Institutional traders reach Polymarket in two ways. The international platform runs a hybrid central limit order book: orders are matched off-chain and settled on Polygon against USDC-backed collateral. Polymarket US is a CFTC-regulated exchange that grew out of Polymarket’s acquisition of QCEX. Both offer API trading, but they differ in onboarding, collateral, connectivity and who may use them, so desks should confirm eligibility for either venue with their own counsel before they trade.

This guide covers how each venue works, how markets resolve, what an API setup involves, and what a fund needs around the venue to trade it with the same controls it applies to crypto derivatives.

How Polymarket is structured

The international platform

Every Polymarket market is a set of outcome tokens. A Yes share pays $1 if the event happens and nothing if it does not, so the price of a share reads as the market’s implied probability. Orders are matched by Polymarket’s off-chain CLOB and settled on Polygon through the exchange contracts, which means positions sit in the trader’s own wallet rather than in an exchange account.

Collateral is a dollar stablecoin. Since the CLOB V2 upgrade in April 2026, the platform uses Polymarket USD (pUSD), a standard ERC-20 backed by USDC, in place of the bridged USDC.e used previously. V2 also moved fees to an operator-set rate applied at match time, so check the fee schedule for each market type rather than assuming a flat rate. Polymarket’s terms prohibit US persons, and anyone acting on their behalf, from trading on the international platform, and orders from the US are geoblocked.

Polymarket US

Polymarket US is operated by QCX LLC, a CFTC-designated contract market. The CFTC amended its order of designation in November 2025, the US exchange launched in December 2025, and the public waitlist was removed in May 2026. Clearing runs through a separate Polymarket clearing entity. Institutions register through the Polymarket Institutional portal as a market maker, hedge fund, FCM, introducing broker or ISV, and connect over REST, gRPC or FIX, with FIX delivered over a private AWS connection. FCMs can intermediate customer access. Which route a given fund can use is a legal question, and the answer belongs to counsel.

How Polymarket markets resolve

Most Polymarket markets resolve through the UMA Optimistic Oracle. After the event, a proposer posts a bond (typically $750) and submits an outcome. A two-hour challenge window follows. If nobody disputes, the market resolves. A dispute triggers a second proposal round, and a second dispute escalates the question to a vote of UMA token holders, which adds a debate period and roughly two days of voting. UMA also supports a proposer whitelist that Polymarket can apply market by market, limiting proposals to addresses with a record of accurate proposals, while disputes stay open to anyone.

For a desk, the operational consequence is that settlement timing is not fixed. Capital stays locked until resolution, a disputed market can take days to finalize, and the market’s written rules are the contract. Read them before sizing a position, especially the resolution source and any edge cases.

Crypto price markets

Polymarket lists a large set of crypto price markets: short-dated Up or Down markets on BTC and other assets over windows as short as five and fifteen minutes, plus threshold markets such as whether BTC finishes above a given level on a given date. The short-dated Up or Down markets resolve automatically from a Chainlink TWAP price stream rather than through the UMA proposal process.

Economically these are binary options. A Yes share on “BTC above X at expiry” behaves like a digital call, with delta and vega that can be expressed in BTC terms and hedged with listed options. Two details matter when you do that. The resolution price source is not the same index a derivatives exchange settles against, which leaves basis risk at expiry, and the expiry timestamp rarely lines up with a listed option’s expiry.

Operational setup for the international CLOB

Trading the international platform through its API takes more setup than a centralized exchange account, because identity is a wallet rather than a login.

• Wallets. Polymarket separates the signer, which authorizes orders, from the account wallet that holds funds and positions. Institutions can keep the signing key in an HSM or MPC setup and run separate wallets per strategy or book.
• Authentication. The CLOB API uses two layers. An EIP-712 signature from the wallet (L1) creates or derives API credentials, and those credentials (key, secret and passphrase) sign private requests with HMAC-SHA256 (L2). Each order also carries its own wallet signature.
• Market data. Market discovery, order books and public trades are available without authentication through the Gamma, CLOB and Data APIs, with WebSocket streams for live books.
• SDKs and versions. Legacy V1 clients stopped working at the V2 cutover. Integrations need the V2 SDKs or updated raw order signing, and resting V1 orders were not migrated. A separate upgrade, Polymarket Protocol V2, moves new markets onto new position tokens and exchange contracts in phases from November 23, 2026, starting with crypto Up/Down markets, so integrations need to select V2 position IDs and signing for those markets while keeping support for existing ones.
• Funding. Collateral moves onchain as pUSD on Polygon, so treasury, custody and accounting teams need a process for deposits, withdrawals and wallet reconciliation.

What desks need beyond the venue

Polymarket supplies an order book and an API. A fund trading it at size needs the rest of the stack that it already runs for crypto derivatives.

Execution comes first. Many Polymarket books are thin away from the touch, so a desk working size needs slicing, passive pegging and per-level size caps instead of a single marketable order. Pre-trade limits matter for the same reason: a fat-fingered order on a thin book prints at a price nobody wanted.

Risk aggregation is the second need. A Polymarket position on a BTC threshold carries BTC delta and vega that belong in the same view as Deribit options and perpetuals, and an event contract on the same question may trade on Kalshi at a different price. Holding these in separate spreadsheets means the desk cannot see its real net exposure. For a worked example of hedging event contracts with listed options, see our guide to hedging Kalshi and Polymarket crypto contracts with Deribit options.

Audit is the third. Compliance teams want consolidated order and fill records, resolution outcomes and wallet movements that reconcile to the positions in the risk system, in a form they can review without reading block explorers.

Running Polymarket through Kemet

Kemet connects Polymarket to the same platform that desks use for Kalshi, Deribit, Coinbase, OKX, Binance, Bullish, Hyperliquid and Derive. Your desk connects its own Polymarket account with credentials it provisions and controls. Kemet never takes custody: collateral and positions stay in your wallet, and Kemet is a technology provider, not an exchange, broker, FCM or counterparty. Venue access depends on each venue’s own eligibility rules: Polymarket’s international platform, Deribit, Binance and OKX are not available to US persons directly, and US desks reach Polymarket through Polymarket US. Desks should confirm eligibility with counsel.

• One portfolio and risk view puts Polymarket and Kalshi event contracts next to Deribit options, perpetuals and spot, so delta and vega from a BTC threshold market show up where the hedge sits.
• Execution algorithms work orders into thin event-contract books rather than crossing the spread in one clip.
• Auto-hedging with thresholds can offset the crypto exposure from event contracts with Deribit perpetuals or options, firing when delta moves past a level you set.
• Pre-trade limits and consolidated order and fill records give risk and compliance one place to check activity across venues.
• New Polymarket markets sync the same day they go live, and the REST and WebSocket API plus an MCP server for AI agents let systematic desks automate the workflow.
• Kemet is SOC 2 Type II compliant.

Kemet connects to Polymarket US as well as the international platform, so eligible desks can run either from the same workspace. For the wider picture, see our overview of institutional prediction markets trading, our comparison of Kalshi vs Polymarket for institutional desks, and how Kemet and FalconX bring institutional execution to Kalshi.

FAQ

Can institutions trade Polymarket through an API?

Yes. The international platform exposes a CLOB API with wallet-based L1 authentication and HMAC-signed L2 credentials, and Polymarket US offers REST, gRPC and FIX for registered institutional participants. The two have separate onboarding. Polymarket also offers an invitation-only RFQ Trades API for privately negotiated trades submitted by approved partner platforms.

Is Polymarket regulated for US institutions?

Polymarket US operates as a CFTC-designated contract market. Polymarket’s terms prohibit US persons, and anyone acting on their behalf, from trading on the international platform, and orders from the US are geoblocked. Eligibility depends on your entity, location and route of access, so confirm it with counsel. Nothing here is legal advice.

How long does a Polymarket market take to settle?

An undisputed UMA resolution completes after a two-hour challenge window. A disputed market can take several days because it goes through a second proposal and possibly a token holder vote. Short-dated crypto Up or Down markets resolve automatically from a Chainlink TWAP price stream.

Does Kemet hold our funds or our Polymarket wallet?

No. You connect your own account and credentials, and collateral and positions stay with you. Kemet provides execution, risk and workflow software.

Can we hedge Polymarket crypto markets with Deribit options in one book?

Yes. Kemet shows Polymarket, Kalshi and Deribit positions in one portfolio and risk view, and auto-hedging can offset the resulting delta on Deribit within limits you set.

Want to see Polymarket, Kalshi and Deribit in one book? Book a demo.