EU Moves to Block Retail Investors
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has issued a stark warning that could severely restrict retail access to prediction markets across the European Union. According to The Defiant, ESMA stated that many prediction market event contracts likely fall under the bloc's existing ban on marketing binary options to retail investors. Regulators emphasized that a product's actual function as a derivative supersedes its commercial labeling, a move CoinDesk reports is aimed at blocking retail investors from the multibillion-dollar industry.
Kalshi Hits Records as US Users Bypass Polymarket Geoblocks
While European regulators seek to curtail access, global trading activity continues to surge. DefiLlama data reveals that US-regulated platform Kalshi posted a record month for trading volume in June, heavily driven by betting on the expanded FIFA World Cup, as reported by Cointelegraph. Meanwhile, offshore platforms are seeing massive unauthorized usage. New data from Allium suggests that United States users are actively bypassing geoblocks to dominate political betting on Polymarket's global platform, according to Cointelegraph's Friday report. For traders looking to track these shifting global markets, predictionmarketstools.com provides essential analytics and resources.
Supreme Court Upheaval and New Solana Launches
The US regulatory landscape is also facing unprecedented upheaval. A 6-3 Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. Slaughter has overturned the 91-year-old Humphrey's Executor precedent, clearing the path for the President to fire SEC and CFTC commissioners at will just as the CLARITY Act nears a floor vote, per The Defiant. Amidst this leadership uncertainty, the SEC opened a 60-day comment period on "Novel ETFs," following Chair Paul Atkins' May pause on over two dozen pending applications for crypto and prediction-market funds. Despite these regulatory hurdles, innovation persists; a new platform named "World" has just launched an on-chain prediction market on Solana, trading in Phantom's CASH stablecoin and utilizing Chainlink oracles for resolution.