JPMorgan Chase Quietly Cut Banking Ties With Polymarket in October 2025, Financial Times Reports

JPMorgan Chase quietly ended its banking relationship with Polymarket in October 2025, telling the prediction market platform it needed to find a new lender, the Financial Times reported. The move came amid lingering regulatory concerns about the fast-growing platform, even as the bank has kept the door open on other fronts, including a possible role underwriting a future Polymarket initial public offering.

Polymarket has since moved its accounts to a different, unnamed bank, according to the report. The banking split did not sever the relationship entirely — JPMorgan’s CEO was reportedly invited to address a private client conference in Miami this past February, and the bank has stayed engaged with Polymarket “across multiple entities, operational integrations and material handling of customer fund flows,” the platform told the Financial Times.

A Complicated History With Regulators

The banking shakeup traces back to Polymarket’s rocky start in the United States. In 2022, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission fined the platform $1.4 million for operating an unregistered derivatives exchange, a penalty that forced Polymarket to bar US customers from its platform for roughly three years.

That changed in late 2025, when the CFTC granted Polymarket a path back into the American market. The regulator first issued a no-action letter in September covering QCX and QC Clearing — a licensed derivatives exchange and clearinghouse Polymarket acquired for $112 million to build a compliant US structure. By late November, the CFTC had gone further, granting Polymarket an Amended Order of Designation that lets it operate as a fully regulated exchange, complete with access through futures commission merchants and traditional brokerage channels.

Despite that formal clearance, the Financial Times reported the CFTC still has an open investigation into the company, underscoring that scrutiny of Polymarket hasn’t fully lifted even as it works to operate within the federal regulatory framework.

Why Banks Are Still Cautious on Prediction Markets

JPMorgan’s decision to cut ties with Polymarket, even temporarily, reflects a broader hesitancy among major banks toward platforms that blur the line between prediction markets and sports betting, particularly those built on crypto-based infrastructure. Regulatory ambiguity around event contracts — and the compliance risk that comes with banking a company still under federal investigation — appears to have outweighed the relationship for JPMorgan at the time, even as the bank kept a foot in the door for future business.

The episode is a reminder of how much prediction markets still operate in a gray zone with traditional finance, even as platforms like Polymarket, Kalshi, and others push toward mainstream legitimacy. For a company reportedly eyeing an eventual public offering, maintaining any relationship with a bank as influential as JPMorgan — even a reduced one — carries real strategic value.

JPMorgan declined to comment on the matter when reached by the Financial Times.