CFTC Chairman Michael Selig cast the state's move as an attempt to kill the market before judges rule on it, saying New York wanted event contract derivatives to "waste away under its iron curtain of state gaming laws" ahead of any final ruling.
Selig argued that exchanges matching a bid in one state against an offer in another, then clearing the trade centrally, are interstate financial venues rather than gambling operations. "New York has no business regulating these interstate financial markets," he said, adding that Congress had not intended derivatives exchanges to answer to a patchwork of state gaming laws.
Washington against the statesThe agency says it has now sued nine states, and filed amicus briefs in the Sixth and Ninth Circuits and before the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.
James' petition treats Kalshi as an unlicensed gambling business across eight counts, seeking three times its gains and $100,000 for every sports wagering offer. It cites the exchange's own figures, putting its valuation at $22 billion and annualised trading volume at $178 billion.
