WagerMintsPolymarket taxes, explained
Last reviewed October 24, 2026
First: which Polymarket?
| polymarket.com | Polymarket US | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | The original, crypto-based market. You trade from a wallet. | A separate CFTC-regulated exchange that opened in December 2025. |
| Account | A wallet address; history is public on the blockchain | A verified US account |
| Section 1256 | Not available | Arguable, like Kalshi, and just as contested |
| Form 8949 boxes | I and L (digital assets) | C and F |
| Tax forms sent | None | None for trading that we have been able to confirm |
polymarket.com
polymarket.com settled with the CFTC in 2022 and blocked US users. It has never been a CFTC-regulated exchange for US traders. That matters for one reason above all: Section 1256 only covers contracts traded on a qualified exchange, so the 60/40 treatment does not apply to wallet trades at all. A tool that offers it for a polymarket.com wallet without a warning is getting the first step wrong.
That leaves three treatments: capital gains, ordinary income and gambling. Because your positions are tokens on a blockchain, the IRS treats them as digital assets, which is why they go in boxes I and L on Form 8949 rather than C and F.
The USDC layer
You buy positions with a dollar-pegged stablecoin. Strictly, spending a stablecoin is itself a disposal of a digital asset. Because it is pegged to the dollar the gain is effectively zero, but it is not definitionally zero, and a crypto tax tool may list each one. It rarely changes your bill. It does make the paperwork longer.
Rewards can outweigh your trades
Polymarket pays liquidity rewards, maker and taker rebates and, on some balances, yield. All of it is ordinary income, separate from your trading result, whatever treatment you choose.
One public wallet we studied was down about $134,000 on its trades for the year, and up about $184,000 in rewards. On paper that is a big trading loss. In reality it is about $56,000 of net income, most of it ordinary. A tool that only reads trades would have reported the loss and missed the income.
Polymarket sends nothing, so rebuild from the wallet
There is no 1099 and no year-end statement. Your record is your wallet’s history, which is public. WagerMints reads it from your wallet address: every buy, sale, redemption and reward, matched and priced. No login, no key, nothing you could not already see on a block explorer.
If you also trade on Kalshi, report both together. You file one return, so the two venues’ results combine under whichever treatment you choose. Where each number goes on the forms.
Polymarket US
Polymarket US is run by a different company on a CFTC-regulated exchange, so for tax it sits next to Kalshi, not next to polymarket.com. The same four treatments apply, Section 1256 included, with the same caveats; the Kalshi guide covers them. Polymarket US has no trade export we have found, and its API keys have no read-only option yet, so WagerMints does not support it today. It is on our list.
Not a US taxpayer?
Everything above is US federal tax. Outside the US the rules are different and often gentler; several countries do not tax casual betting wins at all. See our country notes, and check with a local adviser.
See your own year four ways
WagerMints prices your Kalshi or Polymarket year under all four federal treatments, side by side, with the work shown and the forms filled. Free to run.
Run your report