Since 2022, Polymarket has been officially unavailable to US users. But the ban hasn’t stopped Americans from remaining a dominant user group on the prediction platform.
According to Allium analysts, US citizens remain the largest category of users on Polymarket’s political markets–even though the company officially blocked their access in 2022. Americans bypass the geo-block through VPNs and other methods.
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Allium estimates that the US ranks first in both the number of crypto wallets and contract volume on political markets among all countries. This refers to Polymarket’s global platform, not the regulated Polymarket US, which launched later with a limited set of markets.
Why Americans Haven’t Left Polymarket
Polymarket was forced to block US users in 2022 as part of a $1.4M CFTC settlement. But IP-based blocking and VPN restrictions haven’t fully stopped US participation. Allium’s research found that “access restrictions did not end US participation; they made the US the largest single political market on Polymarket by volume.” Demand persists–now offshore, beyond US oversight.
US user interests differ from the global audience. Five of the twelve most popular markets by volume among US users are related to the Iran war. Americans show significantly less interest in elections–a category that is allowed on regulated platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket US.
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Allium summarized:
“US dollars are flowing toward foreign wars, recently Iran, and mostly bypassing elections traded by the global crowd.”
Allium’s data aligns with a June study by Rutgers statistician Harry Crane. He estimated that 30% of Polymarket’s trading volume comes from the US. Between May 2025 and April 2026, US users sent between $10.6B and $26.7B through Polymarket. Crane used trade timestamps and market categories to identify US traders. Polymarket is reportedly tightening VPN enforcement by blocking certain IP addresses linked to VPN services.
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Where Else Is Polymarket Blocked?
Polymarket is fully blocked in more than 34 countries. Spain recently joined the list, imposing a block as a “preventive measure” while investigating platforms operating without licenses.
Four other countries–Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, and Poland–are in “close-only” mode, allowing users to close positions but not open new ones. There are also four restricted regions–Ontario in Canada, and Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk in Ukraine.
The dominance of US users on Polymarket’s global platform shows that geo-blocking is ineffective when demand for political betting remains high.
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