Case 4:25-cv-14092-SDK-KGA ECF No. 29-1, PageID.510 Filed 01/26/26 Page 21 of 32
noted, Coinbase’s own CEO Brian Armstrong has actually encouraged insider trading on its platform and across the prediction market. 12 Further, if the CEA governs Coinbase’s sports-betting contracts (and potentially other forms of gaming) on Indian lands, then Congress must have intended to repeal other key provisions of IGRA that expressly grant regulatory authority over this activity to tribes, states, the National Indian Gaming Commission (“NIGC”), the Department of the Interior, and the Department of Justice. See 25 U.S.C. §§ 2701(5), 2702(3), 2710(d)(3),(5),(7); 18 U.S.C. § 1166(d). Congress also must have intended to completely override the entire purpose and function of IGRA, which is to recognize tribal sovereign authority to conduct and regulate gaming activity on Indian lands. See 25 U.S.C. § 2701(5). No amount of judicial gymnastics can turn the insertion of the term “swap” in the CEA into such a radical transformation of IGRA.
12 See n.10, supra . This lack of responsible gaming measures and consumer protections, which are required by legal gaming operations, is dangerous and contrary to the public interest. Josh Sterling (a former CFTC employee and an attorney representing Coinbase’s partner, Kalshi) recently dismissed such responsible gaming concerns, stating: “People are adults, and they’re allowed to spend their money however they want it, and if they lose their shirt, that’s on them.” Jessica Welman, Kalshi’s lawyer goes hard at state-regulated gambling , SBCAmericas (Jul. 11, 2025), https://sbcamericas.com/2025/07/11/kalshi-nclgs- sports-contract-debate/?amp.
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