🥁 And the first lifetime Kalshi ban goes to...

George Santos just became Kalshi's first lifetime ban. Strategy bought bitcoin for the first time in two months. And the NYSE's parent just invested in tokenized securities infrastructure. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Monday, August 31, 2026 Kalshi lays down first lifetime ban for ex-member of Congress George Santos George Santos has earned groundbreaking status as the first person ever banned for life from prediction market platform Kalshi, after allegedly placing manipulative trades on whether he would attend Trump's State of the Union speech earlier this year — a market that ultimately paid out on his non-attendance, which he had bet on after initially suggesting publicly he would attend. Kalshi said Santos placed large trades in the contract, then made public statements — some false or misleading — to influence the price of yes and no contracts before the event. The disciplinary action includes a fine of more than $70,000 on top of the lifetime ban, while Santos made roughly $18,000 on the trades; federal authorities are reportedly looking into the matter separately. The enforcement came alongside four other Kalshi cases that resulted in temporary bans after those traders cooperated — the contrast with Santos, who didn't cooperate, explains the permanent outcome. At the same time, the CFTC fined a former White House teleprompter operator $170,000 for betting on words he knew Trump was planning to use in public remarks, and Polymarket says it has referred more than 100 manipulation cases to authorities ahead of the midterms. Read more → CoinDesk · Reader Survey What best describes your role?  Individual investor  Institutional investor or asset manager  Developer or builder  Financial advisor or wealth manager Markets Strategy returns to bitcoin buys, adding $370 million worth last week Strategy made its first bitcoin purchases since late June last week, adding 4,603 coins for $369.7 million at an average price of $80,318 each — funded via $602.8 million in common stock sales, with the remaining proceeds split between $151.8 million in preferred stock buybacks and additions to cash reserves. The company now holds 845,050 BTC purchased for $63.73 billion at an average of $75,412 per coin. MSTR rose 1.65% pre-market as bitcoin traded around $78,400. Read more → Business NYSE owner ICE taps tZERO for tokenized securities push, takes stake in firm Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, is adding tZERO to the infrastructure stack behind its planned NYSE-affiliated market for tokenized securities — investing in the firm, licensing its 103 blockchain patents, and working with it on the transfer-agent and broker-dealer systems needed to settle tokenized trades on-chain. tZERO is expected to become an approved digital transfer agent on ICE's platform, subject to regulatory approval, meaning it would track ownership of tokenized shares as they change hands. The two firms will also explore using tokenized assets as collateral at ICE's clearing houses — a step that would let tokenized securities back trades across ICE's broader markets. ICE had already tapped Securitize in March for a similar role; the addition of tZERO comes despite the two tokenization firms currently being in active litigation over patent infringement claims. Read more → Know someone who should be reading this? Share this newsletter See all of CoinDesk’s newsletters    CoinDesk, Inc., 61 9th Avenue, 5th Floor, New York,NY,10011,USA, Unsubscribe Manage Preferences   Copyright © 2026 CoinDesk, All rights reserved.

Announcing New Keynote Speaker: Kaitlin Asrow

September 22 - Washington, D.C. ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏  ͏ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­ ­  

New Keynote Announced: We are pleased to welcome the Acting Superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services Kaitlin Asrow to the keynote speaker lineup for CoinDesk: Policy & Regulation. Register Now Rates increase tomorrow. Register today. 2026 Keynotes To Date: Additional speaker announcements will be made in the coming days. Thank you to our sponsors: Interested in sponsoring CoinDesk: Policy & Regulation? Contact Us CoinDesk, Inc., 61 9th Avenue, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10011, USA Unsubscribe Manage preferences