Getting Started

One-time setup for market making on Polymarket

Before you can start market making, you need to complete these one-time setup steps — deposit pUSD to Polygon, deploy a wallet, approve tokens for trading, and generate API credentials.

1. Deposit pUSD

   Market makers need pUSD on Polygon to fund their trading operations.

   Method	Best For	Documentation
   Bridge API	Automated deposits from other chains	Bridge Deposit
   Direct Polygon transfer	Already have pUSD on Polygon	N/A
   Cross-chain bridge	Large deposits from Ethereum	Supported Assets

   Using the Bridge API

   // Get deposit addresses for your Polymarket wallet
   const deposit = await fetch("https://bridge.polymarket.com/deposit", {
     method: "POST",
     headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
     body: JSON.stringify({
       address: "YOUR_POLYMARKET_WALLET_ADDRESS",
     }),
   });
   
   // Returns deposit addresses for EVM, SVM, and BTC networks
   const addresses = await deposit.json();
   // Send USDC to the appropriate address for your source chain
   
2. Deploy a Wallet

   EOA

   Standard Ethereum wallet. You pay for all onchain transactions (approvals, splits, merges, trade execution).

   Deposit Wallet

   Deposit wallets are the recommended wallet path for new API users. They are deployed through Polymarket’s relayer and use POLY_1271 order signatures.

   See the Deposit Wallet Guide for the wallet creation, approval, balance sync, and order-signing flow.

   Existing Safe Wallets

   Existing Gnosis Safe users can continue using their current wallet. Safe wallets are deployed via Polymarket’s relayer and support:

   • Gasless transactions — Polymarket pays gas fees for onchain operations
   • Contract wallet — Enables advanced features like batched transactions

   For existing Safe integrations, deploy a Safe wallet using the Relayer Client:

   TypeScript

   import { RelayClient, RelayerTxType } from "@polymarket/builder-relayer-client";
   
   const client = new RelayClient({
     host: "https://relayer-v2.polymarket.com/",
     chain: 137,
     signer,
     relayerApiKey: process.env.RELAYER_API_KEY!,
     relayerApiKeyAddress: process.env.RELAYER_API_KEY_ADDRESS!,
     txType: RelayerTxType.SAFE,
   });
   
   // Deploy the Safe wallet
   const response = await client.deploy();
   const result = await response.wait();
   console.log("Safe Address:", result?.proxyAddress);
   

   See Gasless Transactions for full Relayer Client setup including local and remote signing configurations.

3. Approve Tokens

   Before trading, you must approve the exchange contracts to spend your tokens.

   Required Approvals

   Token	Spender	Purpose
   pUSD	CTF Contract	Split pUSD into outcome tokens
   CTF (outcome tokens)	CTF Exchange	Trade outcome tokens
   CTF (outcome tokens)	Neg Risk CTF Exchange	Trade neg-risk market tokens

   Contract Addresses

   const ADDRESSES = {
     pUSD: "0xC011a7E12a19f7B1f670d46F03B03f3342E82DFB",
     CTF: "0x4D97DCd97eC945f40cF65F87097ACe5EA0476045",
     CTF_EXCHANGE: "0xE111180000d2663C0091e4f400237545B87B996B",
     NEG_RISK_CTF_EXCHANGE: "0xe2222d279d744050d28e00520010520000310F59",
     NEG_RISK_ADAPTER: "0xd91E80cF2E7be2e162c6513ceD06f1dD0dA35296",
   };
   

   Approve via Relayer Client

   TypeScript

   import { ethers } from "ethers";
   import { Interface } from "ethers/lib/utils";
   
   const erc20Interface = new Interface([
     "function approve(address spender, uint256 amount) returns (bool)",
   ]);
   
   // Approve pUSD for CTF contract
   const approveTx = {
     to: ADDRESSES.pUSD,
     data: erc20Interface.encodeFunctionData("approve", [
       ADDRESSES.CTF,
       ethers.constants.MaxUint256,
     ]),
     value: "0",
   };
   
   const response = await client.execute([approveTx], "Approve pUSD for CTF");
   await response.wait();
   
4. Generate API Credentials

   To place orders and access authenticated endpoints, you need L2 API credentials derived from your wallet.

   TypeScript

   import { ClobClient } from "@polymarket/clob-client-v2";
   
   const client = new ClobClient({
     host: "https://clob.polymarket.com",
     chain: 137,
     signer,
   });
   
   // Derive API credentials from your wallet
   const credentials = await client.createOrDeriveApiKey();
   console.log("API Key:", credentials.key);
   console.log("Secret:", credentials.secret);
   console.log("Passphrase:", credentials.passphrase);
   

   See Authentication for full details on signature types and REST API headers.

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Next Steps

Trading

Post limit orders and manage quotes

Market Data

Connect to real-time market data