Circle Internet Group has partnered with Polymarket to move the prediction market’s settlement infrastructure from bridged stablecoin collateral to Circle-issued native USDC on Polygon. Polymarket currently uses bridged USDC (USDC.e) and plans to migrate to Circle-issued USDC over the coming months, adopting a stablecoin that can be redeemed one-for-one for U.S. dollars through Circle’s regulated entities. Circle says native USDC offers a capital-efficient, scalable alternative that avoids dependence on cross-chain bridges.
Cross-chain bridges transfer tokens between blockchains by locking assets on one network and issuing representations on another, but they introduce trade-offs in security, trust and flexibility not present when operating on a single chain. The migration will therefore shift Polymarket’s collateral to a stablecoin issued and redeemed directly by Circle rather than a bridged representation.
Shayne Coplan, Polymarket’s founder and CEO, said using native USDC will support “a consistent, dollar-denominated settlement standard that enhances market integrity and reliability as participation on the platform continues to grow.”
Polymarket is an on-chain prediction market where users trade contracts tied to real-world events — from crypto prices to political outcomes — using stablecoins as collateral. USDC is currently the second-largest stablecoin after Tether’s USDT, with a market capitalization of about $70.77 billion, per DefiLlama data.
The move comes as crypto exchanges and financial platforms push deeper into prediction markets. Gemini launched Gemini Predictions across all 50 U.S. states after regulatory approval, Coinbase announced a prediction market in partnership with Kalshi, and Crypto.com launched a standalone prediction platform, OG, for U.S. users. Retail brokerage Robinhood and sports-betting operator DraftKings also introduced prediction markets in 2025, building on momentum from the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
Despite growth, prediction markets face scrutiny: analysts warn of insider trading risks when traders profit from nonpublic information or influence data used for pricing, and state regulators have challenged platforms like Kalshi over whether event contracts constitute gambling in jurisdictions including Massachusetts and New York.
