The executive order is the latest in a wave of legal actions in the US seeking to curb government insider trading on prediction markets. California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order on Friday, expanding rules to curb public servants and those close to them from benefiting from insider trading on prediction markets tied to political or economic events they can influence or are privy to. The order prohibits “gubernatorial appointees,” public officials appointed to office by the governor of the state, from using “confidential or non-public information” gleaned from performing their duties to profit from related prediction markets. Newsom’s executive order also extends the prohibition to include spouses, family members or former business partners of the appointed officials from using non-public information to profit. “Public service should not be a get-rich-quick scheme,” Newsom said. He added: Read more
Bitcoin price slumped on Friday as uncertainty over the US economy and war in Iran negatively impacted stock and crypto markets. Key takeaways: Bearish sentiment is rising as Bitcoin options professional traders lose confidence that the $66,000 level will hold for long. The exit of David Sacks as the Crypto and AI czar and a lack of a clear US Strategic Bitcoin Reserve plan added to investors’ doubts. Read more
Regulatory uncertainty shakes stablecoins as institutions push forward, prediction markets tighten rules and AI agents reshape micropayment economics. Stablecoins are once again at the center of the crypto business narrative — but for very different reasons. Circle’s sharp sell-off this week highlights how sensitive crypto equities remain to regulatory headlines, even when the underlying business fundamentals appear unchanged. At the same time, developments in Canada show institutions are moving in the opposite direction, quietly laying the groundwork for stablecoin integration into traditional finance. Elsewhere, prediction markets are facing growing pressure to clean up their act as regulators zero in on manipulation risks, while a new thesis from Forrester suggests the long-promised micropayments economy may depend less on infrastructure — and more on AI agents. Read more
The P2P.me team opened positions on the Polymarket prediction platform to wager whether the project would hit its $6 million fundraising goal. The team behind the P2P.me decentralized trading platform disclosed that it opened positions on the Polymarket prediction market related to its recent capital raise. The team opened the positions 10 days before the raise went live, wagering whether the project would hit its $6 million fundraising target, according to a disclosure published on the X social media platform. At the time the positions were opened, P2P.me had only one “oral commitment” from venture firm Multicoin Capital for $3 million in funding, “no signed term sheets” and “no guaranteed allocations,” the team said. Read more
Bitcoin and select major altcoins have turned down sharply, indicating that the bears are trying to take charge of the market. Key points: Bitcoin’s fall below the $66,000 support heightens the risk of a drop to the $62,500 level. Select major altcoins have broken below their immediate support levels, opening the gates for further downside. Read more
The US city is expected to pen an amicus brief in Coinbase's lawsuit against the state of Michigan, which the exchange filed ahead of its prediction markets launch. Lawyers representing the US city of Detroit plan to file an amicus brief in Coinbase's lawsuit against Michigan, which argues that federal regulators should have authority in overseeing prediction markets and not states. In a Thursday filing in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan related to state officials’ motion for a preliminary injunction, District Judge Shalina Kumar approved an order which will allow Detroit to file a brief supporting state authorities in their lawsuit against Coinbase. Kumar gave Detroit’s lawyers until April 3 to make the filing as the lawsuit continues. In December, Coinbase filed its lawsuit against Michigan, as well as gaming authorities in Connecticut and Illinois, more than a month before the crypto exchange announced the launch of its prediction market services on the platform. Read more
The bill proposes exempting dollar-pegged stablecoins from gains or losses if the tokens remain tightly pegged to the underlying fiat currency. US Representatives Max Miller and Steven Horsford published a discussion draft bill on Thursday titled the ‘‘Digital Asset Protection, Accountability, Regulation, Innovation, Taxation, and Yields Act’’ or the ‘‘Digital Asset PARITY Act,” to overhaul the tax code for digital assets. The Digital Asset PARITY Act seeks to overhaul the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 by adding provisions that would clarify the tax treatment of digital assets. The legislation said that stablecoins are not subject to gains if the cost basis, or the amount paid by the investor, does not fluctuate by more than 1% of $1 or $0.01, according to the discussion draft. Read more
While prediction market platforms are under legal scrutiny in the US, many Coinbase users are claiming that the app is pushing them to gamble. Update (March 27 at 8:32 pm in UTC): This article has been updated to include a statement from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. Negative reactions to cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase using its notifications to push bets on event contracts amid the March Madness basketball tournament range from “annoying” to “absurd.” In January, Coinbase rolled out prediction market bets for US-based users as part of a partnership with Kalshi. However, for some users, the last two months have been seen as an opportunity for the exchange to get people “hooked on sports gambling” using an app that many had devoted to crypto trading. Read more