Redeem — Definition | Polymarket Trade
Redeem is the process of converting winning shares into USDC after a market resolves. On Polymarket, redemption happens automatically or on-demand, letting you claim your winnings as cash.
In depth
Redeem in the context of prediction markets means converting your winning shares or positions into actual cash (USDC on Polymarket). When you buy YES or NO shares on a prediction market and that side resolves in your favor, you own winning shares. Those shares represent a claim on the market's liquidity pool or the underlying collateral. Redeeming is the act of converting those shares back into the stablecoin currency you can withdraw, trade, or use elsewhere.
The term redeem originates from financial instruments like bonds and preference shares, where redemption is the issuer's obligation to buy back the security at a specified price or time. In prediction markets, redemption is equally important because it's the mechanism that ensures you can actually retrieve your winnings. Without a redemption process, your shares would remain locked in the protocol with no way to access the underlying value. This is why redemption is a core feature of any legitimate prediction market platform—it's the bridge between prediction and profit.
On Polymarket, you encounter redemption when a market resolves. Once a prediction market's outcome becomes final—say, "Will the Fed raise rates in June?" resolves to YES—the platform marks the market as settled. If you hold YES shares, your shares become eligible for redemption. Depending on the market's resolution rules, Polymarket either automatically sweeps your winnings into your balance or offers a one-click redeem button in your portfolio. The redemption typically settles on-chain within a few seconds to minutes, at which point you'll see the USDC appear in your wallet or account balance. Some markets with complex conditions or disputed outcomes may have a delay while Polymarket's oracle confirms the resolution.
A common misconception is that redemption is instant and automatic on all platforms—it isn't. On Polymarket, some markets redeem automatically while others require you to manually trigger the redemption via the UI. Another pitfall is forgetting to redeem losing positions. Unlike winning shares that convert to cash, losing shares (worth near zero) still occupy a portfolio slot and may clutter your My Activity view. Users sometimes dismiss these positions thinking they've vanished, but they remain in your order history and blockchain records. Additionally, some traders assume they can redeem fractional shares, but most platforms, including Polymarket, round redemptions to the smallest on-chain unit, so tiny remainders may not redeem. Finally, new traders sometimes confuse redemption with withdrawal—redemption converts shares to USDC on-chain, while withdrawal moves USDC from your Polymarket account to an external wallet.
Understanding redemption is intertwined with understanding market resolution, settlement, and claimable winnings. Resolution is when the oracle declares the outcome; settlement is when smart contracts update positions; redemption is when you personally extract value. Redemption is also related to the concept of settled markets and redeemable positions—terms you'll see in your portfolio. If a position shows as redeemable but you haven't claimed it yet, it means the market has resolved and you have USDC (or shares) waiting to be converted. Finally, redemption mechanics differ between centralized prediction platforms (where redemption is a database operation) and decentralized on-chain markets (where it's a smart contract transaction), but the principle is the same: conversion of claims into usable collateral.
Example
You buy 10 YES shares of the market "Will Bitcoin exceed $100,000 by year-end?" at $0.65 per share, spending $6.50. When the market resolves and Bitcoin indeed exceeds $100,000, your YES shares become winning shares. You redeem them, and Polymarket converts your 10 shares to 10 USDC in your account, which you can withdraw or reinvest in another market.