People and organizations
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Partner | An Introducing Broker (IB) or Independent Software Vendor (ISV) integrating with Polymarket US to provide a trading experience to retail traders. |
| Retail Participant | The canonical term in these docs for an end user you onboard — a retail trader who trades through your platform. You act on their behalf. |
| Customer | Used in the FCM context (a Futures Commission Merchant’s customer). It is acceptable to use “customer” informally for a Retail Participant, but because it has a specific meaning for FCMs, prefer Retail Participant in partner integrations to avoid ambiguity. |
“Participant” appears in two unrelated senses across Polymarket docs. In these partner docs it always means a trading identity (a person you onboard — a Retail Participant). The main glossary separately uses “participant” in a market-structure sense (an outcome side of an instrument). The two meanings are unrelated; this section always means the trading identity.
Platform and entities
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| DCM (Designated Contract Market) | The regulated matching function: maintains the order book, matches orders, and publishes market data. |
| DCO (Derivatives Clearing Organization) | The regulated clearing function: holds collateral, clears trades, and settles contracts. |
| Polymarket US | The platform as a whole. Throughout these docs it is represented as a single actor, regardless of whether a call is served by the matching or clearing function. |
| Firm | Your IB/ISV organization — the top-level permissions container you authenticate as. You act on behalf of the Retail Participants beneath your Firm. |
| Participant | A Retail Participant’s trading identity at the DCM, used to scope order entry and account queries. Referenced by an ID such as firms/your-firm/users/their-id. |
| Clearing Member | A funds- and position-holding identity at the DCO. Each Retail Participant has a Clearing Member account. |
| Account | The trading account holding a Retail Participant’s balances and positions. Provisioned automatically alongside the Retail Participant on KYC approval. |
Onboarding and identity
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| KYC (Know Your Customer) | Identity verification. You collect the required information from a Retail Participant and submit it; Polymarket US (the DCM) performs the verification and makes the decision. On approval, the Participant and Account are provisioned automatically. |
| Auto-provisioning | The automatic creation of a Retail Participant’s trading identity and Account when their KYC is approved — there is no separate “create user/account” call. |
| Access token | The short-lived bearer token you obtain via Private Key JWT and send on each API request. |
x-participant-id | The request header identifying which Retail Participant an account-scoped action is for. |
Funding
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Funding | The mechanics for funding participant trading accounts. Details are coming soon. |
| Collateral | The funds required to back an order or position. |
Related references
Main Glossary
Market structure, trading, and execution terms.
Platform Model
How these entities relate in practice.