Polymarket starts accepting Bitcoin Lightning deposits

Polymarket has begun supporting Bitcoin deposits over the Lightning Network, expanding a Bitcoin funding push that started in October 2025 when it enabled standard on-chain BTC deposits. The new option uses infrastructure from Spark, a Bitcoin layer-2 payments protocol, and is designed to make account funding faster, cheaper and more private for traders who want to enter live markets without waiting for multiple blockchain confirmations. The company said deposits can arrive within seconds, compared with roughly 30 minutes to one hour for traditional on-chain Bitcoin transfers. Spark says deposits that once required on-chain confirmation waits can now settle in seconds. Its system checks a Bitcoin transaction when it is broadcast by assessing double-spend risk, fee adequacy and replace-by-fee signals, then credits the deposit in under a second while absorbing the confirmation risk through what it calls a zero-conf model. Spark also says the setup keeps deposits self-custodial, with wallets tied to users’ own keys while the payment routing is handled in the background. The faster funding route comes as Polymarket-linked contracts have handled larger volumes, including about $5 billion tied to World Cup trading, while broader prediction market volume reached $44.8 billion in June. Spark said the feature works with apps and exchanges that support Lightning withdrawals, including Cash App, Coinbase, Kraken, Binance, OKX, Wallet of Satoshi, Tether Wallet and Cake Wallet. The rollout also lands as Polymarket faces increasing scrutiny, including a broad CFTC investigation, delayed enforcement consideration in South Korea over possible gambling-law violations, and a New York lawsuit from two users over alleged denied payouts on a Strategy Bitcoin market.