Latest news with #CFTC
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Polymarket's Derivatives Exchange Acquisition Sets Stage for a Return to US
Polymarket is returning to the U.S. The company on Monday acquired derivatives exchange and clearinghouse QCX for $112 million, paving the way for it to return to this market. The acquisition comes weeks after the Commodity Futures Trading Commission granted QCX a license to operate as a contract market. "With the acquisition of QCEX, we are laying the foundation to bring Polymarket home — re-entering the US as a fully regulated and compliant platform that will allow Americans to trade their opinions," Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan said in a press release. Polymarket operates a peer-to-peer prediction market, in which users bet on the outcome of events spanning politics, culture, and sports, with wagers denominated in cryptocurrency. The company, while based in New York City, has been barred from taking bets from U.S. residents since 2022, when the CFTC accused it of operating a derivatives trading platform without proper registration. Polymarket's users accurately predicted Donald Trump's victory over former Vice President Kamala Harris in last year's presidential race, even as many pollsters saw the contest as effectively a coin toss. Polymarket users bet nearly $3.7 billion on the outcome of the presidential election last year. Federal Probe Into Polymarket Dropped This Month In the days after the election, Coplan said Polymarket returning to the U.S. was "part of the plan." Shortly thereafter, Coplan's apartment was raided and his phone seized by FBI agents as part of a federal investigation into whether Polymarket had continued to accept U.S.-based bets in violation of its agreement with regulators. That investigation by the CFTC and Justice Department was dropped earlier this month, according to a Bloomberg report. The investigation into Polymarket was the latest in a string of Biden-era cryptocurrency cases to be closed by the Trump administration. Federal regulators earlier this year dropped cases against crypto exchanges Coinbase Global (COIN), Kraken, and Binance, as well as online brokerage Robinhood (HOOD). Polymarket is in talks to dive deeper into cryptocurrencies. The platform currently settles trades with Circle Internet Group's (CRCL) USDC, and Coplan on Wednesday told CNBC's "Squawk Box"' that it was "exploring" a stablecoin. Read the original article on Investopedia Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Mint
5 hours ago
- Business
- Mint
Crypto-betting platform Polymarket strikes ‘deal' to return to US market - Here's all you need to know
Crypto-betting platform Polymarket is set to return to the US market after it struck a deal to acquire a little-known derivatives exchange and clearinghouse company QCX. The development comes just weeks after prosecutors had shut down a probe of the company that was kicked offshore by federal regulators. The investigations were examining if Polymarket continued to allow US-based traders onto its platform despite a 2022 settlement with the CFTC in which it promised to block them because it wasn't registered. The deal will help Polymarket to legally re-enter the US and formally open the betting site to American users after its surging popularity in 2024 when users placed millions of dollars of wagers on President Donald Trump returning to office. The New York-based site run by Shayne Coplan was formally notified earlier this month that the Justice Department and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees prediction markets, had both closed their investigations into Polymarket. Polymarket will pay $112 million to acquire QCX, according to a statement. QCX applied for CFTC licensing in 2022 and only got the regulator's blessing to operate on July 9. The crypto-betting platform shot into public consciousness with the 2024 US presidential polls. With signs plastered around the Republican National Convention and New York City, millions of Americans learned about the forecasting market where they could view —and potentially trade on — the odds of both presidential candidates. Its dealmaking comes just as a new, permanent head of the CFTC is likely to join office. Former Republican CFTC commissioner Brian Quintenz, who was most recently head of policy at the digital asset-focused arm of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, has been nominated to lead the agency. He has also served on the board of directors of Kalshi. The Senate Agriculture Committee is planning a vote on his nomination later on Wednesday. --With inputs from Bloomberg.
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Senate Releases Answer to Clarity Act as It Continues Market Structure Work
The U.S. Senate is marching on in its effort to craft rules and regulations for the vast majority of the crypto market, releasing a discussion draft of a market structure bill that more clearly defines some of the frameworks the lawmakers are contemplating. The 35-page draft released Tuesday formulates new definitions for digital assets that are not securities, and directs the Securities and Exchange Commission to engage in rulemaking around these assets that would exempt them and their issuers from existing regulations. The bill later directs the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission to engage in joint rulemaking around certain aspects of crypto market activity, such as portfolio margining. The draft follows the introduction of principles from the Senate Banking Committee last month that Chairman Tim Scott said would "serve as an important baseline" for the bill. It largely focuses on the SEC, rather than the CFTC, primarily directing it to engage in rulemaking around ancillary assets and disclosure requirements. As presented, the defines an "ancillary asset" as a digital asset sold "in connection with the purchase and sale of a security through an arrangement that constitutes an investment contract," though the ancillary asset itself would not grant any financial rights to its owner. In creating this definition, the bill already diverges from the House's Clarity Act, which passed with a massive bipartisan vote last week but does not define an "ancillary asset" or lean on that definition the way the Senate bill is. The bill would also let an issuer self-certify that their ancillary asset does not provide any rights that a regular security might. It also allows the SEC 60 days to reject the self-certification if it reviews the asset and finds it does resemble security. "My colleagues and I in the House and Senate share the same goal: to provide clear rules of the road for digital assets that protect investors, foster innovation and keep the future of digital finance anchored in America," Scott said in a statement. "I'm grateful for the hard work of our House counterparts to craft smart, bipartisan legislation, and I look forward to building on their work here in the Senate. Working with President Trump, we can deliver a comprehensive, bipartisan regulatory framework for digital assets.'. Senator Cynthia Lummis, who leads the digital assets subcommittee, similarly said in a statement, "market structure legislation will establish clear distinctions between digital asset securities and commodities, modernize our regulatory framework, and position the United States as the global leader in digital asset innovation." The lawmakers also published several dozen questions for the general public to respond to, asking for input on various aspects of the bill, including how legislation should lean on the draft's discussion of "ancillary assets," whether that definition is useful, what information issuers need to disclose and how intermediaries should be treated. The lawmakers are looking for responses by Aug. 5, giving industry participants and others two weeks to weigh in. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Polymarket Returning to U.S. with $112M Acquisition After Prosecutors Drop Probe
Polymarket, the crypto-powered betting platform known for its political prediction markets, is preparing a return to the U.S. after a federal investigation into its operations was dropped last week, the company said in a press release on Monday. The New York-based company is acquiring QCX, a regulated derivatives exchange, for $112 million. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) granted QCX approval to operate on July 9, two years after first applying for a license. The deal gives Polymarket a legal path back into the U.S., where it had agreed in 2022 to stop serving American users. At the time, Polymarket settled with the CFTC for operating an unregistered market and agreed to block U.S.-based traders. But despite that agreement, authorities later began investigating whether the company had failed to enforce that restriction. The Justice Department and the CFTC had been probing Polymarket for months. As part of that investigation, the FBI reportedly searched the home of founder Shayne Coplan in New York City. A Polymarket spokesperson told CoinDesk at the time the raid was 'obvious political retribution,' though the company did not elaborate further. With the investigation now dropped, Polymarket is shifting to a regulatory-compliant model through the QCX acquisition. The move will likely let it offer its popular prediction markets to U.S. users for the first time in years — this time under the oversight of financial regulators. Polymarket's rise to fame came during the 2024 U.S. presidential election, where its betting markets attracted attention for pricing political outcomes in real time. The platform lets users trade on the likelihood of future events using crypto, with topics ranging from elections to sports to geopolitics. By merging with a licensed derivatives platform, Polymarket appears to be betting that legal clarity, not legal battles, will drive its next phase of growth. The company has not said when it plans to relaunch in the U.S. Just last month, Polymarket was reportedly edging closer to a $200 million raise at a $1 billion valuation. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
A Healthy U.S. Economy Is Bad News for the British Pound. How to Trade It Here.
Up close shot of British bank notes_ Image by hemro via Shutterstock_ December British pound futures (B6Z25) present a selling opportunity on more price weakness. See on the daily bar chart for December British pound futures that a price uptrend has been negated and prices are now starting to trend down after last week hitting a two-month low. More News from Barchart Fundamentally, the U.S. economy is growing at a healthy pace, which is good for the greenback and also suggests the Federal Reserve won't be able to lower U.S. interest rates aggressively any time soon, if at all. Such is likely to keep the U.S. dollar in appreciation mode against other major currencies in the coming weeks. A move in December British pound futures below chart support at the July low of 1.3387 would give the bears more power and it would also become a selling opportunity. The downside price objective would be 1.2900, or below. Technical resistance, for which to place a protective buy stop just above, is located at 1.3600. IMPORTANT NOTE: I am not a futures broker and do not manage any trading accounts other than my own personal account. It is my goal to point out to you potential trading opportunities. However, it is up to you to: (1) decide when and if you want to initiate any trades and (2) determine the size of any trades you may initiate. Any trades I discuss are hypothetical in nature. Here is what the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has said about futures trading (and I agree 100%): Trading commodity futures and options is not for everyone. IT IS A VOLATILE, COMPLEX AND RISKY BUSINESS. Before you invest any money in futures or options contracts, you should consider your financial experience, goals and financial resources, and know how much you can afford to lose above and beyond your initial payment to a broker. You should understand commodity futures and options contracts and your obligations in entering into those contracts. You should understand your exposure to risk and other aspects of trading by thoroughly reviewing the risk disclosure documents your broker is required to give you. On the date of publication, Jim Wyckoff did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. This article was originally published on
