Polymarket's Panama Entity Lacks Clarity, Staff Reportedly in New York

Prediction market operator Polymarket established a Panama-based entity, Adventure One QSS, to comply with U.S. regulatory requirements. A 2022 settlement found the company operating as an unlicensed derivatives exchange, leading to fines and a ban on serving U.S. customers.

Despite this structure, former Polymarket employees have told WIRED that some Adventure One QSS staff worked from the U.S., often from its Manhattan headquarters. These employees reportedly did not report to the Panama entity or interact with Panama-based colleagues, as they stated such colleagues did not exist.

WIRED's investigation suggests Adventure One QSS's staff was spread across multiple countries, including the U.S. Former U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) employees consider the purported location of the Panama entity's staff significant. They stated it would have been important to know that staff supposedly in Panama were not actually working from there.

Previous reports corroborate this finding. NPR previously reported the company's Panama City office was empty and lacked local staff. U.S.-based workers involved in coding and contract setup for Pollymarket were technically employed by Adventure One QSS, but employees stated there was no practical divide between the corporate arms.