Polymarket redemptions and auto-redeem: what happens when a market resolves
When a Polymarket market resolves, winning shares become claims on collateral. How they are claimed — by the trader, or automatically by Polymarket — changes what the chain shows, and trackers that miss it record a winning trade as shares given away.
Resolution sets a payout
When a market's outcome is known, the oracle reports a payout for each outcome to the Conditional Tokens contract. Normally the winning outcome pays the whole dollar per share and the losing one nothing; some markets resolve to a split, such as 50¢ each. From that moment a share is worth exactly its payout, whatever the order book last said.
Redeeming
Redeeming burns the winning shares and sends the payout in collateral to the holder, recorded on chain as a PayoutRedemption event naming the redeemer. Losing shares can be redeemed too, for nothing. A trader can redeem at any time after resolution; nothing expires.
Auto-redeem
Polymarket now redeems many winning positions automatically. On chain, the winning shares leave the trader's wallet by a direct ERC-1155 transfer to a Polymarket contract (0xa1200000d0002264c9a1698e001292d00e1b00af), which then redeems a batch of them itself — so the PayoutRedemption event names that contract, not the trader. That contract receives shares from tens of thousands of wallets a day.
Why trackers get it wrong
A tracker that counts only PayoutRedemption events per wallet never sees these wins redeemed; one that treats every outgoing transfer as a gift sees a winning position thrown away. Either way the trader's best markets disappear from their record. PMWallets values the outgoing transfer at the market's payout, so an auto-redeemed win counts exactly as a redemption would, and the auto-redeem contract itself is excluded from the leaderboard.
Resolved but not redeemed
A position in a resolved market is worth its payout whether or not it has been redeemed. PMWallets counts it as realised profit at the resolution value; waiting to redeem does not change a trader's record.
Questions
Do I have to redeem my winnings on Polymarket?
You can redeem winning shares yourself at any time after resolution, and Polymarket also redeems many winning positions automatically. Either way the payout is the same.
Why did my winning Polymarket shares disappear?
Most likely Polymarket's auto-redeem: winning shares are transferred to a Polymarket contract that redeems them in a batch on your behalf. Check your balance for the payout.
Does an unredeemed winning position count as profit?
On PMWallets, yes: once the market resolves, the position is valued at its payout and counted as realised, redeemed or not.