U.S. CFTC Chair Behnam Says Regulator Will Keep Pursuing Kalshi Case

According to Behnam, this appears to violate legal regulations, which he emphasized during a financial policy discussion at the Psaros Center for Financial Markets and Policy, Georgetown University. He also stated that they would persist in presenting this argument.

Last week, Judge Jia Cobb from the District of Columbia court decided that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) overstepped its boundaries by prohibiting Kalshi from listing U.S. political prediction markets. In essence, this means that Kalshi was barred from creating bets on which party could potentially control the House of Representatives or win the presidency in a specific term. However, following the CFTC’s request for an emergency stay, a U.S. federal appeals court temporarily halted Kalshi’s newly launched political prediction markets. A hearing has been scheduled for Thursday to discuss this matter further.

Behnam emphasized that allowing the CFTC to oversee U.S. elections for market manipulation allegations could be risky. Right now, this regulatory body is in the midst of creating rules that might lead to an outright prohibition of prediction markets within their supervised industries.

If users find election betting useful, the chairman said that it should be overseen elsewhere.

If people are truly keen on these markets to flourish, expand, and mature, it’s important that such actions take place at the state level in the gaming or gambling industry, according to Behnam.