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Overview

Before you can start market making on Polymarket, you need to complete these one-time setup steps:
  1. Deposit bridged USDCe to Polygon
  2. Deploy a wallet (EOA or Safe)
  3. Approve tokens for trading
  4. Generate API credentials

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Deposit USDCe

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

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Options

MethodBest ForDocumentation
Bridge APIAutomated deposits from other chainsBridge Overview
Direct Polygon transferAlready have USDCe on PolygonN/A
Cross-chain bridgeLarge deposits from EthereumLarge Deposits

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Using the Bridge API

// Deposit USDCe from Ethereum to Polygon
const deposit = await fetch("https://clob.polymarket.com/deposit", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    chainId: "1",
    fromChain: "ethereum",
    toChain: "polygon",
    asset: "USDCe",
    amount: "100000000000" // $100,000 in USDCe (6 decimals)
  })
});
See Bridge Deposit for full API details.

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Wallet Options

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EOA (Externally Owned Account)

Standard Ethereum wallet. You pay for all onchain transactions (approvals, splits, merges, trade exedcution). Gnosis Safe-based wallet deployed via Polymarket’s relayer. Benefits:
  • Gasless transactions - Polymarket pays gas fees for onchain operations
  • Contract wallet - Enables advanced features like batched transactions.
Deploy a Safe wallet using the Relayer Client: 
import { RelayClient, RelayerTxType } from "@polymarket/builder-relayer-client";

const client = new RelayClient(
  "https://relayer-v2.polymarket.com/",
  137, // Polygon mainnet
  signer,
  builderConfig,
  RelayerTxType.SAFE
);

// Deploy the Safe wallet
const response = await client.deploy();
const result = await response.wait();
console.log("Safe Address:", result?.proxyAddress);

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Token Approvals

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

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Required Approvals

TokenSpenderPurpose
USDCeCTF ContractSplit USDCe into outcome tokens
CTF (outcome tokens)CTF ExchangeTrade outcome tokens
CTF (outcome tokens)Neg Risk CTF ExchangeTrade neg-risk market tokens

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Contract Addresses (Polygon Mainnet)

const ADDRESSES = {
  USDCe: "0x2791Bca1f2de4661ED88A30C99A7a9449Aa84174",
  CTF: "0x4d97dcd97ec945f40cf65f87097ace5ea0476045",
  CTF_EXCHANGE: "0x4bFb41d5B3570DeFd03C39a9A4D8dE6Bd8B8982E",
  NEG_RISK_CTF_EXCHANGE: "0xC5d563A36AE78145C45a50134d48A1215220f80a",
  NEG_RISK_ADAPTER: "0xd91E80cF2E7be2e162c6513ceD06f1dD0dA35296"
};

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Approve via Relayer Client

import { ethers } from "ethers";
import { Interface } from "ethers/lib/utils";

const erc20Interface = new Interface([
  "function approve(address spender, uint256 amount) returns (bool)"
]);

// Approve USDCe for CTF contract
const approveTx = {
  to: ADDRESSES.USDCe,
  data: erc20Interface.encodeFunctionData("approve", [
    ADDRESSES.CTF,
    ethers.constants.MaxUint256
  ]),
  value: "0"
};

const response = await client.execute([approveTx], "Approve USDCe for CTF");
await response.wait();
See Relayer Client for complete examples.

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API Key Generation

To place orders and access authenticated endpoints, you need L2 API credentials.

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Generate API Key

import { ClobClient } from "@polymarket/clob-client";

const client = new ClobClient(
  "https://clob.polymarket.com",
  137,
  signer
);

// Derive API credentials from your wallet
const credentials = await client.deriveApiKey();
console.log("API Key:", credentials.key);
console.log("Secret:", credentials.secret);
console.log("Passphrase:", credentials.passphrase);

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Using Credentials

Once you have credentials, initialize the client for authenticated operations: 
const client = new ClobClient(
  "https://clob.polymarket.com",
  137,
  wallet,
  credentials
);
See CLOB Authentication for full details.

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Next Steps

Once setup is complete:

Start Trading

Post limit orders and manage quotes

Connect to RFQ

Respond to Request for Quote requests