Law & Policy

The prediction market saga of the last year has finally come to a head. Crypto.com, Kalshi and Robinhood began to offer sports-based markets, and states responded with C&Ds. I guess they didn’t factor in the supremacy clause.

I talked with CoinDesk about this recently and made the case that Nevada bit off more than it can chew:

The prediction market saga of the last year has finally come to a head. Crypto.com, Kalshi and Robinhood began to offer sports-based markets, and states responded with C&Ds. I guess they didn’t factor in the supremacy clause.

I talked with CoinDesk about this recently and made the case that Nevada bit off more than it can chew: https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/04/09/kalshi-will-win-its-battle-with-nevada-crypto-attorney?utm_term=organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=editorial&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=coindesk_main

broganlaw.xyz — elite legal services for $700/hr and less — you’re burning money by not hiring us 💸

Will be interesting to see this play out, and whether it’ll impact more than just gambling/prediction markets. There are def state MTL regulators out there taking the position that broker dealers need MTLs for crypto custody and trading, because BDs aren’t explicitly exempt from state MTL statutory requirements.

My view is that most of the complexity is closed in this specific case by CEA 2(a)(1)(a) granting CFTC exclusive jd. Hard for states to get around that — but I do wonder if they have standing for an APA claim arguing CFTC isn’t enforcing its own rules. No idea but will be interesting!