Polymarket is a CFTC-regulated prediction market site that operates in more than 45 US states. This platform is ideal if you’re new to prediction markets or an avid sports trader, while Polymarket offers extensive coverage of cultural, political, and niche events, too.
During our Polymarket view, we also found that the site offers lower liquidity on smaller markets. There’s also a smaller selection of events contracts when compared to rivals like Kalshi. We’ll delve deeper into Polymarket’s offering below, while also comparing it directly to rival brands. This review will explain how to register and claim your welcome bonus, too
Polymarket is legit and available in more than 45 US states, thanks to its federal CFTC regulation. Here’s a brief summary of the operator and a few of its key features.
| 🧑⚖️ Regulator | Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) |
| 🇺🇲 Legal States | 45+ |
| 📲 iOS / Android App Ratings | 4.5/5 (61k+ reviews) / 3.6/5 (13.9k+ reviews) |
| 💲 Minimum Deposit | $10 |
| 💰 Fees | ✅ Variable category-based taker fee structure |
| 💳 Payment Methods | Debit Card (Visa / Mastercard), Revolut, PayPal, Venmo, Wire Transfer |
| ⌛ Withdrawal Time | 1-4 business days |
| 💻 Support Channels | Live chat, social media channels, email ([email protected]) |
You’re eligible to receive a Polymarket signup bonus as a new customer. This comprises a $25 trading bonus and is unlocked with a minimum deposit of $10. Our exclusive promo code ‘SPIN’ will be applied automatically during registration.
This bonus can be claimed once per user or active account. Your deposit and $25 trading bonus can also be used on all open Polymarket odds and prediction markets. This includes weekly and futures NFL markets, crypto, finance, and political events.
The signup process is relatively straightforward, too, but we’ve prepared a step-by-step guide below to get you started:
*18+ Only. Restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Not available in all jurisdictions. Trading involves high risk and may result in loss of your entire investment. See polymarket.us/tos for more information. The Polymarket US App serves as an independent software provider and affiliate of Polymarket US and Polymarket Clearing, the CFTC-regulated derivatives exchange and clearing organization.
With Polymarket, you can buy and sell contracts tied to future event outcomes across multiple categories. These include sports, politics, culture, economics, and cryptocurrency. Trades are typically binary and include “Yes” and “No” outcomes, and you’ll purchase shares based on your analysis and prediction.
Prior to settlement, shares are priced between $0.01 and $0.99. The price implies the probability of a particular outcome occurring, and is set by trading volumes and sentiment. Prices may also be impacted by the bid/ask spread, which works as follows:
Polymarket typically shows the midpoint between these two numbers as each contract’s price and the event’s displayed probability. So, if the bid is 34¢ and the ask is 40¢, the midpoint price of 37¢ is displayed. This event will have a 37% chance of occurring.
Let’s now look at a practical example of trading on Polymarket. You can pick the Bears to beat the Patriots with a -2.5-point spread in the NFL at the price of 55¢. This implies a 55% win probability.
This typically offers an advantage over sportsbooks, which will usually apply commission or “juice” to such odds in order to secure a profit.
Let’s also assume that you invest $100 in total. Here are the potential outcomes:
Polymarket introduced its category-based taker fee structure on July 1st, 2026. This applies variable fees to orders that take liquidity from the book, including market and limit orders. Market makers continue to play 0% fees across all categories. Although taker fees vary from one category to the next, there’s a formula you can use for calculation:
Fee = C (No. of Shares) × Fee Rate × P (Share Price) × (1 – P)
Using the example above, let’s say that you purchase 100 “Yes” shares in the Bears at a price of 55¢. In this case, the fee can be calculated as follows:
100 × 0.05 × 0.55 × (1 – 0.45) = $1.51
Check out the table below to see the full breakdown of how fees are applied across each market category. You should note that the most popular categories carry the highest taker fees:
| Category | Taker Fee Rate | Maker Fee Rate | Maker Rebate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crypto | 0.07 | 0 | 20% |
| Sports | 0.05 | 0 | 15% |
| Finance | 0.04 | 0 | 25% |
| Politics | 0.04 | 0 | 25% |
| Economics | 0.05 | 0 | 25% |
| Culture | 0.05 | 0 | 25% |
| Weather | 0.05 | 0 | 25% |
| Other / General | 0.05 | 0 | 25% |
| Mentions | 0.04 | 0 | 25% |
| Tech | 0.04 | 0 | 25% |
| Geopolitics | 0 | 0 | — |
As mentioned earlier, Polymarket covers a wide range of prediction markets. Polymarket sports, crypto, and finance markets are especially popular, alongside politics and culture. We’ll take a closer look at these categories below, while exploring the types of trade that you can make in each one.
You can trade outcomes in over 15 sports at Polymarket. These include football, cricket, golf, tennis, and soccer. If you’re into esports, I found markets for CS2, LoL, Dota 2, Valorant, and Mobile Legends: Bang Bang as well.
Polymarket also lists live sports prediction markets. During my review, I came across live markets for NFL, NBA, and NHL games.
You can also trade a wide range of markets when browsing high-profile leagues such as the NFL. Most games feature upwards of 550 market outcomes, including moneylines, point spreads, and totals. You can also bet on various futures markets, including the winner of Super Bowl LXI and the regular season NFL MVP.
Polymarket politics prediction markets are heavily focused on US events, such as the upcoming midterms and 2028 Presidential election.
You can trade the outcomes of individual governor and Senate races ahead of the midterms, alongside markets pertaining to the respective performances of the Republican and Democrat parties.
You can buy contracts in global geopolitical events, too. These include presidential elections from across the globe, and outcomes related to the war in Iran (such as “when will the Strait of Hormuz return to normal?”).
Some eligible political markets may unlock so-called “Holding Rewards”, too. These positions provide a 4% annualized return, which is calculated based on the total position value.
The Polymarket culture section is particularly busy, while it’s home to a huge diversity of events and markets. For example, you bet on outcomes at the top awards ceremonies in the world, including the Oscars, the Grammys, and the Time Person of the Year award.
There are relatively niche markets in this category, too. You can trade the volume of Elon Musk’s tweets during different timeframes, alongside the commercial performance of individual films or video games.
Even more speculative contracts can be bought and sold on whether the existence of aliens will be confirmed by the US government prior to the end of 2026.
Some of the most volatile culture markets at the time of writing include People’s Sexiest Man of The Year and the #1 Searched Person on Google for 2026. You can predict the “Highest Grossing Movie of 2026”, too, but the Spider-Man: Brand New Day film currently has a 96% win probability in this market.
Polymarket crypto prediction markets cover a wide range of tokens, including BTC, ETH, XRP, and SOL. You can trade price movements for these tokens within a broad range of timeframes, including five minutes, 24-hours, monthly, and annual windows.
The best and highest volume markets relate to longer-term outcomes. This includes the price of Bitcoin at the end of a particular month. You can also predict BTC’s best performing month in the year and whether or not the token will achieve an all-time high in 2026.
Other niche markets pertain to specific tokens milestones. For example, you can trade whether Satoshi will move any Bitcoin in a particular year, or predict when MicroStrategy will announce holding 650k+ BTC by.
There’s some crossover between Polymarket’s economic prediction markets and categories such as crypto, politics, and finance. Popular markets here pertain to Fed Rate decisions, inflation rates, trade wars, and various macro indicators.
Some of the highest value economic markets revolve around Federal Reserve meetings and interest rate decisions. For example, the market “How many Fed rate cuts in 2026” has generated trading volumes above 54 million, with this contributing to high levels of liquidity.
This category unlocks a huge range of markets overall. You can even trade simple, binary positions such as “How high will inflation get in 2026?”, with specific percentage ranges set as individual contracts.
Currently, Polymarket remains legal in over 45 US states. You can unlock unrestricted access in 38 jurisdictions, while 11 states have imposed restrictions on sports prediction markets (as detailed below). At the time of writing, Nevada is the only state authority to successfully impose a total ban on Polymarket.
Currently, some states are contending that they should be able to regulate prediction market trading independently. This may impact Polymarket’s future availability in some jurisdictions, and has already resulted in restrictions to sports prediction markets.
The international Polymarket site currently utilizes pUSD, its native trading currency, to process and settle trades. However, you must credit your account and withdraw using one of several fiat payment methods in the US, with the CFTC-regulated site presenting your balance in USD.
If you do want to deposit USDC or another accepted token directly, you won’t be able to do so through the US website. Withdrawals must also be carried out using fiat methods, from which you can convert your funds into cryptocurrency using an exchange if you wish. Note that you can only withdraw to a payment method that you’ve previously deposited from.
| Method | Deposit ( ✅ / ❌) | Processing Time | Minimum Deposit | Withdrawal ( ✅ / ❌) | MethodProcessing Time | Fees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Debit Card (Visa / Mastercard) | ✅ | Instant | $10 | ✅ | 3-4 Business Days | None |
| Revolut | ✅ | Instant | $10 | ✅ | 3-4 Business Days | None ($50 minimum transaction required) |
| PayPal | ✅ | Instant | $10 | ❌ | N/A | N/A |
| Venmo | ✅ | Instant | $10 | ❌ | N/A | N/A |
| Wire Transfer | ✅ | Instant | $10 | ✅ | 1 Business Day | None ($1,000 minimum transaction required) |
You can access Polymarket US via both mobile browser and native apps on iOS and Android. However, you can only view markets and categories via the web. I used the Android app to initially register for an account, and the entire process took less than five minutes.
Overall, both apps are fully CFTC-regulated and unlock enhanced security features, including 2FA and biometric logins. According to their respective scores, the iOS app has been particularly well-received by users, with an aggregate score of 4.5/5 over more than 61,000 reviews.
| Operating System | Average Score | No. of Reviews | Storage Space Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| iOS | 4.5/5 | 61k+ | 669.5 MB |
| Android | 3.6/5 | 13.9k+ | 55MB |
Polymarket’s desktop site has a familiar aesthetic and function, with your portfolio and the “Log In” button located in the top right-hand corner. This enables you to view your account and live trades in a single click from the homepage.
Just below that, there’s a horizontal lineup of all the available Polymarket prediction markets, including Sports, Politics, Crypto, and Culture. The lineup also features Trending, Breaking, and New options. When I clicked on “Trending,” I could see the top markets on the site, along with their trading volume.
I also noticed that switching between sections is seamless. Pages loaded in under three seconds with a stable network, and browsing the prediction markets felt lag-free. When you do browse charts and probabilities, you can customize the view to include or remove datasets such as volume, live activity, and buy buttons.
In terms of color, Polymarket offers a dark blue theme, with “Yes” and “No” clearly marked in green and red. This makes it quick to see which side of a market you’re looking at. Overall, Polymarket is easy to use, despite its extensive coverage of markets. I agree with other Polymarket reviews that rate the site highly for usability and browsing markets.
While the Polymarket app may have an excellent score on iOS, brand reviews for the platform as a whole remain scarce. Currently, the US site has a 2.9/5 score on Trustpilot, but this has been aggregated from just two reviews. These are focused on issues pertaining to withheld funds and slow processing times for larger withdrawals.
<b>User review: “This site is very rocky. Since I’ve seen celebrities promoting it, I’d thought it was cool but as soon as I downloaded it and made an account, they robbed me of my $50. Guess I’ll stick to DraftKings and I’ll be adding this to my YT scam channel.” 1/5⭐</b>
FM “Andrew Peterson, Verified User,” US – Trustpilot review, 4th October, 2026
<b>User review: “Do not use this scam of a trading platform. They offer sports betting but do not offer injury void or protection. Instead, they just collect your money. They should void that portion of the bet or readjust. Redemptions take days. Recommended finding a better platform.” 1/5⭐</b>
FM “Blake Hutton,” US – Trustpilot review, 22nd September, 2026
Of course, it’s hard to draw conclusions from such a small sample size of reviews. The same issue can be found on Reddit, where a number of subreddits discuss withdrawal issues and confusion over precisely how prediction markets work. However, most of these categories have received only a small number of comments and minimal engagement.
As we’ve touched on, Polymarket’s US site is officially regulated at federal level by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). This is why the brand has broad availability in more than 45 states, although 11 jurisdictions have sought to restrict sports betting.
Through its regulatory framework and structure, the US site also safeguards your capital in a number of different ways. For example:
The Polymarket brand offers customer support across several channels. When I clicked the blue chat icon in the bottom right of the site, I was connected to a live agent who was polite and offered the guidance I needed. My query was resolved in under five minutes.
You can also reach out via Discord. Join the Polymarket Discord server, go to the Support sidebar, and select #open-a-ticket to start a private conversation with a team member. A quick security tip: don’t share personal info. True Polymarket support staff will never DM you first, and they’ll never ask for your sensitive security information.
Outside of chat, Polymarket also offers email support. When I submitted a question, I received a thoughtful and complete reply within 24 hours. If you’re just getting started or prefer self-help, Polymarket’s FAQ center is a goldmine.
It provides detailed guides on how the site works, including instructions for depositing, withdrawing, and placing trades. There are even video tutorials that guide you through key processes, such as making your first deposit or trade. To access this, click your profile and tap Documentation.
Polymarket’s closest competitor is Kalshi, which was the first federally regulated financial exchange to offer prediction markets in the US. These two operators account for more than 92% of the total prediction market volume stateside, but how do they compare against one another?
| Factor | Polymarket | Kalshi | Which Site is Best? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fees | Taker-only fee structure, variable between different categories | Approximately $0.07 to $1.75 per 100 contracts, split between maker and taker rates | ✅ Polymarket is better for market makers and sports traders |
| Market Depth | Over 1,500 active markets, especially pertaining to sports | Over 3,500 active markets, including hyper-specific sports props | ✅Kalshi offers greater market depth overall, but Polymarket covers more niche markets |
| Trading Volumes | Kalshi has an average weekly trading volume of $19.3 billion | Polymarket’s average weekly trading volume is $3.31 billion | ✅Kalshi offers higher trading volumes and greater liquidity on average |
| Payment Methods | Debit Card (Visa / Mastercard), Revolut, PayPal, Venmo, Wire Transfer | U.S. bank transfer, wire, debit card, Venmo, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal. | ✅Both platforms offer a diverse selection of payment methods |
| Regulation | Polymarket US has held DCM status since November, 2025. The global exchange isn’t a DCM | Kalshi is also a DCM and has held this status since November, 2020 | ✅Both platforms have DCM status and are federally regulated, but Kalshi is more established |
This Polymarket review is based on first-hand testing. This includes analysis of all available markets, license verification, and customer support. We apply the same rigorous testing process to every site that we review, enabling us to relay accurate findings and rank brands transparently. Here’s an overview of the key criteria and how we evaluate them:
Polymarket’s US site has wide availability across more than 45 states and is regulated by the CFTC. The platform offers a broad selection of events across more than 15 categories, while you can access around 550 markets per single NFL game.
During our Polymarket review, we also discovered that new customers were eligible to receive a $25 trading bonus. However, the category-based taker fee structure means that you’ll pay more when executing crypto and sports trades, while the site has only a minimal presence on Trustpilot.
If you do want to register for a Polymarket account, click the banner below and auto-apply your SPIN promo code. If you’re still unsure, read on to see similar sites or the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions.
Polymarket is very serious about responsible trading, especially for its US users. This enables the brand to comply with the CFTC and protect your capital, with all customer funds segregated from Polymarket’s operational cash. Here are some other responsible trading tools and guidelines, some of which were formally rolled out on September 30th.
Yes, Polymarket is available in the US. But it’s only accessible through the dedicated Polymarket US platform. This is regulated by the CFTC, offers fewer markets than the international site, and does not accept crypto deposits. However, it also applies stringent KYC checks and is incredibly secure.
Polymarket isn’t a traditional betting site. Instead, you trade outcome shares on events using simple Yes/No contracts. Each share settles at $1.00 if your prediction is correct. You can also sell profitable positions prior to settlement if there’s enough liquidity in the market.
No. Polymarket doesn’t charge fees for deposits or withdrawals at the time of writing. This applies across all payment methods. Just note that some payment providers may charge transaction fees of their own.
Yes! Polymarket moved from its fee-free structure earlier this year, introducing variable, category-based taker fees from July 1st, 2026. You can review the table earlier in the guide to confirm the precise taker fee rate for each category. Remember that market makers continue to play 0% fees.
Yes. Polymarket is safe and operates with approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). For extra account protection, you can enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) and bio-security features. These are available across native apps on iOS and Android.
Absolutely! There’s a great Polymarket welcome offer. Simply deposit $10 and get a $25 trading bonus. Make sure you read all the terms and conditions before you attempt to join, and check above to see where Polymarket is available in the US and internationally.
Ahead of the 2026/27 NFL season, Polymarket US introduced its brand new “Squads” feature. This enhances the social aspect of prediction market trading, by creating invitational group chats that help you build predictions with your friends.
Yes, you can! However, most accounts (up to 84.1%) are thought to lose money overall, while around 3.14 deliver a return. However, careful bankroll management can help you to control your capital and minimize losses over time.
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