Tag: Regulation

Deal terms: Payward will acquire 100% of Bitnomial for up to $550 million payable in cash and stock, valuing the parent company’s equity at $20 billion. Licenses secured: The transaction gives Kraken control of a fully CFTC-regulated U.S. derivatives platform, including an exchange, clearinghouse and brokerage. Strategic impact: Bitnomial, the first crypto-native firm to hold the complete suite of CFTC licenses, spent over a decade...

First approvals: HKMA issued the initial batch of stablecoin licenses to HSBC and Anchorpoint Financial (Standard Chartered-led consortium with Animoca Brands). Regulatory milestone: Licenses granted under the Stablecoins Ordinance that took effect in August 2025; HKMA reviewed 36 applications. Strict safeguards: Stablecoins may only transfer to identity-verified wallets; travel rule applies to transfers above HK$8,000. Issuer...

CFTC position: Enforcement Director David Miller stated that insider trading laws apply to prediction markets, directly countering claims that they do not. Legal classification: Event contracts are treated as swaps rather than gaming, subjecting them to standard market-abuse rules. Market scale: Prediction markets have scaled to more than $20 billion in monthly volume according to TRM Labs data. Recent scrutiny: Suspicious...