can be a trusted prediction market platform.

The stakes are high for the company because the prediction market industry has changed and grown since its 2022 departure, with trading volume across Polymarket and Kalshi at $26.6 billion, according to blockchain analytics firm Dune.

CoinDesk reported that Polymarket agreed to stop serving U.S. customers as part of a $1.4 million settlement with the CFTC, which alleged it had offered unregistered event-based derivatives.

CoinDesk also said that in late 2024 federal law enforcement officials raided Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan’s home as part of an investigation into whether the platform continued serving U.S. users despite the agreement not to.

Benzinga

The CoinDesk report said Polymarket’s U.S. rehabilitation started in December with a CFTC-supervised mobile app that lets users bet real money on sports events, and that Dan Lee told AP on Wednesday that the international business “masks the progress we are making here in the U.S.”

In the same CoinDesk coverage, rival platform Kalshi has been operating under CFTC supervision since 2020, and CoinDesk reported Kalshi’s follower count at 431,400 compared with Polymarket’s X account at 1.7 million followers.

The AP story described how Polymarket’s U.S. platform is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and funded with traditional U.S. dollars, while Polymarket International is built on blockchain technology and requires users to trade with cryptocurrency.

AP said Polymarket’s reentry has been “a rough start” and that the Wall Street Journal found evidence that Polymarket’s advertising and marketing campaigns involved paid influencers promoting simulated trades and winnings without adequate sponsorship disclosures.

“Escalating tensions in the Middle East and renewed concerns about a potential war between the US and Iran have profoundly shaken global financial markets, including the cryptocurrency world”

Bitget

CoinDesk reported that Polymarket told the Wall Street Journal it was “committed to maintaining accurate, fair, and transparent markets,” and that investigations by U.S. prosecutors and the CFTC were dropped seven months later without charges after a change in presidential administration.

AP added that Polymarket’s U.S. platform will have a much narrower number of contracts and more regulations than its international counterpart, and that customers using Polymarket U.S. versus Polymarket International won’t notice the difference except for how they fund accounts.

The AP report also said Polymarket has hired Megan McGrath from Robinhood as its new chief compliance officer and brought in former Department of Justice and FBI officials as the platform’s head of enforcement and new surveillance head.

CoinDesk said Polymarket is mounting a U.S. comeback campaign that includes influencer-driven marketing and partnerships with major sports teams and news outlets like CNBC and CNN, and that it is working to persuade policymakers, regulators and potential users that it is trustworthy.