Kalshi asks SEC to pump the brakes on Cboe’s push into prediction markets

Kalshi, the prediction market platform that spent years fighting regulators for the right to list event contracts, now finds itself asking a regulator to slow things down for a competitor. The company submitted a formal comment letter to the SEC on August 5 opposing the immediate approval of Cboe Exchange’s proposal to offer binary options tied to company-specific key performance indicators. The core argument: nobody has figured out whether these instruments are swaps, security-based swaps, or securities options. And until they do, Kalshi says, greenlighting the products would be premature. A turf war dressed up as regulatory concern Cboe filed its proposed rule change with the SEC around April 2026, with amendments following in subsequent weeks. The proposal would let the exchange list binary options based on KPIs linked to specific stock issuers, cleared through what would likely be a new or expanded clearing agency and supervised under the SEC’s umbrella. Kalshi operates as a CFTC-designated contract market, meaning it self-certifies most of its event contracts through the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Cboe, a traditional securities exchange, is going through the SEC ins...