Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase filed lawsuits in Connecticut, Illinois, and Michigan this week to stop the states from applying local gambling laws to prediction markets.

In an X thread yesterday evening, Dec. 18, Coinbase’s chief legal officer Paul Grewal said the company believes these markets should fall under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) federal oversight, not state gaming regulators. “State efforts to control or outright block these markets stifle innovation and violate the law,” Grewal wrote.

Coinbase's CLO emphasized that prediction markets differ from casinos, noting that while casinos win only if players lose and set odds to maximize profits, prediction markets “are neutral exchanges, indifferent to price, that match buyers and sellers.”

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