Americans lead Polymarket political betting with $571 million despite U.S. restrictions
Americans placed $571 million in political bets on Polymarket over the past year, more than any other country's users, despite the platform being geoblocked in the U.S., according to blockchain data cited by multiple outlets. The activity highlights a gap between Polymarket's access restrictions and actual trading flows from U.S. wallets. Neither source specifies how users bypassed geoblocks or when Polymarket implemented them.
The $571 million figure gives the CFTC a concrete dollar amount to cite if it treats U.S. access as willful non-compliance rather than a leaky geoblock. Polymarket, that reframes its federal registration from a shield into potential evidence of systemic gaps.
The platform is already defending staged-bet allegations and a Google engineer insider-trading case, and this data adds a third thread to the same question: whether its surveillance and identity controls match the scale of its markets. Any CFTC finding that U.S. volume reflects inadequate compliance would force immediate operational restructuring, likely stricter identity verification or reduced contract availability, just as competitors like Kalshi press their regulatory advantage.