A U.S. federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a lower court’s order that permitted New York derivatives trading platform KalshiEX LLC to list contracts that allow Americans to bet on election outcomes.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, KalshiEX’s regulator, did not show how the agency or the public interest would be harmed by KalshiEX’s “event” contracts, as it had argued. The CFTC declined to comment.
The ruling means that Kalshi can offer trading in such contracts, potentially paving the way for other firms to offer such derivatives in the future. The U.S. elections will be held on Nov. 5.
