Kentucky | Crypto

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has sued Kentucky, now the ninth state the regulator is battling in its fight over prediction markets. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a lawsuit against Kentucky on Tuesday after the state sued prediction market operators last week, accusing them of operating unlicensed and illegal gambling platforms. The lawsuit, filed in federal court, seeks to block Kentucky’s legal action against five prediction markets filed on Wednesday last week, calling for declaratory and injunctive relief. It names Kentucky Governor Andrew Beshear, Attorney General Russell Coleman and the Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation, among others. “Kentucky is the latest state attempting to shut down federally-regulated event contracts,” CFTC Chair Mike Selig said in a statement. “As I’ve consistently pledged, the CFTC is firmly committed to maintaining its exclusive jurisdiction over prediction markets, and today’s lawsuit against Kentucky is yet another example of the Comm...

Kentucky has sued Polymarket, Kalshi and Kalshi’s partners Coinbase, Robinhood and Webull, over offering sports event contracts in the state. Kentucky has sued five prediction market platforms, including Kalshi and Polymarket, adding to a wave of US states launching legal fights with prediction markets over sports event contracts. State Attorney General Russell Coleman said in a statement Wednesday that his office filed lawsuits in state court against Polymarket and Kalshi — also naming Kalshi partners Coinbase, Robinhood and Webull — accusing them of “operating unlicensed and illegal sports betting and gambling platforms.” “Kalshi and Polymarket are operating illegal sportsbooks in Kentucky and breaking our laws,” Coleman said. “These multi-billion dollar corporations and their legal fictions don’t pass the sniff test. As one of our state legislative leaders said it best, ‘If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck…’” Read more

WULF shares surged on Tuesday after the Bitcoin miner announced its latest move to expand into AI and HPC through a multi-phase buildout through 2030. Bitcoin miner TeraWulf has acquired a large data center development site in the US state of Kentucky, adding significant capacity to its artificial intelligence and high-performance computing (HPC) business as miners continue diversifying beyond Bitcoin. TeraWulf said Tuesday the site could eventually support more than 1 gigawatt of AI and HPC capacity. The company expects the first 500 megawatts to come online in 2028, with another 500 megawatts targeted by 2030. The site includes planned grid infrastructure and long-term power agreements, underscoring TeraWulf’s ongoing shift toward AI and HPC hosting alongside its traditional Bitcoin mining operations. Read more

The bitcoin miner turned HPC infrastructure developer unveiled plans for a new 1 gigawatt facility in Kentucky aimed at servicing AI workloads.

Provisions in the state legislation violate the core ethos and value proposition of Bitcoin as an asset that can be held in self-custody, the trade group said. Kentucky House Bill 380, a state-level crypto regulatory bill, includes provisions that would force crypto hardware wallet manufacturers to build a “backdoor” into devices, Bitcoin (BTC) advocacy organization Bitcoin Policy Institute (BPI) has warned.  The provisions require crypto hardware wallet manufacturers to provide recovery options for users’ seed phrases, and were added to the bill in a “last-minute” floor amendment, BPI said. The amended Section 33 of the bill reads: The sponsors of the legislation are state Representatives Aaron Thompson and Tom Smith. Read more