Polymarket US vs Polymarket.com (2026): What U.S. Users Can and Can't Trade

Polymarket is two exchanges wearing one logo. If you are in the United States, the only version you can legally use is Polymarket US, a CFTC-regulated exchange that launched in early 2026 and now has its own iOS and Android apps. Everyone else uses Polymarket.com, the international platform that still geoblocks U.S. IP addresses, settles in crypto, and in September 2026 added leveraged perpetual futures that U.S. users cannot touch.

This guide lays out the differences side by side so you know which one you are actually signing up for, what you can trade, and what to do if the thing you want is only on the other side of the fence.

The Two Platforms at a Glance

	Polymarket US	Polymarket.com (International)
Operator	QCX LLC d/b/a Polymarket US, a CFTC-registered Designated Contract Market, with Polymarket Clearing as the clearing organization	Adventure One QSS Inc., an offshore entity not regulated by the CFTC
Who can use it	U.S. residents, all 50 states	Everyone outside the U.S. except restricted countries (UK, France, Germany, Singapore, Australia and others)
Where	polymarket.us, plus the "Polymarket" apps on the App Store (U.S. storefront only, iOS 18+) and Google Play	polymarket.com in any browser, installed as a home-screen web app on mobile. No native app.
Identity check	Full KYC: government ID, SSN, live selfie, proof of U.S. residency	None for most users. Sign in with email, Google or a crypto wallet.
Funding	U.S. dollars via regulated intermediaries. No crypto deposits.	USDC, USDT and other crypto, auto-converted to pUSD on Polygon
Market categories	Sports, Politics, Crypto, Weather, Tech, Culture, Economics	All of those plus Geopolitics, Breaking news, Combos, Mentions, and a much longer tail of event markets
Perpetual futures	Not offered	88 markets, up to 50x leverage (blocked for U.S. and Canada)
Fees	Taker fee by category using the same C × rate × p × (1 − p) formula; makers pay nothing	Taker fee by category, 0.04 to 0.07 rate parameters, makers pay nothing and earn rebates; perps 0.04% taker / 0.0125% maker
Languages	English	English plus 20+ interface languages, including Spanish, French, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Chinese
Public API	No public trading API documented	Full public APIs for market data, order placement, positions and perps

The shared brand hides a hard wall: separate order books, separate balances, separate rulebooks. Nothing moves between them.

How U.S. Access Works

Polymarket settled with the CFTC in 2022, paid $1.4 million, and agreed to block U.S. users from the international exchange. That block never went away. What changed in 2025 and 2026 is that Polymarket bought a licensed exchange (QCX) and relaunched as Polymarket US, a Designated Contract Market under CFTC supervision.

In practice that means:

• You sign up at polymarket.us or in the Polymarket US app, not at polymarket.com.
• You complete full KYC before you can trade. Expect to upload ID, enter your SSN and take a selfie. See Why Polymarket Needs Your SSN for what happens with that data.
• You fund in dollars. There is no USDC deposit address.
• Contracts are regulated event contracts. Each market goes through the CFTC's product rules, which is why categories are narrower.

The App Store listing is explicit about this. The "Polymarket: Trade Live Sports" app is published by Blockratize Inc, requires iOS 18 or later, and is only listed on the U.S. storefront. We checked 25 other country storefronts in October 2026 and none carry it. The Google Play listing describes itself as the "Polymarket US App." If you are outside the U.S., those apps are not for you. See the mobile guide for the international install method.

What U.S. Users Can Trade

Polymarket US organizes its markets into Sports, Politics, Crypto, Weather, Tech, Culture and Econ. The sports book is the deepest part: NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, UFC, college football, European soccer leagues and international competitions, with "LiveTrade" in-game trading. Election and policy markets are allowed under the CFTC's current approach to event contracts, and crypto price markets (Bitcoin above or below a level by a date) are available as event contracts.

Not available on Polymarket US:

• Geopolitics and conflict markets. War outcomes, ceasefires, leadership changes and similar markets live only on the international site.
• Perpetual futures. No leveraged long or short exposure on crypto, stocks, indices or commodities.
• Long-tail event markets. The international site lists thousands of niche markets. Polymarket US lists what has cleared the regulated product pipeline.
• Crypto funding and on-chain settlement. Positions are not tokens you can move to a wallet.

What International Users Get That U.S. Users Don't

If you are outside the U.S., the international site is the more complete product:

• Perps. 88 perpetual markets as of October 2026, from BTC at 50x to Nvidia at 10x and gold at 20x, sharing one pUSD balance with your prediction markets. Full breakdown in our Perps guide.
• Geopolitics, Breaking, Mentions and Combos categories.
• Wallet-based access. No KYC for most countries, and your positions are on-chain tokens you control.
• A public API that powers bots, trackers and analytics tools.
• Interface in your language.

The trade-off is regulatory. The international site is not CFTC-supervised, and your recourse if something goes wrong is the platform itself, not a U.S. regulator.

Fees Compared

Both platforms now use the same style of taker-only fee: the fee on a fill is the number of contracts times a category rate times p × (1 − p), where p is the price. That makes fees highest at 50 cents and near zero at the extremes.

On the international site the published rate parameters are 0.07 for crypto, 0.05 for sports, economics, culture and weather, 0.04 for politics, finance, tech and mentions, and 0 for geopolitics, with maker rebates of 20 to 25 percent. Polymarket US publishes a comparable category schedule; third-party trackers report the same 4, 5 and 7 percent parameters since July 2026, but check the live schedule inside the app before sizing up. Deposits and withdrawals of USDC are free on the international site. Polymarket US costs depend on your funding intermediary.

The international site's perps have a separate schedule: 0.04 percent taker and 0.0125 percent maker on notional at the entry tier. Full detail in Polymarket Fees Explained.

U.S. Traders Who Want Perps: Your Options

Since Polymarket's perps are off-limits, the regulated alternatives for U.S. residents in late 2026 are:

1. Kalshi. The CFTC approved Kalshi's Bitcoin perpetual (BTCPERP) in May 2026 and it went live in June under the "American Perpetuals" line, later joined by 17 altcoin contracts. Contracts are USD-margined with no expiry. Leverage is set per asset and is far lower than offshore venues; reported tiers for altcoins run from about 1.9x to 4.5x. Check Kalshi's contract specifications for the current Bitcoin tier.
2. Coinbase Derivatives. Coinbase offers CFTC-regulated, perpetual-style futures on Bitcoin and Ethereum for U.S. customers through its derivatives arm. Leverage and margin are set by the exchange and its FCM partners.
3. Wait. Polymarket has filed for U.S. margin trading through an affiliated entity. Nothing was approved as of October 2026. Our CFTC rulemaking tracker follows this.

What you should not do is use a VPN to reach polymarket.com. It violates the terms of both platforms, your account can be frozen with funds inside, and you give up any U.S. legal recourse. Our VPN and geo-restrictions guide explains how detection works.

Which One Should You Use?

The honest answer is that you don't get to choose. Your residency decides.

• U.S. resident: Polymarket US. Download the app from the U.S. App Store or Google Play, or go to polymarket.us. Expect KYC and dollar funding.
• Everyone else in a supported country: Polymarket.com. Sign up with email or a wallet, fund with USDC, and you get events and perps in one account.
• Dual residents or frequent travelers: You are bound by where you actually are when you trade. Polymarket US checks residency, and the international site geoblocks U.S. IPs. Holding accounts on both is possible if you genuinely live in both jurisdictions, but the accounts stay separate.

Common Questions

Will my polymarket.com account work on Polymarket US? No. They are separate systems with separate logins. A U.S. resident who opened an international account before the geoblock cannot migrate it.

Can a U.S. citizen living abroad use polymarket.com? Access is based on where you are and where you reside, not your passport. The international site blocks U.S. IP addresses and U.S. residents. U.S. citizens who live in a supported country can generally use it, but tax obligations still follow you. See tax implications.

Does Polymarket US have the same odds as polymarket.com? No. The order books are separate, so prices on the same question can differ. Arbitrage between them is not possible because funds and positions cannot cross over.

Is Polymarket US available in every state? Polymarket says it is legal in all 50 states as a CFTC-regulated exchange. State-level challenges to event contracts are ongoing and could change availability in specific states.

Does Polymarket US have an API? There is no public trading API for Polymarket US as of October 2026. The international site's APIs are documented at docs.polymarket.com.

Related Reading

• Is Polymarket Legal in the United States?
• Polymarket Perpetual Futures Guide
• Why Polymarket Needs Your SSN
• Polymarket vs Kalshi