This guide explains the technical side of Polymarket for curious traders and developers.
The CLOB (Central Limit Order Book)
Polymarket uses a hybrid central limit order book (CLOB): orders are matched off-chain by an operator and settled on-chain on Polygon [verify before publishing]. You place limit or market orders as on a traditional exchange. Fees on the CLOB are charged by category, typically to takers, with maker rebates on some markets.
What Token Does Polymarket Use?
Polymarket settles in USDC, a dollar-pegged stablecoin, on the Polygon network. Outcome shares are tokens (conditional tokens) representing YES or NO [verify before publishing]. There is no official Polymarket token we can confirm [verify before publishing].
Merge, Convert and Redeem
- Merge: one YES + one NO share of the same market = $1.00 USDC.
- Convert: in negative-risk markets, a NO share can be converted into YES shares of other outcomes.
- Redeem: after resolution, turn winning shares into USDC.
Polymarket API and Pricing
Polymarket offers public APIs for market data (Gamma API), order-book data and trading (CLOB API) [verify before publishing]. Market data access has been free with rate limits [verify before publishing]. PredAcademy's live markets pages use this public data.
Where Are Polymarket's Servers Located?
Traders interested in latency ask about the CLOB server location and AWS region. Polymarket doesn't officially publish this, and we can't verify community claims [verify before publishing].
Perps and New Products
Polymarket has discussed or launched new products such as perpetual contracts ("perps") in some regions [verify before publishing].
Analytics and Statistics
Many third-party Polymarket analytics sites show volume, user analysis and trader statistics. Treat them as unofficial.