That said, the agency explained that “closely related event contracts may be certified as a class,” citing legitimate ways to make consolidated filings with shared exhibits.
The explosive growth of the event-contracts market — especially in the areas of sports bets and predicting political outcomes — is to some degree a figure-it-out-as-we-go situation, considering the relative inexperience of much of the industry and the uncertain legal footing of the CFTC.
The CFTC's status as the primary regulator of prediction markets is itself still facing some legal ambiguity that the courts are expected to work out — potentially the U.S. Supreme Court at some point. While the regulator's chairman, Mike Selig, has made it an agency priority to fight a full-throated battle in state and federal courts across the country to insist the CFTC is in sole charge of overseeing event contract platforms, a large number of states have pursued the businesses on accusations of illegal sports gambling that should be overseen by the states.
Also on Friday, the CFTC issued a notice to extend the regulatory status of Kraken's platform, the Kraken Derivatives Exchange, which has been under a “dormant” designation. The last trade was executed on that exchange in early 2025, and the CFTC's granting of the company's request means “allowing a registered entity to remain positioned for renewed activity.” Kraken said it needed more time to evaluate its next steps after acquiring Bitnomial earlier this year.