CFTC Sues Utah to Block Gambling Crackdown on Kalshi
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, joined by the Justice Department, sued the State of Utah and Attorney General Derek Brown on October 26, 2026, asking a federal court to stop Utah from enforcing its gambling laws against Kalshi’s prediction markets. The CFTC announced the suit in a press release the same day. Filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, the case asks for preliminary and permanent injunctions blocking Utah from enforcing its anti-gambling statutes against prediction markets the CFTC regulates. Kalshi runs as a designated contract market, an exchange registered and supervised by the CFTC, so the federal government is defending its own regulatory turf: Kalshi is not a party to this suit. “Event contracts do not just serve hedging and investment purposes: they also provide the public with information about the outcome of future events,” CFTC Chairman Mike Selig said in a statement. The suit came six days after Brown’s own office sued multiple Kalshi entities on October 20, seeking to halt the company’s operations in Utah and to recover fees it puts at $30.6 million to $61.2 million. That range is the state’s claim in its complaint, not an adjudicated award. Utah’s attorney general sued Kalshi to end sports and election betting in the state, arguing no Utah law authorizes it. “Anyone offering gambling to Utahns is on notice that it is illegal in Utah and that no Utah law authorizes it,” Brown said when he filed the state case. Federal regulators have moved against state enforcement of prediction markets before, and the Utah filing escalates that fight from scattered rulings into a direct federal-versus-state case. Utah is a hard case for the CFTC. The state has banned gambling in its constitution since statehood in 1896, with no lottery or casino carve-outs. In August 2026 a federal judge ruled that the Commodity Exchange Act, the CFTC’s founding statute, does not override Utah’s anti-gambling laws as applied to Kalshi’s sports-related contracts. That ruling is under appeal. Utah is the tenth state where federal regulators have intervened to assert jurisdiction over registered exchanges in prediction market disputes, and the outcome here will help decide whether CFTC-regulated markets can operate nationwide regardless of state gambling law.
Rampはデジタル資産の保管を目的に、通貨監督庁(OCC)に全米信託銀行免許を申請したと、同社が明らかにした。 ニューヨークを拠点とする経費管理フィンテック企業のRampは、10月16日にRamp National Trust Bankという新法人の申請を提出したと報じられている。設立を提案している銀行は、デジタル資産の受託投資運用と保管サービスに重点を置く。Rampによると、新法人は「預金を受け入れたり、商業融資を行ったりすることはない」。これにより、銀行制度全体ではなく、暗号資産の保管に関する規制のために設けられた限定的な枠組みの中にとどまる。同社は、この免許によって一貫した連邦規制の枠組みの下に置かれると述べた。
French National Assembly Narrowly Votes to Tax Crypto-to-Stablecoin Swaps at 31.4%
France’s National Assembly has voted 38 to 37, with 25 abstentions, to end the tax deferral French crypto investors currently enjoy when swapping cryptocurrency for stablecoins, a step that would bring those trades under the country’s 31.4% capital gains levy from Jan. 1, 2027. The vote on Oct. 16 adopted amendment I-3898 to the 2027 budget bill, according to the Assembly’s roll-call for the vote. It advances a proposal the Assembly’s finance committee approved earlier in the budget process. Under current French tax rules, exchanges of one cryptocurrency for another without an additional cash payment generally do not trigger a taxable event. Tax is deferred until the investor sells into fiat. The amendment removes that deferral when investors receive e-money tokens, the stablecoin category defined by the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets framework. It also drops France’s portfolio-wide method for working out capital gains: the cost of each asset actually sold would be figured individually, using the average of the prices the investor paid for the units offloaded. The change is not law yet. It remains subject to the budget’s remaining parliamentary stages, where it could still be amended or removed. Public Accounts Minister David Amiel raised questions about how the measure would work and asked for it to be withdrawn. “We first need to define stablecoins, then ensure our ability to monitor and trace reallocations within a portfolio of assets,” Amiel said in remarks to the Assembly. Finance committee rapporteur general Philippe Juvin spoke for keeping the deferral, arguing crypto’s swings in value made it necessary. Francois Volpoet, Chainalysis’ regional sales director for France, warned the measure risks pushing French investors toward on-chain protocols, trades settled directly between wallets, and platforms in countries that sit outside the international system for sharing tax information. The proposal would make France one of the first major EU countries to treat crypto-to-stablecoin swaps as taxable disposals, a change that lands as EU regulators tighten their grip on non-compliant stablecoins across the bloc.
Hex Founder Richard Heart Detained in Istanbul on Finnish Interpol Red Notice
Richard Heart, founder of the Hex and PulseChain tokens, was reportedly detained in Istanbul alongside his wife on an Interpol Red Notice requested by Finland, Turkish media reported. Turkish news agency IHA and the newspaper Daily Sabah said police detained Heart, whose legal name is Richard James Schueler, in the Beşiktaş district on Wednesday morning at a residence officers had been monitoring. Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization, MİT, supported the operation by Istanbul police’s intelligence and financial-crimes units, which IHA said was coordinated by Istanbul’s Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. What was reportedly seized The Turkish outlet Haberler said police took about $4 million in cash and 64 luxury watches from the apartment, along with firearms, computers and crypto mining equipment. Euronews reported the seizure also included three handguns, four rifles, 1,360 rounds of ammunition and a dagger. A post on X put the cash at $600,000 and the watches at 24. Istanbul police and Interpol had not confirmed the figures, and Turkish authorities have released no official inventory. The Red Notice was issued in December 2024 at Finland’s request over alleged aggravated tax fraud. A Red Notice asks police worldwide to locate a person pending extradition; it is not an arrest warrant, and a subject remains presumed innocent. Finnish authorities have also sought Schueler over an allegation of assault, which he has not been convicted of. A legal saga that moved to Helsinki The detention moves Heart’s legal troubles across the Atlantic. In 2023 the US Securities and Exchange Commission charged Heart, Hex, PulseChain and PulseX with unregistered securities offerings that it alleged raised more than $1 billion, and it accused him of spending at least $12 million of investor funds on sports cars, watches and a 555-carat black diamond called The Enigma. Those were allegations in a civil case: a federal judge dismissed it in February 2025 for lack of personal jurisdiction, and the SEC declined to amend its complaint that April. Hex token prices fell sharply on the detention reports, with declines reported between 25% and 45%, and the PulseChain token PLS dropped 35% in a day. Hex already traded for fractions of a cent, down more than 99% from its 2021 high of about $0.44. Turkish media reported the investigation into Schueler and his wife continues, and no extradition to Finland has been established.