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At Money20/20 Europe this month, stablecoins and AI dominated the stages, exactly as expected. Prediction markets, the other story that has consumed fintech headlines all year, barely came up. The omission is itself a data point: in Europe, the question has largely been settled. This isn’t part of the fintech conversation.
France, Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland, Romania, the Netherlands, and Poland have all blocked Polymarket, arguing it offers gambling without a license, and Spain has now followed with formal proceedings against Polymarket and Kalshi. Their reasoning is that a platform letting people stake money on uncertain outcomes is gambling, regardless of the technology underneath it. Europe regulates gambling through licensing, self-exclusion registries, advertising limits, and simply applied existing law. The U.S., which polices traditional gambling just as tightly at the state level, has reached no such consensus.
Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman filed three lawsuits Wednesday against Kalshi, Polymarket, and sweepstakes casino operator VGW, accusing them of running unlicensed gambling, putting a deep-red state at odds with the administration’s pro-prediction-market stance.
Trump has called governors pursuing similar suits “scum” on social media. His son, Donald Trump Jr., advises both platforms. Coleman’s office argues the products operate as unlicensed sportsbooks evading state taxes and consumer protections.
Meanwhile, a coalition including the American Gaming Association, the Indian Gaming Association, and UNITE HERE sent senators a letter June 16 demanding the CLARITY Act explicitly bar prediction markets from offering sports and casino-style event contracts, arguing the products have fueled the largest unauthorized gambling expansion in U.S. history.
The AGA estimates states have lost roughly $1 billion in tax revenue to the platforms since 2025, a figure operators dispute. The letter argues the CFTC lacks the infrastructure to police sports wagering.
The CFTC recently issued a request for fintech industry input on removing regulatory friction, under an executive order explicitly designed to encourage innovation. At the same time, the outgoing CME Group CEO Terrence Duffy said that the exchange operator will sue the CFTC today over its approval of Kalshi’s bitcoin perpetual futures, arguing the contracts should be classified as swaps under Dodd-Frank rather than futures.
As much as reducing regulatory friction may be the goal, the CFTC will still need to contend with taxonomies put there for good reason. The result is a regulator simultaneously defending an expansive view of its own jurisdiction, fielding lawsuits from its once allies, and soliciting advice on how to get out of the way. Europe asked whether this was gambling and answered in under a year. America is still arguing about who gets to ask the question.
Markets Today
Bitcoin is trading near $64,000, down roughly 3% over 24 hours, after Fed Chair Kevin Warsh held interest rates after his first FOMC meeting, overshadowing Wednesday’s signed US-Iran peace deal.
Across the wider market, ETH and XRP slid in sympathy, with spot bitcoin and ether ETFs both swinging to outflows totaling $111 million as the rate-cut bid evaporated. XRP fell back below $1.20 after its breakout rally stalled near resistance, though buyers stepped in above $1.17.
Trump’s Iran peace deal commits both sides to an immediate ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, with a formal signing ceremony set for Switzerland on June 19 and further talks in 60 days. S&P 500 futures rose as much as 0.9% and Brent crude fell toward $78 a barrel. Stocks caught some of the geopolitical relief; crypto, trading more on Fed policy than peace headlines, did not.
Fintech Business News
Fidelity joins the race to manage stablecoin reserves, following State Street
Fidelity is targeting reserve assets that underpin the expanding stablecoin market, following State Street into a category that institutional asset managers increasingly view as a durable revenue line tied to GENIUS Act compliance requirements. The move adds another major Wall Street name to a reserve-management race that already includes Morgan Stanley and BlackRock, as stablecoin issuers seek institutional-grade custodians for the Treasury and cash assets backing their tokens.
Moody’s rolls out credit ratings on Solana, embedding scores directly into tokenized securities
Moody’s is embedding credit scores directly into blockchain-based securities on Solana, a move aimed at boosting institutional adoption of tokenized assets by giving investors a familiar risk benchmark inside an unfamiliar settlement environment. The rollout follows Moody’s recent work connecting its ratings data to Amazon Quick, signaling a broader strategy of distributing credit intelligence directly into the infrastructure where tokenized assets are issued and traded, rather than as a separate lookup product.
Kalshi files for perpetual futures on a dozen major altcoins
Following the CFTC’s approval of bitcoin perpetual futures, Kalshi filed to certify perpetual futures tied to Ethereum, XRP, Solana, Dogecoin, Stellar, Chainlink, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Sui, Shiba Inu, Polkadot, and Hedera, moving quickly to claim a US-regulated derivatives category historically dominated by offshore platforms like Binance.
The CFTC indicated a case-by-case approach for assets beyond bitcoin, and CME’s CEO has separately said the exchange plans to sue the CFTC over the perpetual futures approval, arguing the products meet the legal definition of a swap rather than a future under Dodd-Frank.
Ethereum’s Glamsterdam upgrade enters final devnet phase
Ethereum developers have entered the final development phase of Glamsterdam, running devnets with all planned EIPs before moving to public testnets. A core developer at the Ethereum Foundation called it “probably the largest fork we’ve hadsince the Merge,” with no fixed activation date but expectations of an H2 2026 launch.
Put simply, the upgrade restructures how transactions are ordered and priced, similar to introducing standardized matching and execution rules in traditional markets, while increasing how much data each block can process without compromising network security.
With Ethereum underpinning a growing share of tokenized funds, stablecoin settlement, and bank pilot projects, a more reliable, fairer network directly affects the institutions now building financial infrastructure on top of it.
Visa and Mastercard put tokenized credentials in charge of AI commerce
Visa partnered with OpenAI to embed tokenized payment credentials, agent identification, real-time authorization, and fraud monitoring directly into OpenAI’s commerce experiences, while Mastercard expanded its Agent Suite with new merchant-facing capabilities, both networks racing to become the default trust layer governing how AI agents spend money on a consumer’s behalf.
Visa’s approach binds tokens to specific agents and use cases, a token issued for grocery shopping cannot authorize a travel booking. The timing bolsters OpenAI’s pre-IPO narrative by giving it credible payment infrastructure ahead of its public listing.
Revolut secures UAE licenses, deepening its global banking ambitions
Revolut is preparing a full-scale UAE launch after completing its regulatory licensing process, and separately enrolled 53 million European customers into Visa Click to Pay, extending two distinct growth tracks simultaneously as it pushes toward a 2028 IPO.
The UAE move follows Wise’s recent UAE banking license and adds to Revolut’s expanding list of national licenses ahead of its planned 2027 US bank launch.
Wise acquires Expatica, the expat information business
Wise acquired Expatica, a media and information platform serving expatriates with country guides, visa information, and relocation resources, extending Wise’s reach into the pre-financial-decision content layer that influences where and how expats choose to bank and move money internationally.
The acquisition gives Wise a direct content funnel into the exact customer segment its cross-border payments product was originally built to serve.
Policy Watch
FinCEN faces calls to sharpen AML focus as it expands fraud-sharing rules
FinCEN updated guidance last week confirming that suspected fraud, not just money laundering, qualifies for the Section 314(b) liability safe harbor, letting banks share fraud signals (including device data, IP addresses, and behavioral indicators) without first tracing illicit proceeds. A former OCC official cautioned the safe harbor has never been tested in court and rests on guidance a future administration could reverse.
The update lands as House Financial Services Chair French Hill and Rep. Warren Davidson press FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki, in a June 9 letter, to cut compliance burdens and prioritize high-risk crime in its pending AML/CFT rulemaking, arguing the proposal should streamline Bank Secrecy Act obligations rather than add blanket reporting requirements. Consumers reported losing $15.9 billion to fraud last year, according to FTC data.
CME to sue CFTC over perpetual futures approval
Outgoing CME Group CEO Terrence Duffy said Wednesday on CNBC that the exchange operator will sue the CFTC on Thursday over its approval of Kalshi’s bitcoin perpetual futures, arguing the contracts should be classified as swaps under Dodd-Frank rather than futures.
Duffy said CME has built its case over eight months and called the CFTC’s review process rushed. The dispute follows the CFTC’s late-May approval letting Coinbase and Kalshi offer the leveraged, expiration-free contracts to U.S. investors for the first time.
Kentucky breaks ranks, sues Kalshi and Polymarket
Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman filed three lawsuits Wednesday against Kalshi, Polymarket, and sweepstakes casino operator VGW, accusing them of running unlicensed gambling in a state that backed Trump by 64% in 2024, putting a deep-red state at odds with the administration’s pro-prediction-market stance.
Trump has called governors pursuing similar suits “scum” on social media. His son, Donald Trump Jr., advises both platforms. Coleman’s office argues the products operate as unlicensed sportsbooks evading state taxes and consumer protections.
Illinois enacts first-of-its-kind crypto transaction tax
Governor JB Pritzker signed a $56 billion budget Tuesday containing a last-minute 0.2% tax on businesses exchanging, transferring, or storing digital assets for Illinois residents, effective January 2027.
The Crypto Council for Innovation called it the most punitive state crypto tax in the country and urged a line-item veto, noting no comparable levy exists for stocks or bonds. The legislature has adjourned for the year; a fall veto session offers the only near-term opportunity to amend the provision.
Congress folds CBDC ban through 2030 into housing bill
Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott, Elizabeth Warren, French Hill, and Maxine Waters released compromise text Tuesday on the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, barring the Federal Reserve from issuing a retail digital dollar through December 2030 while exempting open, permissionless private stablecoins.
The Senate passed an earlier version 89-10 in March; the House cleared its own 396-13 in May. Some conservatives, including Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, are pushing for a permanent ban rather than the 2030 sunset.
CFTC opens comment period to identify fintech partnership barriers
The CFTC issued a Request for Information Tuesday seeking industry input on regulations, no-action letters, and orders that unduly impede fintech firms from partnering with federally regulated institutions, with a 21-day comment window opening once published in the Federal Register.
The move implements President Trump’s May 19 executive order directing regulators to streamline rules for digital asset and fintech innovation while maintaining safety and soundness standards. Comments will be posted publicly on Regulations.gov.