Kraken parent Payward has filed to launch CFTC-regulated perpetual futures for eligible U.S. traders through Bitnomial, the Designated Contract Market acquired by the company.
The proposed products would cover BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, and ADA perpetual derivatives, according to Kraken’s announcement. The filing marks an important step because perpetual futures are one of crypto’s most heavily traded instruments globally, but U.S. access has historically been far more constrained.
This does not mean trading is live today.
The launch remains subject to a 30-day regulatory self-certification review process. That is the key caveat.
For more details, visit the official Blog platform.
Perpetual futures are central to crypto trading.
Unlike traditional futures, they do not expire on a fixed date. Traders use them for leverage, hedging, market-making, directional exposure, and basis strategies. In global crypto markets, perpetuals often dominate derivatives volume.
The U.S. market is different.
Regulated access is more limited, and many crypto perpetual products have operated offshore. A CFTC-regulated product would give eligible U.S. traders a more compliant route into an instrument they already use elsewhere through global platforms.
That makes Kraken’s filing a significant market-structure development.
The Bitnomial relationship matters.
Bitnomial is a CFTC-registered Designated Contract Market, which gives Payward a regulated venue framework for derivatives listings. Rather than simply offering offshore-style perps through Kraken directly, the product is being routed through a regulated market structure.
That distinction is important.
It affects who can access the product, how contracts are listed, what rules apply, how surveillance works, and what disclosures traders receive.
The inclusion of BTC and ETH makes sense.
They are the deepest and most institutionally accepted crypto assets. But the proposed product suite also includes SOL, XRP, and ADA, which would widen regulated derivatives access beyond the two largest assets.
That could matter for altcoin market structure.
If eligible U.S. traders get regulated perpetual exposure to several large-cap tokens, offshore derivatives markets may face new competition. It could also give institutions a more familiar venue for hedging altcoin exposure.
The market should not jump ahead of the process.
A filing is not the same as a live product. Kraken’s announcement points to a self-certification review period, meaning launch timing depends on the regulatory process and any issues raised during review.
Until that period is complete, traders should treat this as a proposed regulated product.
That is still meaningful, but it is not the same as live trading volume.
Kraken’s move shows U.S. crypto derivatives are still evolving.
The market has long wanted deeper regulated access to products that already dominate global trading. If perpetual futures can be structured inside CFTC-regulated venues, the U.S. derivatives landscape could become more competitive.
The key is whether the product clears review and how widely it is available.
For now, Payward’s filing gives the market a serious signal: regulated U.S. crypto perps are moving from concept toward product reality.
This article draws on Kraken’s announcement relating to CFTC-regulated U.S. perpetual futures through Bitnomial.
This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.
This report is based on information released by Blog. at Blog
The CFTC’s Division of Clearing and Risk has issued a staff advisory on how registered derivatives clearing organizations should handle tokenized collateral, including tokenized U.S. Treasuries used as margin.
The advisory is a narrow but important signal. It does not approve tokenized collateral for every market. It does not mean all clearinghouses can suddenly accept any on-chain asset. It sets risk-management expectations for registered DCOs dealing with a specific emerging market structure.
That makes the document useful for understanding how regulators are approaching tokenized assets inside core financial plumbing.
For more details, visit the official Cftc platform.
Derivatives clearing organizations sit deep inside financial market infrastructure.
They help manage counterparty risk, margin, settlement, and default processes for derivatives markets. Most retail crypto traders do not think about DCOs, but institutions care about them because clearing determines how risk is controlled after trades are made.
If tokenized collateral enters this part of the market, the stakes are high.
Collateral needs to be valued accurately. It needs to be liquid enough under stress. It needs strong custody arrangements. It needs legal clarity. It needs operational resilience.
The CFTC advisory speaks to those requirements.
Tokenized U.S. Treasuries have become one of the strongest RWA categories.
They are familiar, relatively liquid, yield-bearing, and easier for institutions to understand than many crypto-native assets. Using them as margin could make sense in some settings, but only if the risks are managed properly.
That is where regulators become cautious.
A tokenized Treasury may represent a traditional asset, but it still introduces digital-asset risks. There can be wallet risk, smart contract risk, transfer restrictions, issuer risk, oracle risk, redemption timing, and technology failure.
A clearinghouse cannot treat the tokenized wrapper as irrelevant.
The advisory highlights the kinds of questions DCOs need to answer.
How is the asset valued daily? What happens if liquidity dries up? Can the collateral be liquidated quickly during stress? Who controls custody? What legal rights does the clearinghouse have? Are there operational dependencies on a blockchain, custodian, or issuer?
Those questions are not theoretical.
Collateral is supposed to protect the system during bad conditions. If tokenized collateral only works during calm markets, it is not good enough for clearing.
Crypto markets may be tempted to read the advisory as regulatory approval for tokenized assets.
That would be too broad.
The document is about expectations for registered DCOs. It does not bless every RWA protocol, every tokenized fund, or every tokenized Treasury product. It also does not remove the need for clearinghouses to satisfy existing regulations.
The more measured view is that tokenized collateral is now serious enough to require detailed supervisory expectations.
That is still meaningful.
The advisory shows tokenization is moving from concept to infrastructure.
Regulators are no longer only asking whether tokenized assets are interesting. They are asking how they behave inside regulated market systems. That is a much more advanced conversation.
For crypto, that is a sign of maturity.
The next phase of RWA adoption will depend less on splashy launches and more on whether tokenized assets can survive legal, operational, custody, and liquidity scrutiny.
The CFTC’s advisory is part of that test.
This article draws on the CFTC Division of Clearing and Risk staff advisory on tokenized collateral for registered derivatives clearing organizations.
This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.
This report is based on information released by Cftc. at Cftc
The Federal Trade Commission and 22 states sued Amazon yesterday, alleging that it has conducted a secret scheme to overcharge advertisers for seven years.
"Since 2019, Amazon.com, Inc. has secretly and systematically overcharged its approximately 1.2 million advertising customers by manipulating the 'auctions' that it uses to set the price of ads on its platform," the lawsuit said. "Amazon represents, and advertisers believe, that competitive auctions set the prices for advertising on its leading e-commerce website. But, in reality, Amazon overrides and replaces the actual auction results with higher prices set by Amazon to increase its profits."
The FTC said it obtained internal documents and messages that reveal how Amazon secretly inflated auction prices for Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Display advertisements that appear alongside results seen by consumers when they search for a product. The FTC investigation began in 2024.
© Getty Images | NurPhoto
The CFTC has issued regulatory enforcement guidance for event contract derivatives, sharpening the lines around prediction markets at a time when event-based trading is moving deeper into the financial mainstream.
The guidance matters because event contracts sit in an awkward space. They can look like derivatives, prediction markets, betting products, information markets, or political-risk tools depending on how they are structured.
That makes regulatory clarity important.
As platforms grow and more users trade outcomes tied to elections, policy decisions, economic data, court rulings, and geopolitical events, regulators are paying closer attention to how these markets are listed, monitored, and accessed.
For more details, visit the official Cftc platform.
A traditional futures contract usually tracks a commodity, rate, index, or financial asset.
Event contracts track outcomes. That could mean whether a policy passes, whether a central bank changes rates, whether a candidate wins, or whether a specific real-world event occurs by a certain date.
That structure can produce useful price discovery.
But it also creates difficult regulatory questions. Some event markets may resemble hedging instruments. Others may resemble gambling. Some may create public-interest concerns. Others may raise market-integrity issues if insiders can trade around non-public information.
The CFTC’s guidance sits inside that wider debate.
Prediction markets have become much more visible.
Crypto rails, stablecoin settlement, on-chain interfaces, and global liquidity have helped push event trading into broader public view. Traders now use these markets to express views on politics, regulation, macro events, sports, culture, and technology.
With visibility comes scrutiny.
Regulators care about whether platforms are registered, whether contracts are permitted, whether customers are protected, and whether markets are vulnerable to manipulation or insider activity.
The CFTC’s guidance signals that the agency is watching the category closely.
The prediction market sector may split between compliant venues and higher-risk offshore or unregistered platforms.
That split matters. A venue operating inside the regulatory perimeter may face higher costs and stricter controls, but it may also gain better access to institutional users. Unregistered platforms may move faster, but they can face enforcement risk.
For users, the difference is not academic.
Registration, surveillance, disclosures, and market rules affect how contracts are traded and how disputes are handled.
Crypto did not invent prediction markets, but it changed their growth path.
Blockchain settlement can make event trading global, fast, and composable. Stablecoins can simplify funding. On-chain markets can create transparency, while also making access harder to control.
That is why digital asset markets care about CFTC guidance even when the contracts are not tied to crypto prices.
The regulatory framework for event derivatives may shape one of the fastest-growing adjacent markets in crypto.
The CFTC’s action should not be overstated.
It does not mean all prediction markets are illegal. It does not mean every event contract is banned. It does not mean compliant venues cannot operate.
It does mean regulators are defining the boundaries more actively.
For prediction market operators, the message is clear: growth will bring questions about registration, customer access, contract design, and surveillance. For traders, the message is just as important: event contracts are becoming serious enough for serious oversight.
This article draws on the CFTC’s regulatory enforcement guidance for event contract derivatives.
This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.
This report is based on information released by Cftc. at Cftc
XRP derivatives positioning is back in focus after CFTC Commitments of Traders data showed a 115.7 million-token net short position building against the asset.
The positioning matters because it gives traders a cleaner look at how larger market participants are leaning. A large short position does not guarantee a squeeze, and it does not mean XRP is about to rally. But it does create a setup where the market becomes more sensitive to sharp upside moves.
If price rises quickly, heavily short positioning can add fuel as traders reduce exposure or cover.
That is why the CFTC data matters. It gives the XRP market something more concrete than social-media sentiment or chart speculation.
For more details, visit the official Cftc platform.
Crypto traders often rely on exchange dashboards, funding rates, open interest, and liquidation maps.
CFTC data is different because it offers a more formal view of regulated derivatives positioning. It does not capture every trade in the crypto market, but it can reveal how certain market participants are positioned in listed or reportable instruments.
For XRP, that matters because the asset is highly sensitive to regulatory, institutional, and derivatives-driven narratives.
When short positioning becomes large, traders start asking whether the market is too crowded on one side.
That does not mean a reversal is guaranteed.
But it does mean XRP’s next major move may be sharper if positioning has to unwind.
A short position is a bet against price.
If the trade works, short sellers benefit from downside. If price rises instead, those traders may need to buy back exposure to manage risk. That buying can add momentum to an upside move.
This is the basic short-squeeze setup.
The important thing is not to jump too quickly from “large shorts exist” to “squeeze is certain.” Markets can stay heavily short for a long time if price continues lower or remains weak. Shorts only become fuel when price starts moving against them.
For XRP, the next question is whether spot demand is strong enough to pressure those positions.
XRP’s market structure remains unusual.
It is one of the most liquid altcoins, but its history has also been shaped by regulatory uncertainty, exchange access, institutional products, and Ripple-related headlines. That means positioning can change quickly when the market sees a shift in legal or product-access expectations.
A large short position can therefore become more important during news-heavy periods.
If traders believe the regulatory backdrop is improving, or if regulated exposure products attract attention, XRP can move quickly. If those catalysts fade, shorts may remain comfortable.
The market should be careful with language.
A large net short position is not the same as a forced liquidation. It is not proof that traders are trapped. It does not show that a squeeze has already happened.
It simply shows that short exposure is meaningful.
The cleaner read is that XRP has a crowded positioning setup that may matter if market momentum turns.
XRP traders now have a clear derivatives signal to watch.
The 115.7 million-token net short position shows that bearish exposure is large enough to matter, but the market still needs a catalyst. Spot demand, regulatory headlines, ETF access, exchange flows, and broader altcoin rotation will decide whether shorts come under pressure.
For now, XRP’s setup is not a forecast.
It is a pressure point.
This article is based on CFTC Commitments of Traders data and public XRP market information.
This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.
This report is based on information released by Cftc. at Cftc
Former FTX executives Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang have finalized CFTC consent orders that impose permanent trading and registration bans, adding another regulatory closeout to the long-running FTX collapse.
The settlements do not add new civil monetary penalties, according to the validated CFTC materials. Instead, the focus is on permanent bans tied to their roles in the FTX and Alameda Research misconduct.
This is not a new criminal case.
Both figures have already been central witnesses in the wider FTX proceedings. The CFTC consent orders are part of the civil regulatory aftermath, showing how agencies continue to close enforcement actions even after the main criminal storyline has moved forward.
For more details, visit the official Cftc platform.
The FTX collapse involved several regulatory tracks.
Criminal prosecutors pursued fraud cases. Bankruptcy teams worked through creditor claims. The SEC and CFTC brought civil actions. Customers waited for recovery processes. Each track moved at a different pace.
The CFTC orders are one piece of that wider cleanup.
Permanent bans prevent Ellison and Wang from participating in CFTC-regulated markets in the future. That is a serious restriction, even without new monetary penalties attached.
It also shows regulators are still formally closing the loop on individuals involved in FTX’s failure.
The distinction matters.
A CFTC consent order is a civil regulatory resolution. It is not the same thing as a new criminal indictment, a new prison sentence, or a new trial. In this case, the settlement terms center on market bans rather than additional fines.
That reflects the broader context.
Ellison and Wang cooperated extensively in the criminal proceedings against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. Their roles as cooperating witnesses shaped how different authorities approached their cases.
The CFTC settlement continues that pattern: accountability, but in a specific civil regulatory form.
A permanent ban is not symbolic.
It prevents individuals from registering with the CFTC, trading in regulated markets, or participating in certain market activities under the agency’s jurisdiction. For former executives of a major crypto exchange, that effectively removes them from regulated derivatives market participation.
That matters because FTX’s collapse was not only about customer losses.
It was also about trust in market infrastructure. Regulators want to show that executives involved in misconduct cannot simply reappear in another regulated role later.
The FTX story has lasted far longer than the exchange itself.
Even after convictions, settlements, bankruptcy developments, and customer recovery updates, regulators continue to process the aftermath. That is normal for a collapse of this size.
Large financial failures take years to resolve.
There are individual cases, corporate claims, asset recovery, customer distributions, civil penalties, cooperation agreements, and regulatory reforms.
The Ellison and Wang consent orders are part of that long tail.
The market should not treat these settlements as a fresh FTX shock.
They do not reveal a new collapse or new exchange failure. They are part of the continued legal cleanup from one of crypto’s biggest scandals.
But they do matter because they reinforce the regulatory consequences of FTX-era misconduct.
Crypto markets have moved on in many ways. ETFs launched. Institutions returned. New exchanges grew. DeFi changed. But regulators are still using FTX as a benchmark for enforcement, governance, custody, and market integrity.
The CFTC’s permanent bans keep that lesson alive.
This article is based on CFTC consent orders and enforcement materials relating to Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang.
This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.
This report is based on information released by Cftc. at Cftc
The CFTC has fined former White House staffer Gabriel Perez $172,000 over alleged insider trading in event contracts, marking another regulatory action at the intersection of prediction markets and non-public information.
According to the agency’s settlement materials, the case involved trading connected to non-public information around event market outcomes. The action is important because it shows the CFTC is willing to treat event contracts as serious markets with enforceable integrity rules.
That matters for crypto because event markets have become one of the most visible blockchain-adjacent trading categories.
Prediction markets are often promoted as tools for information discovery. But if traders can use privileged information to profit before public release, regulators will treat that as a market integrity problem.
For more details, visit the official Cftc platform.
Event contracts are built around outcomes.
A trader may buy or sell based on whether a political appointment happens, whether a bill passes, whether a geopolitical event occurs, or whether a public figure makes a decision. These markets can be useful because prices reflect collective expectations.
But they also create incentives for people with privileged information.
If someone knows the outcome before the public does, they may be able to trade ahead of other users. That creates the same basic problem regulators have fought in traditional markets for decades: unfair informational advantage.
The CFTC’s action shows it sees that risk clearly.
Prediction markets used to be treated like a fringe experiment.
That is changing. Platforms have gained visibility, users have become more active, and contracts tied to major public events can attract meaningful liquidity. With growth comes enforcement attention.
Regulators tend to follow activity.
If a market becomes large enough for real money, real influence, and real harm, agencies begin to ask whether existing laws apply. The CFTC’s settlement suggests that event markets are moving into that more serious phase.
Not every event contract case is purely a crypto case.
But crypto-native prediction markets, stablecoin settlement, blockchain-based trading, and global user bases have pushed this market structure forward. That makes CFTC enforcement relevant for digital asset investors even when the contract itself is tied to a non-crypto event.
The key issue is market integrity.
Whether the platform is on-chain or off-chain, regulators do not want event markets to become places where insiders monetize confidential information.
That principle will shape how these platforms operate.
A fine and settlement do not answer every legal question around prediction markets.
They do not create a full rulebook. They do not determine how every event contract should be classified. They do not resolve the broader debate over political markets, sports markets, geopolitical contracts, or policy event contracts.
But enforcement actions still matter.
They show what behavior regulators are willing to pursue.
Platforms offering event contracts may need stronger surveillance and compliance controls.
That could include monitoring for unusual trading, restricting certain participants, reviewing contracts tied to sensitive government information, and building controls around public and non-public event data.
Those controls may become more important as the sector grows.
For traders, the message is simpler: event markets are not lawless prediction games. If regulators believe someone used privileged information to trade, they can act.
The CFTC’s action against Perez makes that point clearly.
This article is based on CFTC settlement materials relating to Gabriel Perez and event contract trading.
This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.
This report is based on information released by Cftc. at Cftc
The CFTC has filed an amicus brief in a federal criminal case involving alleged insider trading on Polymarket event contracts, putting prediction markets back under the regulatory spotlight.
The case centers on a soldier accused of trading around non-public information in event contracts. The CFTC’s involvement matters because it gives the agency another chance to explain how event contracts fit within federal swaps law, especially when the underlying market is tied to political, geopolitical, or real-world outcomes.
This is not a routine crypto exchange case.
It sits at the edge of crypto, prediction markets, derivatives law, and insider-trading theory. That makes it useful for understanding where regulators may draw lines as event markets become more visible.
For more details, visit the official Cftc platform.
The CFTC regulates derivatives markets, including certain swaps and event contracts.
Prediction markets are difficult because they can look like information markets, betting markets, political markets, or derivatives markets depending on structure. When users trade contracts tied to future events, regulators often ask whether those contracts function like swaps or other regulated instruments.
Polymarket has sat inside that debate for years.
The platform lets users trade on real-world outcomes. That can create useful price discovery, but it also raises concerns around manipulation, market integrity, political incentives, and access to non-public information.
A criminal case involving alleged insider trading gives the CFTC a chance to weigh in on the legal framework.
Event contracts are no longer a niche curiosity.
Markets tied to elections, court decisions, economic data, wars, policy outcomes, and corporate events have attracted more attention from traders and regulators. As participation grows, the same questions that apply to traditional markets start appearing.
Who has material non-public information? What counts as manipulation? How should platforms monitor trading? When does an event contract become a regulated derivative? How should enforcement work when the underlying event is not a company earnings release, but a public outcome?
Those questions are still being developed.
Insider trading cases are usually associated with securities markets.
A person has confidential corporate information, trades before the market learns it, and profits from the informational advantage. Event contracts can create similar incentives, but the information may come from military, political, legal, or government contexts rather than corporate boardrooms.
That makes the Polymarket-related case unusual.
If someone trades event contracts using non-public information about real-world events, regulators and prosecutors may argue that market integrity is harmed even though the contract is not a traditional stock or bond.
That is likely why the case matters beyond one defendant.
The filing should not be treated as a final ruling against Polymarket or prediction markets generally.
An amicus brief is a legal position submitted to assist the court. It is not a conviction. It is not a final regulatory rule. It does not settle every question around event contracts.
The court still needs to handle the case on its own facts.
Still, the CFTC’s view can influence how judges understand the market structure around event contracts.
Prediction markets are moving closer to mainstream finance.
That means they will face more scrutiny. As volumes grow, regulators will care more about surveillance, market access, insider information, manipulation, and whether platforms are offering products that require registration.
The CFTC’s involvement in this case shows that event contracts are no longer being ignored.
For crypto markets, the message is clear: prediction markets may be innovative, but they are not outside the regulatory perimeter.
This article is based on CFTC filings and related court materials in the Polymarket event contract case.
This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.
This report is based on information released by Cftc. at Cftc
Some Americans worry that the Federal Trade Commission's rush to limit personalized pricing in the name of consumer protection could end up killing discounts they depend on or, counterintuitively, raising prices.
The FTC has no power to ban personalized pricing, in which a business uses a customer’s personal data to determine the highest price that person might be willing to pay for a product or service. But the agency believes it could set limits on the practice, including potential penalties for businesses that fail to disclose when customers may be paying more because data suggests they won't balk at the price.
In a request for public comment on a proposed policy statement, the FTC acknowledged that personalized pricing is common in some industries. But FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson said new industries are increasingly tracking customers to set individualized prices, blindsiding consumers who expect a listed price in markets like retail “to be the same price that everyone else sees,” Ferguson said.
© Andrew Harnik / Staff | Getty Images News
Uniswap founder Hayden Adams warned at the CFTC’s inaugural Innovation Advisory Committee meeting that regulatory uncertainty in the United States is pushing crypto builders and developers overseas.
The comments came during an August 20 panel discussion, not an enforcement proceeding and not binding testimony. Still, the message matters because it captures one of the industry’s longest-running complaints: US crypto policy has been too unclear for builders trying to launch products, hire teams, and raise capital domestically.
That concern is not new.
What is different now is the setting. The complaint is being made directly in front of US market regulators as policymakers continue to debate crypto market structure, token rules, DeFi oversight, and agency boundaries.
The CFTC has become central to the US crypto policy debate.
For years, the industry has argued that the SEC and CFTC need clearer jurisdictional boundaries. Some digital assets may fall under securities laws, while others may be treated more like commodities. The lack of clear rules has created uncertainty for exchanges, DeFi protocols, token issuers, investors, and developers.
Uniswap sits directly inside that debate.
As one of the most important DeFi protocols, Uniswap represents the kind of infrastructure that does not fit neatly into older regulatory categories. It is software, market structure, liquidity infrastructure, and governance all at once.
That makes Adams’ comments relevant beyond Uniswap itself.
The argument is straightforward.
If US developers believe launching crypto products domestically creates legal risk without a clear compliance path, some will move abroad or build for non-US markets first. That can shift talent, capital, and innovation into jurisdictions with more defined rules.
This is not only about company headquarters.
It affects where teams hire, where protocols incorporate foundations, where investors allocate capital, and where products are first made available.
If builders leave, the US may still regulate the market eventually, but it may regulate it after much of the innovation has already moved elsewhere.
That is the industry’s fear.
Uniswap is one of the clearest examples of DeFi’s regulatory challenge.
It is not a traditional exchange with a central order book, listing department, and account structure. It is a protocol that allows users to swap tokens through liquidity pools and smart contracts.
That creates difficult questions.
Who is responsible for compliance? How should front ends be treated? What obligations apply to developers? When does governance matter? How should decentralized liquidity be supervised without simply forcing it offshore?
These are exactly the kinds of questions regulators have struggled to answer.
It is important not to misread the meeting.
Adams’ appearance at the CFTC advisory committee does not mean Uniswap is facing a new enforcement action. It does not create binding regulatory policy. It does not mean the CFTC has accepted his view.
It is a public policy signal.
The industry is telling regulators that uncertainty has costs. Regulators, in turn, are gathering input as they think through how digital asset markets should be supervised.
That is useful, but it is not final.
The comments land at a time when US crypto regulation appears to be shifting from pure enforcement toward rule design.
Market-structure bills, SEC proposals, CFTC discussions, ETF approvals, and court cases are all shaping the next phase. The question is whether those pieces eventually become a coherent framework.
If they do, builders may have more reason to stay in the US.
If they do not, the overseas migration argument will keep getting louder.
For now, Adams’ message was simple: unclear rules are not neutral. They shape where crypto gets built.
That makes the CFTC meeting part of a broader fight over whether the US wants to host the next generation of crypto infrastructure or watch it develop somewhere else.
This article is based on the CFTC Innovation Advisory Committee meeting and public reporting around Hayden Adams’ remarks.
This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.
This report is based on information released in disclosures at primary source documentation.
A judge in Seattle ordered Kalshi to shut down large parts of its prediction market in Washington state by Sept. 2 — less than three weeks from now — and denied the New York-based company’s attempt to pause the order while it appeals the ruling.
The order by King County Superior Court Judge John McHale, issued Wednesday, requires Kalshi to geofence Washington users out of markets for sports, elections, politics, entertainment, culture, tech and science, and “mentions,” contracts on whether public figures will say specific words.
Kalshi can continue offering markets on commodities, climate, economics, and finance in the state. Users will also be allowed to close out positions they already hold in the prohibited categories.
The order sets a $120,000-a-day penalty if Kalshi misses the Sept. 2 deadline, although Kalshi can also submit an affidavit explaining any delay and let the court determine the final penalty.
That penalty would match what Nevada regulators are separately seeking from Kalshi in a June contempt motion for allegedly failing to comply with a similar injunction there.
In his ruling, McHale wrote that Kalshi “willfully ignored” a Washington State Gambling Commission notice from December 2025 stating that event-based contracts are not authorized in the state. He also concluded that “the public interests at stake and potential harm to consumers” outweigh harm to Kalshi from the injunction.
Kalshi disputed the premise of the ruling on Thursday, reiterating its position that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission “has exclusive jurisdiction” over the exchange.
“We respectfully disagree with the court’s decision and are considering all legal options,” spokesperson Jacki McGavick said in a statement responding to the ruling.
Attorney General Nick Brown, who brought the suit, said in a statement that Kalshi “has gotten rich promoting wagers on sports, elections, natural disasters, events related to the Iran War, and more.”
However, Kalshi said its platform does not offer markets on wildfires, war, death, or terrorism. Kalshi has disputed reporting that has grouped its platform with rival Polymarket, which has drawn scrutiny for wildfire and other markets Kalshi says it doesn’t allow.
Kalshi had asked both McHale and the state Court of Appeals to pause the injunction pending appeal, and lost at both levels: a Court of Appeals commissioner denied an emergency stay request Monday, and McHale entered his own denial Wednesday with his larger order.
It’s the latest development in a case that Brown filed in March. McHale granted a preliminary injunction on July 20, finding Washington was likely to prove Kalshi is running illegal online gambling and rejecting the federal preemption argument. Kalshi appealed to the Court of Appeals and brought in former U.S. Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal for its defense.
Kalshi’s remaining state-court options include asking a full Court of Appeals panel to review the commissioner’s ruling, or seeking emergency review at the Washington Supreme Court.
Bitcoin Magazine
Regulators To Push Pro-Crypto Initiatives Following Clarity Act Delay
The long-awaited crypto Clarity Act has stalled and is due a September vote but regulators are ready to step in to advance crypto rules regardless, according to reports.
Bloomberg reported Tuesday that the Securities and Exchange Commission was preparing to roll out this week initiatives to help the crypto industry. The regulator has said that it will hold an open meeting Friday “to create a tailored offering regime for certain investment contracts involving crypto assets.”
JUST IN:
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) August 11, 2026
And JD Supra reported Tuesday that Commodities and Futures Trading Commission Chairman Michael Selig was ready to proceed with “rulemaking whether or not the Clarity Act is enacted, with the goal of finalizing rules before the end of the current administration.”
The news from the regulators comes as the Clarity Act stalls. Pro-crypto lawmakers were last week hoping the Clarity Act passed before Congress departed for August recess. After a delay, a vote will now go ahead in September.
Lawmakers started mulling over a new draft of the bill, which was passed by the House of Representatives last year, in July. The text that tackled the issue of ethics, banning government officials from promoting or making money from crypto.
But Democrats still had a problem with it and some were deliberately holding it back, according to Republicans like Cynthia Lummis.
Regulators the SEC and CFTC have become remarkably more crypto-friendly since President Trump took the White House.
When Gary Gensler was in charge of the SEC under Democratic President Joe Biden, the regulator went after crypto firms like Coinbase and Kraken.
Under the Republican Administration, the regulators have scrapped a number of high-profile lawsuits against crypto companies.
President Trump campaigned on a ticket to help make the United States digital asset capital of the world, and has passed pro-crypto legislation since taking office.
This post Regulators To Push Pro-Crypto Initiatives Following Clarity Act Delay first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.
Washington state is emerging as a key battleground in the national fight over whether federal commodities oversight allows prediction markets like Kalshi to override state gambling laws.
King County Superior Court Judge John McHale in Seattle sided with Washington Attorney General Nick Brown on July 20, granting a preliminary injunction and rejecting Kalshi’s core defense: that oversight by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission preempts state gambling law.
A check of the docket shows the case has escalated significantly since then. Kalshi has appealed to the Washington Court of Appeals, and asked McHale to pause his injunction pending that appeal.
Court records also indicate that former U.S. Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal, Kalshi’s lead national counsel in similar state cases, is now representing the company in the Washington state case. The involvement of a lawyer with years of experience arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court signals that Kalshi is preparing for a serious appellate fight over federal preemption rules.
McHale has yet to rule on Kalshi’s stay motion or enter the operational terms of his injunction, which means the platform is still operational in the state nearly three weeks after his ruling.
Both sides have been pushing to shape McHale’s decision, submitting federal court rulings from other states for his consideration.
McHale’s next ruling, expected in the coming days, should determine whether Kalshi will have to stop operating in Washington state while its appeal plays out.
Zillow Group’s revenue rose 18% to $772 million in the second quarter, beating its own forecast, but a $36 million restructuring charge from severance and other costs stemming from this week’s layoffs pushed it to a $4 million net loss.
The Seattle-based online real estate company, which on Tuesday laid off more than 500 people, or 7% of its workforce, expects the restructuring to cost $59 million to $64 million in total, with the rest recorded in the third quarter, according to the company’s 10-Q regulatory filing.
Zillow also announced a series of executive changes, including expanding CFO Jeremy Hofmann‘s role to include chief operating officer. Jun Choo, who became COO in 2024, is stepping down to focus on his health, serving as an advisor through the end of the year.
The company created a chief legal and policy officer role and hired Cassandra “Sandi” Knight, a Google vice president of litigation and discovery, who was previously PayPal chief litigation counsel. Knight starts next week.
Zillow and Redfin are set to go to trial Aug. 24 as defendants in an antitrust case brought by the FTC and five state attorneys general over the $100 million rental listings deal between the two companies. Zillow has spent $26 million on the case so far this year, including $10 million in the second quarter.
In addition, Zillow promoted Kathleen Berroth to senior vice president of strategy and operations, and Eric Wilson to senior vice president and GM of mortgages.
For the second quarter, Zillow said the residential real estate industry grew 6%, while industry-wide lending for home purchases was roughly flat compared with a year ago. The number of people visiting real estate sites and apps declined overall as mortgage rates rose, the company said, citing Comscore. Zillow’s own traffic fell 2%, to an average of 239 million monthly users.
Most of the revenue growth came from Zillow’s newer businesses. Mortgage revenue rose 75% to $84 million as Zillow directed buyers on its site to its own lending arm, and rentals revenue rose 31% to $209 million. Residential revenue, from advertising sold to real estate agents, grew 7% to $465 million.
Seattle-based online real estate company Zillow Group laid off more than 500 employees Tuesday, about 7% of its global workforce, its second and largest round of cuts this year.
The layoffs are about “ensuring we have a disciplined cost structure and getting more efficient, with the right people in the right positions,” Zillow Group CEO Jeremy Wacksman said in a company blog post announcing the cuts. He said the decision reflects “both the strides we’re making in our strategy and the reality of what is required of us to grow at scale.”
He added, “Continuing to grow at scale requires us to work differently than we do today.”
Wacksman told real estate executives at the T3 Leadership Summit in April that Zillow employees were being retrained to use AI in their jobs, with gains that “are small, but they’re compounding,” as reported by Real Estate News.
FOLLOW-UP: Zillow layoffs hit 91 jobs in Washington state, with senior roles bearing the brunt
Zillow told GeekWire the cuts were not driven by AI. “Today’s changes are about better positioning Zillow for the path ahead, which includes having the right people in the right roles and being able to move faster,” a company spokesperson said.
The company didn’t disclose which teams were affected, how many of the cuts will hit its Seattle headquarters, or what severance employees will receive.
Zillow Group will report second-quarter earnings Wednesday afternoon. The company’s business has been growing, defying a sluggish housing market. Its first-quarter revenue rose 18% year-over-year to $708 million, while the residential real estate industry grew 2%, according to NAR. Net income climbed to $46 million from $8 million a year earlier.
Wacksman indicated Tuesday that the company is still bucking the trend: “We continue to outperform the category, despite a housing market that has been essentially flat,” he wrote.
However, the company has been spending nearly as fast as it has been growing, on rental listings, loan officers for Zillow Home Loans, advertising and legal bills. Execs told investors in May that the spending would ease up in the second half of the year. Cutting payroll is one way to make that happen, and Zillow’s earnings guidance tomorrow could reflect that.
As for those legal bills: Zillow is headed to trial later this month in an FTC antitrust case over the $100 million deal the company struck in early 2025 to become the exclusive provider of multifamily rental listings on Redfin’s websites.
Zillow cut about 200 jobs in January, but characterized those as performance-related and part of its annual review cycle. It had 7,058 employees as of March 31, down just 10 positions from the end of 2025, meaning it had largely backfilled January’s cuts before Tuesday.
It’s part of a wave of cuts and consolidation in real estate portals and property tech. CoStar has cut its Homes.com inside-sales team by nearly 40% in recent months. Better founder Vishal Garg stepped down as CEO Monday as the mortgage company pushed to cut costs.
Rocket Companies acquired Seattle-based Redfin for $1.75 billion in an all-stock deal that closed in July 2025, then cut about 2% of its combined workforce weeks later. Longtime Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman departed in January after 20 years leading the company.
Along with its flagship Zillow portal, Zillow Group’s brands include Trulia, StreetEasy, HotPads and Out East, plus agent software products Follow Up Boss, ShowingTime and dotloop.
Updated after publication with additional details from Zillow.
CFTC Self-Reporting Guidelines Could Change Crypto Enforcement Incentives
The CFTC has introduced new penalty mitigation guidelines for self-reporting and cooperation, creating a clearer framework for firms that voluntarily disclose regulatory breaches.
The advisory, titled “Enforcement Advisory on Self-Reporting, Cooperation, and Voluntary Disclosure Penalties,” sets out how civil penalty reductions may apply when entities self-report, cooperate with investigators, and take corrective action.
The guidance applies across the CFTC’s jurisdiction, including derivatives and digital commodity markets. That means crypto firms are part of the audience, but the policy is not crypto-only.
That distinction matters. The CFTC is not creating a special exemption for digital asset companies. It is giving all regulated entities a more transparent view of how voluntary disclosure may affect enforcement outcomes.
Enforcement policy is not only about punishment.
It also shapes incentives. If firms believe self-reporting will lead to the same outcome as being caught later, they have less reason to come forward. If they believe cooperation can meaningfully reduce penalties, they may be more likely to disclose problems early.
That is the logic behind penalty mitigation frameworks.
Regulators want firms to detect and report misconduct before it becomes larger or harms more users. Firms want to know whether early disclosure will actually help them. Clearer guidelines can reduce uncertainty on both sides.
For crypto firms, this is especially relevant.
The digital asset sector has grown quickly, and many businesses operate across complex product lines: derivatives, spot markets, custody, lending, staking, DeFi integrations, and token listings. Compliance failures can happen in areas where rules are still developing or where firms misjudge the boundary of CFTC jurisdiction.
A self-reporting framework gives firms a stronger reason to identify problems internally and bring them to regulators before enforcement escalates.
The guidance should not be read as leniency without consequences.
Self-reporting may reduce penalties, but it does not erase violations. Firms still need to cooperate, remediate issues, and demonstrate that their disclosure was meaningful. A company that reports only after misconduct is obvious, incomplete, or already under investigation may not receive the same benefit.
That is important for crypto markets.
Regulators are trying to encourage better behavior, not create a loophole. If a firm manipulates markets, misleads customers, or violates derivatives rules, voluntary disclosure may help, but it will not automatically eliminate liability.
The exact benefit will depend on timing, completeness, cooperation, remediation, and the seriousness of the breach.
That makes internal compliance systems more important.
A firm cannot self-report a problem it cannot detect. Monitoring, audit trails, risk controls, and governance processes all become part of the enforcement equation.
Crypto firms often complain that regulation is unclear. In some areas, that complaint has merit. But unclear rules do not remove the need for strong compliance systems.
The CFTC’s advisory gives digital asset firms a more concrete reason to build those systems.
If a crypto derivatives platform, market maker, broker, or digital commodity firm discovers a breach, it now has more guidance on how voluntary disclosure might be treated. That can influence board decisions, legal strategy, and internal reporting culture.
It may also encourage firms to document remediation more carefully.
Regulators care not only that a firm admits a problem, but that it fixes the systems that allowed the problem to happen. For crypto, that could involve surveillance tools, customer protections, leverage controls, reporting processes, or product governance.
The firms that take compliance seriously may be in a better position if something goes wrong.
The advisory is part of a broader shift in crypto regulation.
Enforcement is not disappearing, but it is becoming more structured. Agencies are moving from headline actions toward frameworks, consultations, guidelines, and clearer compliance expectations.
That does not mean the industry will like every rule. It does mean the market is getting more information about how regulators will judge conduct.
For serious firms, that can be useful.
A transparent self-reporting framework helps companies understand what regulators expect when problems arise. It may also create a more mature enforcement environment, where cooperation and remediation are recognized rather than treated as irrelevant.
For the crypto sector, the signal is clear: compliance infrastructure matters.
The CFTC is giving firms a stronger incentive to come forward early, but also reminding them that digital commodity markets sit inside a regulated enforcement perimeter.
The companies that understand that may be better prepared for the next phase of institutional crypto.
This article is based on the CFTC enforcement advisory.
This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.
This report is based on information released in official primary source disclosures at primary source documentation.
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