After losing a major court case to Kalshi, the CFTC scrambles with an emergency motion, hoping to block the launch of U.S. election betting markets.
Here’s the latest crypto news: Just hours after losing a lengthy legal battle against U.S. prediction market platform Kalshi, regulators are making a last-ditch effort to delay the consequences.
Late Friday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) submitted an emergency motion, urging a federal judge to temporarily halt her recent decision in favor of Kalshi. This pause would prevent Kalshi from launching its election markets for at least 14 days.
The dispute began last year when the CFTC blocked Kalshi from listing contracts that would allow bets on which political party would control each house of Congress after the November election. The agency argued:
Without the benefit of the Court’s reasoning, the CFTC is unable to make an informed decision whether to appeal nor is it able to fully brief a motion for stay pending any forthcoming appeal.”
On Friday, Judge Jia M. Cobb from the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia ruled in Kalshi’s favor. However, she didn’t immediately provide her reasoning, promising to release a detailed opinion at a later, unspecified date. In the meantime, Kalshi celebrated on its website with the announcement: “We did it! U.S. election markets are coming to Kalshi.”
Not willing to give up just yet, the CFTC responded with an urgent motion, asking Judge Cobb to stay her order for 14 days after her opinion is published. In its filing, the agency explained that without understanding the court’s reasoning, it couldn’t properly decide whether to appeal or prepare a full motion for a stay during a potential appeal process.
If the stay is granted, Kalshi would be unable to offer election markets until at least late September. The company, which settles trades in U.S. dollars, has been sidelined from the current election betting surge. That space is being dominated by crypto-based competitor Polymarket, which is barred from serving U.S. customers under its own CFTC settlement.
