Polymarket has pushed back on the characterisation. The company says that while JPMorgan closed the primary account, it retains a “close, active relationship” with the bank covering operational integrations and fund flows. The distinction matters: losing a primary account is a material operational event, but maintaining ancillary banking access suggests the break was not total.

The timing is awkward for JPMorgan. The US Department of Justice is currently investigating JPMorgan and eight other major banks over allegations of politically motivated debanking practices, a charge the banks deny. Court filings in a separate matter recently disclosed that Capital One closed 385 accounts linked to President Trump in 2021, citing financial activity consistent with money laundering patterns. JPMorgan’s account closure of Polymarket, a platform whose content touches political and electoral events, inevitably draws scrutiny in that context, even if the regulatory rationale behind the decision was the CFTC’s restrictions on US customer access rather than the subject matter of the markets themselves.

New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin has separately requested information from Polymarket as part of an inquiry into its marketing practices. That investigation has attracted relatively little attention alongside the federal probes, but it signals that regulatory pressure on prediction markets is not confined to Washington. State and municipal authorities are beginning to examine the sector’s conduct independently.

None of this appears to have cooled the capital markets. Polymarket is in early-stage talks to raise approximately $1 billion in a new funding round at a valuation of more than $20 billion, according to reports citing sources familiar with the discussions.

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