PolymarketDocumentation/docs/developers/market-makers/setup.md

Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.polymarket.com/llms.txt Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Setup

One-time setup for market making on Polymarket: deposits, approvals, wallets, and API keys

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

Deposit USDCe

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

Options

Method	Best For	Documentation
Bridge API	Automated deposits from other chains	Bridge Overview
Direct Polygon transfer	Already have USDCe on Polygon	N/A
Cross-chain bridge	Large deposits from Ethereum	Large Deposits

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.

Wallet Options

EOA (Externally Owned Account)

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

Safe Wallet (Recommended)

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);

Token Approvals

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

Required Approvals

Token	Spender	Purpose
USDCe	CTF Contract	Split USDCe 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 (Polygon Mainnet)

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

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.

API Key Generation

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

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);

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.

Next Steps

Once setup is complete:

Post limit orders and manage quotes