Meta description: JPMorgan ended Polymarket’s deposit relationship while keeping other ties, as CFTC records and ICE filings frame the banking risk.
Tags: Polymarket, JPMorgan Chase, CFTC, ICE, Kalshi
Market platform: Polymarket
Category: Industry
JPMorgan Chase told Polymarket in October 2025 to find another banking provider because of regulatory concerns, the Financial Times reported. The same report said the bank has kept other commercial ties with Polymarket and is seeking a role in a possible initial public offering, underscoring Wall Street’s split view of the prediction-market operator.
Polymarket told the Financial Times that it continues to have a close, active relationship with JPMorgan across several entities and operational functions involving customer-fund flows. JPMorgan declined to comment to the publication.
Why did JPMorgan end Polymarket’s deposit relationship?
The reported reason was regulatory risk. Polymarket’s U.S. record includes a January 3, 2022 Commodity Futures Trading Commission order requiring Blockratize Inc., doing business as Polymarket, to pay a $1.4 million civil monetary penalty. The CFTC said Polymarket offered off-exchange event-based binary options contracts and failed to obtain designation as a designated contract market or registration as a swap execution facility.
The CFTC order also required Polymarket to wind down markets that did not comply with the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations. Polymarket later blocked U.S. users from trading on its original platform.
That history matters for banks because deposit relationships require continuing compliance review, not only a one-time transaction approval. The Financial Times attributed JPMorgan’s decision to regulatory concerns around Polymarket. The bank has not publicly given a separate explanation.
The timing overlapped with Polymarket’s attempt to rebuild a regulated U.S. path. CFTC industry filings show QCX LLC, now doing business as Polymarket US, was designated as a contract market on July 9, 2025. Polymarket acquired QCEX, the parent of QCX, in July 2025.
On September 3, 2025, CFTC staff issued a no-action release addressing swap data reporting and recordkeeping obligations for event contracts executed on QCX LLC and cleared through QC Clearing LLC. The CFTC’s DCM filing page also lists an amended order of designation for QCX dated November 24, 2025.
What business does JPMorgan still do with Polymarket?
The banking exit was not a full break. The Financial Times reported that JPMorgan maintained other ties with Polymarket and was positioning itself for a role in a potential IPO. The same report said Polymarket chief executive Shayne Coplan had been invited to speak at a JPMorgan client event.
That posture is notable because deposit services and IPO underwriting create different kinds of exposure. A bank can decide that a deposit relationship carries too much compliance risk while still viewing advisory or capital-markets work as attractive if the company moves toward public markets. JPMorgan has not publicly explained how it weighs those risks in Polymarket’s case.
JPMorgan’s broader interest in the category has also surfaced in public comments from chief executive Jamie Dimon. In April 2026, Dimon told CBS News that JPMorgan was studying prediction markets, saying, “It’s possible one day.” He said the bank would not touch sports or political markets, while noting that some areas could resemble investing when participants bring specialized knowledge.
Those comments were not a product launch or a commitment to enter the sector. They did show that one of the country’s largest banks is examining prediction-market infrastructure while compliance concerns remain a practical constraint for platform operators.
How large is the Polymarket opportunity?
Polymarket’s financing profile has changed sharply since the 2022 CFTC order. Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, announced on March 27, 2026 that it completed a new $600 million direct cash investment in Polymarket as part of Polymarket’s equity fundraising.
ICE said the March investment was part of a previously announced investment arrangement and that it expected to buy up to $40 million of Polymarket securities from certain existing holders. ICE also said valuation terms for the March investment would be disclosed after Polymarket’s fundraising was completed.
The exchange operator said in the release that it planned to use Polymarket’s event-driven data and work with the company on tokenization initiatives. The investment gave Polymarket a major institutional backer from the exchange industry, even as the company’s regulatory and banking relationships remained under scrutiny.
Bloomberg reported in April 2026 that Polymarket was seeking additional funding after securing $600 million from ICE. More recent reporting from the Financial Times and The Times said Polymarket was seeking more than $1 billion at a valuation around $20 billion. If completed on those terms, the raise would place Polymarket among the most highly valued companies in the prediction-market sector.
Revenue is another part of the investor pitch. Reuters and CNBC reported that Polymarket’s annualized revenue had exceeded $1 billion in 2026, helped by heavy trading around major events. Coplan has described prediction markets as “a very useful thermometer of the world,” a framing that presents the product as information infrastructure as well as a trading venue.
Kalshi, Polymarket’s most prominent U.S. rival, is pursuing its own large financing. The Financial Times reported that Kalshi had been in talks at a valuation of about $40 billion. Kalshi operates as a CFTC-designated contract market, while Polymarket’s original platform was built around blockchain infrastructure and cryptocurrency settlement. Those structural differences remain central to how banks, regulators and investors assess the two businesses.
What does this show about banking access for prediction markets?
JPMorgan’s move shows that prediction-market companies can attract major institutional capital while still facing basic banking friction. A platform may have a regulated U.S. pathway, venture backing and fast revenue growth, yet still raise compliance questions that a large bank decides it does not want in a deposit relationship.
For Polymarket, the issue is especially sensitive because its U.S. re-entry depends on QCX and related CFTC actions, not a blanket reset for every part of the business. The CFTC’s 2022 order remains part of the company’s record. The September 2025 no-action letter and November 2025 amended designation order are important milestones, but they do not remove every question banks may have about customer access, market scope and operational controls.
That tension is now a recurring feature of the industry. Prediction markets have moved from niche internet products into a sector drawing attention from banks, exchange operators, brokerages and sports-betting incumbents. As the opportunity grows, banking access, market surveillance, customer-fund handling and state-federal legal boundaries become core commercial issues rather than back-office details.
What is the next milestone for Polymarket?
Polymarket has not announced a public IPO filing. The next public marker is the close of its current fundraising process, because ICE said on March 27, 2026 that valuation terms for its $600 million investment would be disclosed after that fundraising was completed. A raise of more than $1 billion at about a $20 billion valuation, as reported by the Financial Times and The Times, would strengthen Polymarket’s position before any eventual public-market process.
The regulatory marker is QCX’s operation as Polymarket US under CFTC oversight. For JPMorgan and other banks, the relevant question is whether the regulated U.S. structure, the 2025 CFTC actions and any additional agency or state decisions make prediction-market operators ordinary financial-services clients, or keep them in a category where Wall Street wants exposure to growth but draws tighter lines around deposits and customer-fund flows.
