Key Highlights
- Polymarket introduced Protocol V2 on October 5, replacing the Conditional Tokens Framework-based architecture used by the platform since its early days.
- The new design uses a single ERC-1155 positions contract, pUSD as collateral, market-specific exchanges, and a router.
- Protocol V2 initially supports Binary, Atomic Neg-risk, Incremental Neg-risk, and Combinatorial markets through separate modules.
Prediction market platform Polymarket has introduced Protocol V2, replacing the Conditional Tokens Framework (CTF) architecture used by the platform since its early days.
In a detailed article shared on X on October 5, Rajath Alex, Polymarket’s head of protocol, said the CTF system was based on Gnosis code from 2019 and was not designed for the range of market types and features the platform supports today. Protocol V2 introduces a new architecture built around a single positions contract, pUSD as collateral, market-specific exchanges, and a router.
New architecture supports multiple market types
Alex said Polymarket added contracts and adapters around the original Conditional Tokens Framework (CTF) system as the platform expanded. These additions included pUSD, wrapped collateral for negative-risk markets, separate exchanges, and UMA-based resolution. He said the additions resulted in more contracts and approval requirements for users and integrators. Each position ID under Protocol V2 encodes the market type, market, and outcome.
The initial architecture supports four market types:
- Binary
- Atomic Neg-risk
- Incremental Neg-risk
- Combinatorial
Each market type is handled through a separate module. Alex said the modules can support additional operations for positions and could allow different ways of using capital within markets.
The changes follow Polymarket’s earlier CLOB V2 rollout in April, which introduced changes to its exchange contracts and collateral system. That upgrade also introduced pUSD as the primary trading collateral and required developers to migrate their SDKs and integrations.
CLOB V2 and Protocol V2 are separate upgrades, with the latter focused on the protocol’s underlying market infrastructure.
Resolution moves to an aggregated Oracle System
Protocol V2 introduces an OracleAggregator for market resolution. The OracleAggregator uses modules to connect to resolution sources such as UMA and Chainlink, providing a common layer for different resolution mechanisms. Polymarket said the design can accommodate additional sources in the future.
Polymarket’s documentation says the protocol is designed to support cross-chain functionality, including the movement of positions, collateral, and resolutions between chains.
That functionality has not yet been activated. Polymarket said it plans to use it when the platform moves to a multi-chain setup.
Polymarket plans October testing before migration
Polymarket will not move all markets to Protocol V2 immediately.
According to Alex, the platform will run canary markets in production from October 5 through October 30. The testing period will allow developers and market makers to test their integrations before a tentative switch to Protocol V2 for net new markets on November 2.
Polymarket is directing developers interested in the canary markets to its Discord developer channel and plans to hold weekly office hours during the testing period.
Alex said the protocol is upgradeable through governance and that this design is intended to make future protocol changes easier without requiring the same type of contract-by-contract changes to integrations.
Data API V2 introduced alongside protocol upgrade
Polymarket is introducing Data API V2 alongside the protocol upgrade.
The new API is built as a Rust service using Polymarket’s in-house on-chain indexer. It standardizes response formats and introduces cursor-based pagination for trade and activity feeds.
Data API V2 changes several parts of the existing API structure. Responses are wrapped in a data field, while paginated responses include a pagination object. The new version also uses snake_case field names instead of the camelCase format used by V1.
Data API V2 also consolidates several position-related endpoints into a single /v2/positions route, with status filters covering open, redeemable, mergeable, and closed positions.
Polymarket has also added endpoints for user PnL, user statistics, user volume, biggest winners, price history, resolutions and data-status information.
Data API V1 set for October 24 retirement
Developers using the existing Data API will need to migrate separately from the protocol upgrade. Polymarket’s documentation says Data API V1 will be retired on October 24, 2026. New integrations are directed to use V2, while existing integrations can migrate route by route.
The V2 system also removes the 10,000-row offset limitation found in V1 by using cursor-based pagination. Developers can follow the next_cursor value until the API returns null.
The documentation notes that GET /v1/accounting/snapshot does not currently have a V2 equivalent and will remain on the existing route.
Protocol V2 includes further planned changes
Polymarket said Protocol V2 is being designed to support changes that are not yet available, including scalar resolution and directional collateral return. The protocol has undergone audits by Cantina, Certora, Quantstamp, SigmaPrime, Zellic, and Pashov, according to Alex. He also said the system has been formally verified by Certora and is covered by a bug bounty offering rewards of up to $5 million for critical findings.
In September, Polymarket launched Polymarket Perps for eligible international users, with up to 20x leverage and an initial 10 markets.
Protocol V2 remains separate from the Perps product and focuses on the underlying architecture used for Polymarket’s prediction markets.
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