Gensler Backs States in $165 Billion Prediction Market Fight

Gary Gensler filed an amicus brief backing Ohio and state gaming regulators against Kalshi’s claim that CFTC oversight preempts sports-betting laws. The former SEC and CFTC chair said Dodd-Frank targeted crisis-era swaps, not nationwide wagering markets, and left gambling control with states nationwide directly.

The brief arrived alongside support from tribal groups, gaming associations, Nevada, Utah and Better Markets as the case moves through the Sixth Circuit. Gensler argued Congress never hid authority over a $165 billion sports-betting industry inside technical derivatives language or obscure statutory definitions quietly afterward.

He also attacked the CFTC’s new 267-page proposal that would allow sports outcome contracts while blocking markets tied to war, assassinations and certain injuries. Gensler said gambling addiction, youth exposure and local licensing questions belong with states, not federal derivatives officials facing shrinking resources.

The fight now spans 16 states, while Minnesota has banned prediction markets and the CFTC has sued several states to defend exclusive jurisdiction. Trump backs the federal approach, but courts may demand explicit congressional authorization before prediction markets absorb sports betting into federally regulated derivatives.

Exodus Opens 200 Tokenized Markets on Solana

Exodus launched Exodus Markets with Ondo, letting eligible users buy and sell more than 200 tokenized stocks, ETFs and real-world assets directly on Solana. The service expands the self-custodial wallet into trading, payments, rewards and money management while keeping direct asset control inside the app.

The rollout comes as tokenized equities reach $5.5 billion in market value, up 147% from the start of the year. Exodus, listed as EXOD, also lets supported users trade its tokenized stock, while Ondo supplies the infrastructure behind the new market access and settlement flow.

Appeals Court Keeps SBF’s 25-Year Sentence

Sam Bankman-Fried lost his appeal after the Second Circuit upheld his conviction on seven fraud and conspiracy counts tied to FTX. The judges rejected claims that the trial court blocked evidence unfairly, saying prosecutors showed he knowingly misused customer funds while publicly promising customer asset safety.

The former FTX chief had sought a new trial after receiving a 25-year prison sentence for one of the decade’s largest financial frauds. The panel said SBF used FTX like a personal piggy bank for real estate, political contributions and investments through Alameda Research.

SpaceX Token Campaigns Fail as SPCX Jumps 26%

Binance, Bybit and Bitget refunded users after xStocks failed to secure tokenized SpaceX IPO allocations for exchange campaigns. Participants did not receive SPCXx, while Binance pledged $1 million in bStocks-linked SpaceX shares and Bybit TradFi added interest rewards for held customer funds immediately after cancellation notices.

The cancellations exposed execution risk in tokenized pre-IPO access, where price exposure depends on scarce underlying allocations. SpaceX shares priced at $135 and later traded near $172.31, up more than 26%, while xStocks said unfilled orders were returned and SPCXx remained live through early trading.

Data of the Day

US spot Bitcoin ETFs are close to $2 trillion in cumulative trading volume less than two and a half years after launch. The cohort reached $1.99 trillion by June 11, with BlackRock’s IBIT holding a 73.7% volume share and dominant assets under management globally.

The milestone comes despite pressure from outflows, with spot Bitcoin ETFs losing $7.6 billion since Bitcoin’s October peak and $3 billion year-to-date. BlackRock’s IBIT still leads with about $49 billion in assets, while total spot Bitcoin ETF assets exceed $76 billion overall.

More Breaking News

• Michael Saylor said SpaceX made 25% of his “Mag8” Bitcoin holders after its $1.75 trillion Nasdaq debut added another treasury giant publicly.
• World Liberty Financial will add $250,000 in USD1 fighter bonuses at UFC Freedom 250, bringing Trump-backed stablecoin branding onto White House grounds and Octagon.
• Kalshi crypto perpetuals reignited a regulatory debate, with veterans split over whether CFTC-supervised contracts should be classified as futures or swaps for traders nationwide.
• Coinbase said about 7 million Bitcoin sit in quantum-exposed addresses, including reused cold wallets tied to active exchange and institutional holders globally now exposed.
• Aerodrome will replace weekly voting with Predictive Allocation in July, rewarding users who forecast where future liquidity demand will concentrate before markets shift ahead.
• CFTC sued New Mexico to block state gaming enforcement against Kalshi, extending its fight for federal control over sports prediction markets and regulated derivatives.
• Avalanche Treasury debuted on Nasdaq after a $675 million SPAC deal, but AVAT fell 16% as crypto treasury stocks weakened across public markets broadly.
• AI agents failed prompt-injection defenses in 3,168 simulations, with direct attacks succeeding more than 79% across GPT-5 and Gemini configurations tested repeatedly online.
• Amazon CEO Andy Jassy reportedly warned US officials about Anthropic’s Fable 5 cyber risks, triggering export controls and rallies in decentralized AI tokens.

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