Foreign media: Democrats achieve a major victory in the midterm elections, expected to strengthen regulation of prediction markets
According to Politico, after the Democrats won the midterm elections, prediction market platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket may face stricter regulation. Politico stated that during Trump's tenure, regulators took a relatively lenient approach toward prediction markets, enabling their rapid expansion across politics, sports, and stock markets. Now, multiple Democratic lawmakers, including Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, have criticized these markets for allowing betting on sensitive events such as elections, wars, and assassinations, calling for stronger legislative constraints.
Democrats’ midterm victory raises the probability of stricter regulation for prediction markets; because tighter event-contract rules could limit platform access and reduce volumes, Kalshi/Polymarket and crypto prediction-market tokens face negative sentiment, short-term bearish (weak) for the niche sector, with limited spillover to BTC/ETH.