Polymarket, the world’s largest decentralized prediction market, is rapidly dismantling its long-standing permissionless trading model.
Facing intense global regulatory heat and an upcoming congressional deadline, the platform has launched an aggressive crackdown on VPN workarounds and is actively pushing users toward identity verification.
The compliance surge comes as the U.S. House Oversight Committee demands Polymarket’s Know Your Customer (KYC) and geographic enforcement records. According to reports from The Information, the platform is outright blocking known VPN IP ranges and flagging accounts exhibiting evasive behavior. While basic wallet-based trading via the USDC stablecoin on the Polygon network remains operational for allowed international regions, fully anonymous access is no longer the default.
Polymarket’s updated internal thresholds now strictly target high-volume activity. Traders managing seven-figure positions or executing rapid five-figure deposit-and-withdrawal cycles are automatically triggered for mandatory identity checks to satisfy strict anti-money laundering (AML) protocols.
Conversely, the platform is incentivizing compliance. International users who voluntarily complete KYC or Know Your Business (KYB) forms receive premium perks, including direct server co-location to significantly reduce trading latency.
The sudden shift highlights the immense pressure prediction markets face as governments debate whether to classify them as unauthorized derivatives or illegal gambling.
More than 33 countries now enforce full restrictions or technical blocks against Polymarket. Spain recently ordered local internet service providers to block the platform due to a lack of gambling licenses and minor-protection guardrails. Jurisdictions like Indonesia, France, Brazil, Australia, and the United Kingdom have similarly tightened restrictions.
Even in permitted regions, enforcement is bleeding into local tech policy.
In India, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued an advisory urging VPN providers to actively block access to Polymarket, citing concerns over citizens using stablecoins to bypass domestic bans. Meanwhile, U.S. states like Utah are passing legislation holding web platforms and app developers legally liable if they allow users to circumvent age and geographic blocks via VPNs.
This aggressive policing marks a major turning point for Polymarket, which paid a $1.4 million settlement to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in 2022 over unregistered binary options. In 2025, the company acquired a CFTC-licensed exchange to launch a fully compliant, separate U.S. arm, leaving its international platform to navigate a rapidly closing window for anonymous trading.
For privacy-centric crypto traders, the message is clear: the era of friction-free, borderless prediction betting is ending as corporate survival takes precedence over decentralization.
