Polymarket
How Polymarket works — order types, fees, settlement, and platform mechanics to understand before using the venue.
·4 min read·Compliance reviewed
This guide describes Polymarket's on-chain market architecture. Polymarket now operates globally through separate legal entities, including Polymarket US, which Polymarket describes as a CFTC-regulated Designated Contract Market. The international on-chain platform remains separate and has its own geographic restrictions, including restrictions for the United States and several other countries and regions. Check the current platform terms before assuming a specific account or location is eligible.
Mechanically, Polymarket runs on Polygon. Current documentation describes pUSD as the collateral token used for trading; pUSD is an ERC-20 token backed by USDC, while outcome positions are represented on-chain. Order matching is handled by a central limit order book for active markets, with some lower-volume or legacy surfaces using AMM-style liquidity.
How a market is structured
Each market resolves to YES or NO (or, for multi-outcome markets, one of several mutually exclusive outcomes). One YES token + one NO token together represent roughly $1 of settlement value in the venue's collateral token, which means the prices of the two sides sum to roughly $1 once you account for spread.
Order types
| Type | When to reach for it |
|---|---|
| Market | You want to fill now and you accept the spread. |
| Limit | You want a specific price; you'll wait for the book. |
| GTC | "Good 'til cancelled" — limit order that persists. |
| FOK | "Fill or kill" — fill the whole size or cancel. |
Most retail flow uses market and GTC limit orders.
Fees
Polymarket charges taker fees on certain markets. Fees are set per market and applied at match time; markets with fees enabled expose that state in market metadata. Makers are not charged those taker fees, and some categories are fee-free under the current schedule.
Costs can come from:
- Spread between best bid and best ask. Wider on illiquid markets.
- Slippage when order size walks through deeper book levels.
- Protocol taker fees on markets where fees are enabled.
- Network or intermediary costs when moving funds between wallets, exchanges, bridges, or third-party payment providers.
Settlement and resolution
Markets resolve via the UMA optimistic oracle. After the event, anyone can propose an outcome; the proposal is final unless disputed within the challenge window. Disputes go to UMA's voting process.
What EdgeLedger pulls from Polymarket
- Open positions — outcome token balances and their current mark-to-market prices.
- Trade history — fills with realized P&L once a contract resolves.
- Watchlist data — last price + 24h change for markets you're tracking.
EdgeLedger reads positions through your wallet address. It never holds custody, never signs orders, and only writes to its own database — not to Polymarket.
Connecting your Polymarket wallet to EdgeLedger
Copy your wallet address
On Polymarket, click your avatar → Profile and copy the 0x address. EdgeLedger only needs the public address — never a seed phrase or private key.
Paste it into EdgeLedger
On the dashboard, click Paste address in the top bar and paste the address you copied. EdgeLedger tracks it in read-only mode.
(Optional) Save the wallet
If you're signed in, click Save wallet to keep the address linked to your account so it's there next time you visit.
Quirks worth knowing
- One side at a time. You can hold YES or NO on a market through EdgeLedger's position view, not both — minted pairs auto-net back to the venue's collateral token.
- Resolved positions. A resolved market is filtered out of "open positions" but stays in trade history with its final P&L.
- Entity and region split. Polymarket's international on-chain platform and Polymarket US are different legal/operational surfaces. Rules, availability, and regulatory status can differ by surface.