Polymarket has reportedly removed the waitlist on its US iOS app, opening its prediction-market exchange to general American users for the first time since 2022. The comeback rests on its $112 million QCEX acquisition and a CFTC no-action letter, and it sharpens an already intense rivalry with market leader Kalshi.
Polymarket has switched on full access to its iOS app for users in the United States, reportedly removing the invitation-only waitlist that had gated the platform since its soft relaunch. The company had previously confirmed that more than 1.4 million customers had registered for access during the waitlist phase. The app is available to verified US users aged 18 and over, though Polymarket has not yet released an Android version and has given no timeline for one. Reporting on the exact scope differs, with some outlets describing a continued phased rollout to waitlisted users rather than instant open access, so the precise pace of onboarding remains unclear.
The exchange offers event contracts that settle on real-world outcomes, from sports and elections to cultural and economic events. Under the Commodity Exchange Act, the CFTC treats these binary contracts as swaps that can only be offered on a registered venue, which is why Polymarket's US return depended on acquiring licensed infrastructure rather than simply relaunching its old offshore product. Early activity has clustered around marquee sporting events: Polymarket reported roughly $60 million in all-sports volume during March Madness and figures rising sharply through the 2026 Masters.
The relaunch follows the most consequential deal in Polymarket's history. In July 2025 the company said it had acquired QCEX, the holding entity behind QCX, LLC, a CFTC-licensed derivatives exchange, and QC Clearing LLC, a licensed clearinghouse, for $112 million. Founder and chief executive Shayne Coplan said the purchase laid the foundation "to bring Polymarket home, re-entering the US as a fully regulated and compliant platform that will allow Americans to trade their opinions."
Polymarket's US exile dates to January 2022, when the CFTC ordered Blockratize, Inc., doing business as Polymarket, to pay a $1.4 million civil penalty. According to the CFTC order, the platform had offered event-based binary options without registering as a designated contract market or a swap execution facility. The settlement required Polymarket to wind down non-compliant markets and to cease and desist, and the company blocked US customers as a result.
The QCEX acquisition gave Polymarket the licences it had previously lacked. In September 2025 the CFTC's Division of Market Oversight and Division of Clearing and Risk issued a no-action letter to QCX LLC and QC Clearing LLC, indicating that staff would not recommend enforcement over certain swap-data reporting and record-keeping requirements for event contracts. Coverage of the letter stressed that no-action relief is case-by-case staff guidance rather than a blanket endorsement of prediction markets, a distinction worth keeping in view as the sector scales.
The commercial reality is that Polymarket's contracts let users stake money on whether a future event happens, with a binary payout if they are correct. That is, in substance, indistinguishable from a wager, yet it is supervised by a derivatives regulator rather than by gambling authorities or a state licensing regime. This is the channelisation question at the heart of US prediction markets: by routing event betting through a CFTC-registered exchange, operators access all 50 states at once, sidestepping the state-by-state friction that constrains conventional sportsbooks.
The distance Polymarket has travelled, from a penalised unregistered operator to a licensed exchange, illustrates how quickly the enforcement posture can shift. The same conduct that drew a $1.4 million penalty in 2022 is now conducted through entities holding federal licences. That is a legitimate compliance turnaround, but it also shows how much depends on the durability of staff-level no-action relief and on whether state regulators, several of which have challenged sports event contracts, accept the federal-pre-emption argument that underpins the model.
Polymarket returns to a market it no longer dominates. Rival Kalshi, which never left the US, has led on volume through 2026, reportedly holding around 58% of US prediction-market flow against Polymarket's 28% in May 2026 data. The two have tended to specialise, with Kalshi stronger on US politics, economics and weather and Polymarket deeper on international and cultural markets. On the 2026 Masters, Kalshi reportedly out-traded Polymarket by roughly $460 million to $255 million, and Kalshi's most recent funding round valued it well above the figure reported for Polymarket's ongoing talks. Polymarket's iOS launch narrows the access gap with its rival, but closing the volume and valuation gap is a different contest. Whether a fully open US app can shift share will become clearer over the next few quarters.
