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Judge Says You’re Staying In Jail

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Judge Says You’re Staying In Jail

One of Sam Bankman-Fried’s last credible paths to freedom closed Friday as a federal appeals court upheld his fraud conviction and 25-year prison sentence, ruling that the case against him was, in the court’s own words, “conservatively stated, robust.”

A three-judge panel of the Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals handed down the 42-page opinion on June 12, rejecting every argument Sam Bankman-Fried’s legal team advanced to undo the November 2023 conviction that cemented one of the largest financial collapses in crypto history, according to Reuters.  

At the heart of the appeal was a claim that the U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan had stripped Sam Bankman-Fried of a fair defense by barring evidence that FTX held enough assets to cover customer withdrawals. 

Defense attorney Alexandra Shapiro told the appellate panel in November 2025 that “Mr. Bankman-Fried’s trial was fundamentally unfair because the jury only got to hear one side of the story.”

Prosecutors countered that Kaplan’s ruling was correct: fraud charges hinge on misappropriation, not on the possibility that assets could have covered liabilities under different circumstances. The appellate panel agreed, finding the trial court’s evidence rulings sound and the government’s case against Sam Bankman-Fried overwhelming.

How FTX Fell

The exchange, once valued at $32 billion, collapsed in November 2022 once it was exposed that the balance sheet of Alameda Research — Bankman-Fried’s affiliated hedge fund — was built on FTX’s own exchange token rather than independent assets. The disclosure triggered a customer run that ripped open an $8 billion hole in FTX’s accounts.

Three of Bankman-Fried’s former deputies — Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, FTX co-founder Gary Wang, and engineering head Nishad Singh — each pleaded guilty and testified against him. Ellison, the trial’s star witness, told jurors Bankman-Fried gave her the instruction to divert customer deposits to Alameda to repay loans from crypto lenders. “Sam directed me to commit these crimes,” she said from the stand.

The court ordered an $11 billion forfeiture and three years of supervised release following Bankman-Fried’s March 2024 sentencing. Ellison received two years and was released in January 2026 after serving 14 months.

The appeals court ruling lands just weeks after Bankman-Fried also filed a formal clemency petition with the DOJ’s Office of the Pardon Attorney, requesting a presidential pardon from Donald Trump. The application is listed as a “pardon after completion of sentence” — not a commutation — and Trump has said publicly he will not grant it.

Judge Kaplan denied a separate Rule 33 new trial motion in April 2026, calling Bankman-Fried’s claim that witnesses had been threatened by the government “wildly conspiratorial and entirely contradicted by the record.” Bankman-Fried withdrew an earlier version of that motion on April 22 without prejudice.

With the 2nd Circuit now closed, his legal options narrow to a habeas petition — a route with a lower success rate than direct appeals — or a Supreme Court petition.

What’s next for Sam Bankman-Fried

Sam Bankman-Fried remains at a low-security federal prison near Santa Barbara, California, and is not eligible for release until 2044. 

In a prison interview with Fox Business this month, he maintained his position: “I didn’t steal user funds.” He pointed to the FTX bankruptcy estate’s recovery of crypto assets, which have allowed the estate to pay creditors more than 100 cents on the dollar — a figure he frames as proof of FTX’s underlying solvency, though courts at every level have rejected that framing.

The Friday ruling closes the chapter on what federal prosecutors called a “fraud of epic proportions” — a case that shook institutional confidence in crypto markets, triggered congressional hearings, and forced exchanges across the industry to overhaul proof-of-reserves practices.

Back in January, President Donald Trump said he would not pardon former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, rejecting clemency for the convicted crypto executive.

Bitcoin’s Hidden Yield: Why Options Are Taking Over Crypto | David Lawant, Anchorage Digital

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Bitcoin’s Hidden Yield: Why Options Are Taking Over Crypto | David Lawant, Anchorage Digital

Bitcoin does not have native yield. But that has not stopped institutions, treasury companies, miners, whales, ETFs, and crypto-native desks from looking for ways to generate returns on top of BTC.

In this episode of Converge by The Defiant, David Lawant, Head of Research at Anchorage Digital, joins the show to unpack the rise of Bitcoin options, synthetic yield, covered call strategies, and the growing intersection between TradFi and crypto-native market structure.

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Kucoin Has Not Paid $2M Award Tied to Delisted Token Dispute, Investor Says

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Kucoin Has Not Paid $2M Award Tied to Delisted Token Dispute, Investor Says

A Swiss investor said KuCoin has yet to pay a Seychelles Supreme Court award of more than $2 million after the exchange declared his tokens “abandoned.”

In a Dec. 11, 2025, ruling, the Supreme Court of Seychelles declared that Didier Rabl is the “sole proprietor and owner” of approximately 21 million CoinPoker (CHP) tokens previously held for him on KuCoin. The court also ordered three Seychelles-incorporated KuCoin entities to pay him over 2 million USDt (USDT) plus $10,000 in moral damages, according to documents reviewed by Cointelegraph.

The ruling could have implications for how cryptocurrency exchanges handle delisted assets, with the court finding that KuCoin did not become the beneficial owner of Rabl’s tokens and remained obligated to safeguard the assets and honor lawful withdrawal requests.

KuCoin’s Seychelles entities did not appear or defend the case.

Copies of emails reviewed by Cointelegraph show that KuCoin sent Rabl a series of delisting notices in 2021, warning that withdrawals of CHP would close on July 28 of that year. The emails stated that any unwithdrawn funds would be deemed “abandoned” with “no rights to claim back.”

Court Order. Source: Seychelles Supreme Court

The court found that all the emails “remained unread and unanswered” and that KuCoin delisted CHP “without making any further attempt to notify the Plaintiff by post, telephone, or any alternative means.”

Seychelles FSA confirms receipt of KuCoin judgment

The court held that a unilateral delisting email with “deemed to have abandoned” wording was not sufficient to remove a customer’s rights to tokens already in their account when no such forfeiture term was in the original contract.

Related: Dubai regulator orders KuCoin entities to stop unlicensed operations

KuCoin’s terms of use at the time gave the platform broad powers to suspend or terminate accounts and to limit its liability, but did not explicitly state that unwithdrawn tokens after a delisting become KuCoin’s property.

A blockchain analysis report shared with Cointelegraph traced movements of the legacy Ethereum CHP token and identified an address labeled “KuCoin 6” on Etherscan that holds 21,000,000.0509 CHP, or about 5.9% of the total supply.

The Supreme Court directed its Registrar to serve the judgment on Seychelles’ Financial Services Authority (FSA).

In a written response to Cointelegraph, an FSA spokesperson confirmed it had received the judgment and said Mek Global Ltd, the KuCoin-linked company that applied for a virtual asset service provider (VASP) licence, had its application rejected on June 4, 2025, and was required to cease all business conducted in or from Seychelles.

The FSA also published a public statement noting that Peken Global Limited, one of the defendants in the case, opted to migrate its services outside Seychelles following the rejection of the application.

Under Seychelles’ Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, licensed exchanges are required to segregate client assets and maintain them at a 100% reserve, the spokesperson said.

Source: Seychelles Ministry of Finance

Legal expert highlights limits of ex parte judgment

Joshua Chu, co-chair of the Hong Kong Web3 Association, and a lawyer who has handled Seychelles-related arbitration, told Cointelegraph, “It should be noted from the outset that this judgment was decided entirely ex parte,” pointing out that KuCoin’s entities “never appeared, never defended, and never submitted to jurisdiction.” Justice N. Burian’s decision is “first instance only,” he said, with “no binding force outside Seychelles.”

Related: KuCoin fully rolls out KIA, a crypto-native AI built to simplify the crypto experience

Chu said the court proceeded on the basis that the exchange-customer relationship was “at minimum contractual, obliging the exchange to safeguard the assets and to honor lawful withdrawal instructions.”

In principle, a VASP’s unexplained failure to comply with a final Supreme Court order concerning customer assets would sit uneasily with standards of integrity, cooperation with courts and regulators, and respect for client property, Chu said. He added that “a defendant in future contested proceedings could argue that its factual assumptions are incomplete,” and that the consequences would depend on any appellate process.

Rabl told Cointelegraph he has not received any payment from the Seychelles entities named in the judgment and is preparing additional legal action in Seychelles aimed at enforcing the award and potentially seeking additional damages.

KuCoin did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Cointelegraph.

Asia Express: North Korea denies crypto hacks, Upbit’s bank tests Ripple

What happens to Satoshi’s BTC when Bitcoin’s quantum problem is fixed?

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What happens to Satoshi’s BTC when Bitcoin’s quantum problem is fixed?

Many are assumed to belong to Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto and other owners who lost their keys, which means they can never be moved to safety. Another 5 million or so are exposed through address reuse, according to Project11, a research group tracking the issue, though most of those are thought to be active holdings in exchange wallets.

Swapping in quantum-resistant signatures is the easy part, but the fight is over the coins nobody moves. One camp argues for a hard deadline, after which the signature schemes Bitcoin uses today, ECDSA and Schnorr, stop being accepted and any unmigrated coins become unspendable. Leaving them live, this side says, hands a future attacker, potentially a sanctioned state like North Korea, a stash of bitcoin large enough to crash the price and taint the network’s legitimacy.

The other camp calls that confiscation, a violation of the absolute property rights Bitcoin was built on, and warns it sets a precedent for freezing coins under government pressure later.

Between them sit the several proposals CoinDesk has tracked over the past two months.

Hourglass would cap how many vulnerable coins can be spent per block to prevent a supply flood. BIP-361, from developer Jameson Lopp and others, would let migrated holders prove ownership after the cutoff with a quantum-resistant proof that exposes no key. PACTs, from Paradigm’s Dan Robinson, would let owners timestamp a private claim now and move funds later without revealing anything today.

Whale Opens $22.3M SPCX Long as Synthetic Price Hits 30% premium

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Whale Opens $22.3M SPCX Long as Synthetic Price Hits 30% premium

SpaceX’s IPO is already spilling into crypto markets, where one whale has opened a $22.3 million leveraged long on SPCX, a synthetic pre-IPO perpetual contract tied to Elon Musk’s aerospace company.

Key takeaways:

  • The whale is already sitting on more than $1.15 million in unrealized profit.
  • Synthetic SPCX is trading near $175, roughly 30% above SpaceX’s $135 IPO price.

Whale’s paper profits are over $1.15 million already

The whale’s position, visible on data resource Hypurrscan, shows the trader holding a 2x isolated long on “xyz:SPCX” worth about $22.29 million.

Address 0x9cc1… open perpetual positions as of Friday. Source: Hypurrscan

The whale entered near $168, while SPCX recently traded around $175, leaving the position with roughly $1.15 million in unrealized profit. It had spent just over $500 in funding fees.

Synthetic SPCX trades at 30% premium ahead of IPO

SpaceX has priced its IPO at $135 per share to raise $75 billion by selling about 555.6 million shares, bringing the company’s valuation to around $1.77 trillion. The stock is expected to trade under the ticker SPCX on Nasdaq.

At around $175, the synthetic SPCX market is trading about 30% above the IPO price. In other words, crypto traders are already pricing in a strong first-day rally before regular equity markets fully absorb the listing.

SPCX/USDC hourly chart. Source: Hyperliquid

Other secondary markets are pointing in the same direction. For instance, IG International derivatives implied a SpaceX valuation of about $2.4 trillion, more than 35% above the valuation set by the IPO price.

Polymarket traders put 56% odds on SpaceX closing its first trading day in the $2 trillion–2.5 trillion market cap range.

SpaceX IPO closing market cap. Source: Polymarket

History of IPOs warns of a strong SPCX correction after debut

The 30% SPCX premium points to strong opening demand, but IPO history argues against chasing the first trade.

US IPOs from 2020 to 2025 averaged roughly 30% first-day gains, according to Jay Ritter’s IPO database. However, that upside mostly benefits investors who receive shares at the offer price.

US IPO average first-day returns. Source: Jay Ritter/IPO Statistics

Buyers who enter after the opening print often face a weaker setup, particularly after the initial euphoria fades.

Ritter’s long-run IPO data show that companies with positive first-day returns averaged a 29.6% debut gain from 2001 to 2024, but then underperformed the market by 8.5 percentage points over the next three years.

Related: SpaceX IPO nears 4 times oversubscribed, squeezing crypto and tech

High-valuation IPOs have performed even worse. Among IPOs with trailing sales above $100 million and price-to-sales ratios above 40, buyers at the first close saw an average three-year return of -44.8%.

Long-run IPO returns by price-to-sales ratio. Source: Jay Ritter

SpaceX is going public at nearly 94 times the trailing sales, making it one of the most oversubscribed IPOs ever.

Recent listings showed the same risk. Nasdaq-listed Cerebras (CBRS), a semiconductor company, priced its IPO at $185, opened at $350 and closed its first day near $311, but later fell to around $197, a roughly 50% drop from its first-day peak.

CBRS daily chart. Source: TradingView

Rivian (RIVN) and Uber (UBER) also struggled after strong early attention, with lockup expirations adding pressure as insiders and early investors became free to sell.

SpaceX is overvalued

Several prominent voices have warned that SPCX could fall after the debut.

Morningstar’s Nicholas Owens valued the company at just $780 billion, roughly 55% below the IPO price, calling it significantly overvalued and advising investors to wait for the stock to settle.

NYU professor Aswath Damodaran put the fair value around $1.25–1.3 trillion and described the $135 offer price as “rich.”

In a Wednesday post, analyst The Fundamental Investor said the stock is very likely to drop below the IPO price, potentially leaving early retail buyers underwater for years.

Source: X

The whale’s liquidation level sits near $93.27. The position could incur an estimated loss of about $9.4 million if SPCX falls to that level.

Gensler Files Brief Arguing Sports Prediction Markets Fall Outside CFTC Swap Rules

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Gensler Files Brief Arguing Sports Prediction Markets Fall Outside CFTC Swap Rules

Former CFTC and SEC chair Gary Gensler filed an amicus brief with the Sixth Circuit arguing that sports-event prediction markets are not swaps under Dodd-Frank, directly contradicting the CFTC’s own position in the KalshiEX v. Ohio appeal.

Gary Gensler, the former chair of both the CFTC and the SEC, filed an amicus brief Thursday with the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals arguing that sports-event prediction markets are not federally regulated swaps under Dodd-Frank. The brief sides with state regulators against Kalshi, one of the largest prediction-market platforms, in the latest round of the federal-versus-state jurisdiction battle over prediction markets.

Gensler filed the brief in KalshiEX LLC v. Matthew Schuler, a case Kalshi brought in October to block Ohio regulators from enforcing the state’s gambling laws against it. Chief Judge Sarah Morrison of the US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio denied Kalshi’s request for a preliminary injunction in March, and the company appealed to the Sixth Circuit.

The fight turns on whether sports-event contracts qualify as swaps, which fall under the CFTC’s exclusive jurisdiction. If they do, state gambling laws cannot reach them. Courts have split on the question, raising the prospect of Supreme Court review of a market that, by the CFTC’s own count, saw trading volume across registered prediction markets exceed $25 billion in 2025.

Gensler Breaks With the Agency He Led

The filing puts Gensler at odds with the CFTC. The Commission filed its own amicus brief in the same case on May 12, asserting exclusive jurisdiction over prediction markets and arguing that states cannot treat swaps traded on a designated contract market as illegal gambling. Gensler’s brief counters that sports-event contracts fall outside the statutory definition of a swap, which he argues centers on hedging economic risk.

Gensler led the CFTC’s implementation of Dodd-Frank as chair from 2009 to 2014 and helped draft the law’s swap provisions. His brief argues that Congress never intended Dodd-Frank to displace state authority over sports betting. Reading the swap definition to cover sports bets, he writes, would mean every off-exchange wager placed since October 2012 has been illegal, a result he says no one in Congress or the courts contemplated.

A Multi-Front Legal Battle

The Sixth Circuit case is one of several moving through the courts at once. The Third Circuit ruled in April that New Jersey could not shut down Kalshi’s prediction markets, the first federal appeals court to hold that the Commodity Exchange Act preempts state gambling laws for sports-event contracts. A Ninth Circuit panel hearing Nevada’s cases against Kalshi, Crypto.com and Robinhood appeared more receptive to the states’ arguments at an April hearing.

The CFTC has gone on the offensive against the states, suing Wisconsin and Rhode Island to block enforcement. Separately, the New York Attorney General sued Coinbase and Gemini over unlicensed prediction-market activity.

The Special Rule Question

The CFTC published a notice of proposed rulemaking on event contracts in the Federal Register on June 10, proposing a framework to determine whether contracts involve enumerated activities such as gaming and are contrary to the public interest. Gensler filed his brief the following day.

That rulemaking rests on Dodd-Frank’s “Special Rule,” which Gensler’s brief addresses directly. He argues the rule does not define gaming contracts as swaps but instead gives the CFTC authority to bar regulated exchanges from listing them. That reading, if adopted, would cut against Kalshi’s claim that Congress placed sports betting under exclusive federal jurisdiction.

ETH Futures Bearish, But Staking, Corporate Demand Show Strength

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ETH Futures Bearish, But Staking, Corporate Demand Show Strength

Key takeaways:

  • While bearish ETH futures trends and spot ETF outflows signal weak institutional appetite, staking demand prevents further decline.
  • Falling exchange deposits and accumulation by BitMine indicate holder confidence in ETH’s long-term value.

Ether (ETH) price failed to reclaim the $1,700 level over the past week, tracking a broader weakness across cryptocurrency markets. This correction contrasts sharply with the bullish momentum seen in the US stock market. Traders worry that Ether’s appeal has faded due to sluggish on-chain activity and a distinct lack of demand for bullish leveraged positions.

ETH futures annualized funding rate. Source: Laevitas

The ETH perpetual futures annualized funding rate flipped negative on June 5, meaning shorts are paying premiums to keep their positions open. Bullish traders remain uncomfortable adding risk despite a 30% price correction over the past five weeks. The ETH futures aggregate open interest has also dropped significantly, indicating a pullback in institutional activity.

ETH futures aggregate open interest on major exchanges, ETH. Source: CoinGlass

Total exposure on ETH futures has fallen 30% in a month, hitting a 13-month low. This shrinking institutional appetite is evident in US-listed Ether spot exchange-traded funds, which posted $323 million in net outflows over two weeks.

ETH staking demands contrast with weak on-chain activity

Regardless of whether the decline in ETH futures demand can be pinned to record-breaking demand for the SpaceX (SPCX US) IPO, the impact on trader sentiment remains negative. Declining Ethereum on-chain activity has likely fueled this ETH price downtrend.

Ethereum Total Value Locked vs. weekly DApp revenue, USD. Source: DefiLlama

The total value locked (TVL) on the Ethereum network dropped 33% in two months to $37.5 billion. Concurrently, decentralized application (DApp) revenues plunged 43% in May compared to the previous six months. This reduced on-chain volume is typically associated with lower network fee generation and falling ETH utility.

Curiously, rising demand for Ethereum staking contrasts sharply with the bearishness in ETH derivatives. Staking approval for US-listed ETFs and aggressive accumulation by BitMine (BTMN US) vastly outpaced outflows during the period, despite a modest 2.7% yield.

ETH staking validator queue, ETH. Source: ValidatorQueue

The entry queue for ETH staking validators currently sits at 50 days, totaling over 2.9 million ETH. In contrast, the exit queue has zero wait time, a major sign of strength, given that 39.5 million ETH are currently staked. While there is no guarantee that stakers will lock up their tokens forever, this metric signals deep confidence in Ethereum’s long-term prospects.

Related: ETH futures traders lean into $1.6K range lows: Will Ether lead market recovery?

ETH estimated balance on exchanges, ETH. Source: Glassnode

Meanwhile, exchange-held ETH deposits dropped to 15.05 million from 16.15 million three months ago, pointing to heavy accumulation. This shift was partly driven by BitMine, which added 337,078 ETH to its balance sheet over the past 30 days, according to CoinGecko data.

Ultimately, weak demand for bullish ETH leverage shouldn’t be misread as a sign of rising downside risk. As long as staking metrics stay solid and spot ETF outflows remain reasonably contained, the odds of an ETH price crash to $1,500 look slim.

Polish President Vetoes Crypto Bill for Third Time ahead of MiCA Deadline

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Polish President Vetoes Crypto Bill for Third Time ahead of MiCA Deadline

Polish President Karol Nawrocki vetoed a cryptocurrency regulatory bill for the third time, which sought to implement Europe’s Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA) in the country.

Nawrocki said Thursday he supports regulating the cryptocurrency market but argued that the government incorporated only one of 16 key amendments proposed by his office. He said that the text was nearly identical to the previous two drafts he refused.

The third veto of the bill delays Poland’s alignment with the EU-wide regulatory framework just weeks before the end of MiCA’s transitional period on July 1. Following the end of the grace period, crypto asset service providers will be required to hold a MiCA license or stop servicing EU clients.

Poland is currently the only EU member state without a domestic MiCA implementation. Following the July 1 deadline, Poland-based crypto asset service providers without a MiCA license may lose the legal basis to serve EU customers.

Related: MiCA architect says EU should prioritize tokenization over DeFi rules

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk slammed the veto in a Thursday X post, writing: “It sounds unbelievable, but the president has vetoed the cryptocurrency bill again. He seems more entangled in it than everyone thought.”

Source: Donald Tusk

Political deadlock deepens over crypto bill

The decision adds to Poland’s political standoff on how the country should oversee crypto assets. It comes nearly two months after Poland’s parliament failed to reverse the second veto issued by President Nawrocki.

Lawmakers fell short of the 263 votes needed to override the veto in an April vote on the bill, which is backed by Tusk’s government and seeks to align Poland with MiCA.

Nawrocki has reportedly defended his opposition by citing concerns about excessive regulation, limited transparency and the potential burden on small businesses.

Government officials warned that delays leave consumers and businesses exposed to fraud and abuse.

The third veto comes as scrutiny of Poland’s crypto sector intensifies. Prosecutors are investigating one of Poland’s largest crypto exchanges, Zondacrypto, for suspected fraud and money laundering involving 2,000 customers with alleged links to Russian organized crime.

Zonda CEO Przemysław Kral has denied accusations of misappropriating funds.

Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

CFTC Sues New Mexico to Block State Gaming Laws From Reaching Federally Regulated Prediction Markets

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CFTC Sues New Mexico to Block State Gaming Laws From Reaching Federally Regulated Prediction Markets

The federal derivatives regulator filed suit Thursday in federal court seeking to bar New Mexico from enforcing state gaming laws against CFTC-registered prediction-market exchanges, making New Mexico the eighth state to face federal litigation over the question of exclusive jurisdiction.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed suit Thursday in federal court against New Mexico, seeking to prevent the state from applying its gaming laws to CFTC-registered prediction-market exchanges.

The CFTC’s complaint seeks a declaratory judgment that federal law grants the agency exclusive authority to regulate event contracts and requests a permanent injunction barring New Mexico from enforcing state gaming statutes against its registrants. The filing comes roughly a week after New Mexico sued CFTC-registrant KalshiEX LLC in state court, alleging its sports-event contracts amount to unlawful online sports betting.

“New Mexico is the latest state seeking to nullify black letter law and decades of judicial precedent by imposing state gaming laws on federally regulated derivatives exchanges subject to the CFTC’s exclusive jurisdiction,” CFTC Chairman Michael S. Selig said in the press release. “The CFTC has the expertise and responsibility to protect its exclusive jurisdiction over commodity derivatives, and that’s exactly what we’ll continue to do.”

New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed the state-court action on June 4, alleging Kalshi operated an unlicensed sportsbook and allowed users aged 18 to 20 to participate despite the state’s minimum gaming age of 21. The state sought an injunction blocking sports-related event contract trades and a declaration that such contracts qualify as sports wagering under New Mexico law.

The CFTC’s position rests on the Commodity Exchange Act, which the agency says preempts state laws purporting to regulate designated contract markets. New Mexico becomes the eighth state to face federal litigation over the issue. The CFTC first sued Arizona, Connecticut, and Illinois in April, then extended its campaign to New York, Minnesota, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. The Defiant previously covered the Wisconsin filing when it expanded the jurisdictional arc in late April.

The litigation intensifies an already crowded federal-state standoff. Former CFTC and SEC Chair Gary Gensler filed an amicus brief this week at the Sixth Circuit arguing sports prediction markets fall outside CFTC swap rules, directly contradicting the agency’s own position. The CFTC separately published proposed rules on event contracts this week covering enumerated activities including sports.

The outcome of the state-court disputes and parallel federal litigation will determine whether prediction markets operate under a single federal regulatory framework or face a patchwork of state-level gaming enforcement.

Blockworks Acquires Messari In Deal Highlighting Crypto’s Data Consolidation Race

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Blockworks Acquires Messari In Deal Highlighting Crypto’s Data Consolidation Race

Blockworks, the New York-based crypto data and investor relations platform, has acquired rival Messari in a deal that underscores the growing consolidation pressure reshaping the digital asset industry — and the steep valuation resets facing once high-flying crypto startups.

The acquisition brings together two of the industry’s largest crypto information businesses. Messari, founded in 2018, built a comprehensive data platform covering more than 40,000 digital assets, along with APIs, market intelligence, research tools, and AI-powered workflows used by funds, exchanges, regulators, and developers. 

Blockworks, also founded in 2018, has focused on the issuer side of crypto capital markets, offering standardized disclosures through its Token Transparency Framework and a full-stack investor relations platform for onchain assets.

Blockworks paid more than $10 million for Messari — a steep discount from Messari’s approximately $300 million valuation when it raised a $35 million Series B led by Brevan Howard’s crypto arm in 2022, with Point72 Ventures also among its backers, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

The markdown reflects both Messari’s recent difficulties — including the 2024 departure of co-founder and longtime CEO Ryan Selkis and subsequent staff reductions — and broader headwinds gripping the crypto sector.

“This acquisition connects the two sides of the market,” said Jason Yanowitz, co-founder of Blockworks. “Issuers maintain a trusted record of their business, and investors, exchanges, and regulators consume that record through research, APIs, and automated workflows.”

Blockworks raise to consolidate fragmented crypto data market

The deal was funded in part through Blockworks’ recently closed Series A extension, which valued the company at $192 million. That round was co-led by ParaFi and Reciprocal Ventures and included participation from Coinbase Ventures, among others. 

Blockworks said it raised capital specifically to consolidate crypto’s fragmented data and information market, drawing comparisons to how Wall Street’s information layer eventually coalesced around dominant platforms like Bloomberg, FactSet, and S&P Global.

Messari CEO Diran Li, who took over following Selkis’s departure and had been repositioning the firm as an “AI-first company,” will join Blockworks as a senior leader under co-founders Yanowitz and Michael Ippolito.

The deal arrives as crypto M&A activity remains elevated despite challenging market conditions. Crypto companies have completed 144 deals totaling $11.8 billion in transaction value so far in 2026 — up roughly 3.5% from the same period last year — according to data from advisory firm Architect Partners. 

Still, Eric Risley, founder of Architect Partners, warned that sustained pressure on trading volumes and token prices could force more distressed sales. “We are in the midst of the creation of the haves and the have-nots,” Risley said, per WSJ. 

Both Blockworks and Messari executives said the combined platform would prioritize deeper data coverage, stronger APIs, enhanced compliance workflows, and AI-native research tools as digital assets increasingly migrate onchain.

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