Polymarket adds Squads group chat to US app
Polymarket launched Squads, a group-chat and social trading feature, inside its US mobile app on September 8, 2026. The product lets users create shared spaces to discuss markets, share predictions, and coordinate trades together. It adds a collaborative layer to the CFTC-regulated platform as it competes with other regulated venues for active trader engagement. Polymarket bills itself as the world's largest prediction market.
Social features lock in trader attention and drive daily active use, which is the metric platforms compete on most directly. Squads gives Polymarket a retention tool that Kalshi and other CFTC-regulated rivals have not matched in US apps. Group dynamics also concentrate trading volume: a single active squad can pull multiple accounts into the same market, concentrating liquidity and making Polymarket's order book more attractive.
Kalshi's recent Spanish-language launch targets user acquisition through demographics; Polymarket's play is behavioral, betting that friends trade more often and stay longer than solo users. The risk is moderation burden. Unvetted group chat around live markets invites pump-style coordination and regulatory scrutiny. Polymarket must prove it can monitor squad conversation without killing the social energy that justifies the feature. For traders, the shift means prediction markets start to feel like Discord or Reddit with money attached. For competitors, it raises the product bar: a bare order book may soon look dated.