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South Korea is moving to block Polymarket after its media regulator concluded that the crypto prediction platform facilitates gambling, putting one of Asia’s most active digital-asset markets on a stricter path than neighboring Japan.
The decision follows months of scrutiny by the Broadcasting, Media and Communications Review Committee, which began examining Polymarket in May and formally opened deliberations in July. Regulators focused on its winner-take-all contracts covering politics, elections, sports, and other real-world events, where users can lose their entire stake if an outcome does not occur.
Polymarket has argued that it operates differently from a conventional bookmaker because trades occur between users through smart contracts and the platform does not directly take custody of their funds. Korean authorities, however, have focused on the economic outcome for the user rather than the technology underneath it.
The regulatory action was preceded by enforcement against traders themselves.
In June, Gangwon Provincial Police began investigating domestic Polymarket users for alleged illegal gambling following a request from the National Police Agency. South Korean residents found guilty of illegal gambling can face fines of up to 10 million won ($6,500), according to local reporting.
The investigation came shortly after South Korea’s June local elections. A Polymarket contract tied to the Seoul mayoral race attracted more than $52 million in trading volume, showing that local political markets had already reached substantial scale.
Polymarket subsequently pulled Korean-language support and reduced the visibility of Korea-focused contracts for domestic visitors in late July. The company did not remove the markets globally, and South Korea was not yet included on its formal list of restricted jurisdictions at the time.
The pressure comes as prediction markets expand rapidly worldwide. Bernstein estimated global prediction market volume tripled to $51 billion in 2025 and could reach $240 billion in 2026.
Across the Korea Strait, Japan is considering whether prediction markets could eventually operate within a regulated framework rather than simply blocking them.
Polymarket has appointed a representative in Japan and is reportedly lobbying for government approval, with a target of entering the market legally by 2030. No licensed domestic Polymarket-style market currently exists, and Japanese legal specialists warn that wagering money on uncertain events can still fall under the country’s broad gambling prohibitions.
China sits at the opposite end of the regional spectrum. Beijing continues to classify virtual currency trading as illegal financial activity and specifically bars overseas crypto exchanges from providing services to mainland residents. The People’s Bank of China reiterated in late 2025 that stablecoins remain within its definition of virtual currencies.
South Korea is landing between its two largest neighbors: less absolute than China’s crypto-wide prohibition but far less open than Japan’s early effort to explore a legal route for prediction markets.
For Polymarket, losing South Korea would cut off a technologically sophisticated crypto market at the same time the company is attempting to turn Asian demand into regulated expansion elsewhere.
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