You never hold participant funds. Participant accounts are funded at order time via On-Demand Funding (Beta). Your role is to onboard and verify participants, route their orders, and facilitate funding messages — never to custody funds.
What you do vs. what Polymarket US does
You are a facilitator, not a counterparty
Every message you send is on behalf of a Retail Participant you have onboarded. You are a permissions and routing layer:- You authenticate once as your Firm and act for any Retail Participant under it.
- Polymarket US matches, clears, and settles — you never take the other side of a trade.
- Funding of participant trading accounts is handled by Polymarket US; the mechanics are coming soon.
ISV or IB?
The two partner types integrate identically — the same APIs and the same workflow. The difference is legal classification, not mechanics.ISV
An Independent Software Vendor provides the software experience. ISVs are not brokers and carry no broker registration.
IB
An Introducing Broker integrates the same way plus carries CFTC registration and NFA membership obligations.
Next steps
Platform Model
How the DCM and DCO fit together, and the entities you act on.
Integration Journey
The end-to-end path from onboarding to live trading.