Type “Polymarket bonus code” into a search bar and the results are dominated by sports-media affiliate pages all quoting the same number: $50. That figure is not fiction, exactly, but it is not what one new user gets, either — and it only exists on one of Polymarket’s two separate platforms in the first place.
Where the Bonus Actually Lives
Polymarket US — the CFTC-designated exchange doing business under the Polymarket name since QCX relaunched it in December 2025 — publishes a refer-a-friend program in its own documentation. A new user who signs up through a referral link, or simply types an existing user’s username as a referral code, completes identity verification, and deposits at least $10 gets a $25 trading credit. The person who referred them gets a matching $25. That is the entire mechanic. The international polymarket.com site, the USDC-on-Polygon platform that has stayed geo-blocked for US IPs since the 2022 CFTC settlement, has no equivalent new-user offer at all — its referral program only pays existing high-volume traders, covered below.
Where the “$50” comes from. $25 to the new user plus $25 to the referrer is $50 in total credit issued across one completed referral. Several affiliate pages headline that combined number as though a single signup nets $50. Polymarket US’s own documentation is explicit that each side gets $25.
Why Codes Like COVERS or CBSSPORTS All Point Somewhere Else
None of the media-partner codes circulating right now are a distinct Polymarket promotion. Each is a tracked referral link into the exact same $25-for-$25 mechanic described above, the way a sportsbook affiliate code routes into one underlying welcome offer. The dollar figure an outlet advertises depends on how it chooses to describe that mechanic, not on a better deal Polymarket is quietly offering through that one link.
To unlock it: Polymarket US account, referral link or referrer’s username at signup, ID verification, $10 minimum deposit.
What you get: $25 trading credit (new user), $25 to the referrer, up to 14 referrals per user, $350 ceiling.
Cashable? Not on deposit. Becomes withdrawable once a position funded with the credit settles or is liquidated.
The Other Program: Not a Bonus Code at All
Polymarket’s international site does run a referral program of its own, but it has nothing to do with new-user signups. It pays 10% of net trading fees generated by direct referrals and 5% from indirect ones — and only starts paying once the referring account has logged $10,000 in lifetime trading volume. That is a revenue-share built for people already trading in size, not a code a first-time visitor can redeem for a welcome credit.
Not a Sportsbook Bonus, Even Where It Resembles One
A $25 trading credit only has value if the event contract it funds was worth holding on its own terms — it is not free money, and Polymarket US sits in the same 2026 state-versus-CFTC fight over sports event contracts as the rest of its account eligibility. Confirm in the signup flow that both an account and its referral bonus are actually available in your state before assuming a code someone posted online still applies.