Polymarket USD
PUSD
Evaluation Score
Overall rating on a scale of 0-10
Dimension Breakdown
AI Analysis
Comprehensive evaluation of the token
PUSD (Polymarket USD) is Polymarket's Polygon-based ERC-20 collateral and settlement token, backed 1:1 by USDC. The platform shows strong active development (7.5/10), evidenced by structured release discipline and the deployment of CLOB V2, as well as substantial market utility (7.0/10) with over $10 billion settled on Polymarket. However, the token exhibits significant structural weaknesses, including completely centralized governance (4.5/10) with zero token-holder voting, a lack of grassroots community engagement (3.0/10), and centralized tokenomics (6.0/10) with admin pausing controls and absent smart contract audit reports. Security (3.5/10) has been severely compromised by recent incidents totaling ~$3.6M-$3.8M in losses, triggering the red-flag cap: 'June 26, 2026 — frontend supply-chain attack via compromised third-party vendor, ~$3.1M in PUSD stolen from 11 user wallets via phishing, bridged Polygon→Ethereum and swapped to ~1,893 ETH; full refunds pledged, dependency removed' with unverified completion of user compensation, alongside an earlier May 22, 2026 operations wallet compromise draining >$520k. Consequently, the weighted average score of 5.40 is capped at 5.0.
Development Activity
Code updates and developer engagement
Community Support
Social media presence and community engagement
Tokenomics
Supply, distribution, and utility
Market & Use Case
Value proposition and competitive landscape
Team & Governance
Team background and project governance
Security & Audits
Security history and audit status
About Polymarket USD (PUSD)
Polymarket USD (PUSD) is an ERC-20 collateral and settlement token operating on the Polygon mainnet, issued by the Polymarket prediction market platform. Backed 1:1 by Circle-issued USD Coin (USDC), PUSD functions with an elastic supply model that expands and contracts strictly via user deposits and withdrawals without a predetermined maximum supply or vesting schedule. The token's utility is tied directly to the Polymarket platform, serving as the base collateral for trading and liquidity rewards across prediction markets, which have settled over $10 billion in cumulative volume since 2020.
Governance and issuance of PUSD are fully centralized within Polymarket, featuring no decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) or token-holder voting mechanisms. Platform administrators maintain controls that include contract pausing abilities, and external secondary market liquidity remains thin outside the platform. Although the development team actively maintains the infrastructure—including the implementation of a Central Limit Order Book (CLOB) V2 and EIP-712 order signing—no independent smart contract audit reports for the PUSD collateral, onramp, or offramp contracts have been publicly documented.
The project has experienced significant security compromises and regulatory actions. In May 2026, a private key compromise of an internal operations and rewards-payout wallet led to over $520,000 drained from two smart contracts. On June 26, 2026, a frontend supply-chain attack via a compromised third-party vendor resulted in the theft of approximately $3.1 million in PUSD across 11 user wallets through phishing. In addition to security incidents, Polymarket entered into a settlement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in 2022 that included a $1.4 million civil monetary penalty for operating an unregistered platform, and became the subject of an additional CFTC federal investigation in 2026 concerning promotional practices.