Financials
DoubleZero Brings Institutional Multicast Market Data to Hyperliquid
Co-founder Austin Federa discusses bringing low-latency multicast data feeds to the fast-growing onchain venue in a Zoom interview with John Lothian News.
ELMHURST, IL (JLN) — October 5, 2026 — As onchain perpetual futures trading matures, the infrastructure supporting it is increasingly borrowing from traditional electronic financial exchanges.
DoubleZero, a market-data infrastructure provider, is positioning itself to serve high-speed digital-asset traders and emerging AI trading agents by bringing private-network multicast distribution to Hyperliquid, an ascendant decentralized trading network, as co-founder Austin Federa explained in a Zoom interview with John Lothian News.
Trading Technologies Delivers Complete Multi-Asset Trading Engine with TRAFiX Acquisition
Addition of Equities and Equity Options Completes Global Multi-Asset Stack Amid Unprecedented Market Velocity
CHICAGO, IL (JLN) — September 30, 2026: The world of capital markets is moving faster than ever before, with new products and asset classes coming in rapid-fire and 24/7 trading becoming the norm. The other norm is multi-asset trading on one platform. Trading Technologies took another step forward to meet the needs of this demanding environment by adding a crucial asset class that was missing from its multi-asset technology platform: equities and equity options. It is doing this by acquiring TRAFiX, a provider of equities and equity options order and execution management systems.
CFTC Enforcement’s Black Hole: More Power, Less Policing
Former chief trial attorney Liz Pendleton questions the agency’s enforcement retreat as Michael Selig reaches for more authority over crypto and prediction markets.
ELMHURST, IL (JLN) — September 18, 2026: Liz Pendleton, former CFTC chief trial attorney in Chicago, where she worked for the CFTC for more than 15 years, asked in a LinkedIn post, “What is happening with CFTC Enforcement?”
My answer involved quantum mechanics, Hawking Radiation, thermodynamics, and astrophysics, and came back in the form of a question. What happens in a Black Hole?
The Future of Nigeria’s First Regulated Prediction Market is Clouty
ELMHURST, IL (JLN) — September 14, 2026: David Umeh recently returned to the United States from Nigeria, where he is weeks, if not days, away from regulatory approval from Nigerian market regulators to launch a futures exchange offering prediction markets. Umeh’s Clouty Inc. is in the final stage to become the first Nigerian SEC-approved regulated prediction market, operating under the trade name Sabi.
Umeh pursued launching a U.S.-designated contract market registration and had the CFTC pre-vet his plans. However, he was missing one piece: the capital to get the exchange off the ground. This young African American entrepreneur found in Nigeria not just an easier place to raise money, but a chance to corner an enormous, untapped market: the world’s sixth most populous country, with a hyper-engaged, famously polarizing news cycle. This is a country where Dangote just launched Africa’s largest-ever IPO, and where NGX was, just months ago, the best-performing stock market in the world.
Prediction Markets Start With “Why”
ELMHURST, IL (JLN) — September 10, 2026: For weeks, I had been puzzled by Kalshi’s never-ending submarine-sandwich commercial, trying to decide what, exactly, it was meant to say about a prediction market platform. Then I saw the company’s 1950s Grease musical-themed spot, featuring four brothers dancing their way through a deliberately goofy production.
Because I no longer watch much NBA basketball, I did not recognize Giannis Antetokounmpo, the two-time MVP and Kalshi investor who headlines the ad. I told a Kalshi executive I genuinely liked the commercial, and he shared with me who the star was. That small exchange made me look more closely at Kalshi’s marketing, not merely at the celebrities it is recruiting, but at the larger proposition behind the campaign. Prediction markets are no longer being positioned as a niche tool for political forecasters or sophisticated traders, but as a mainstream, multi-demographic social activity.
Two Aussies Walk Into Chicago and Bet the Farm on the Hat Trick
A pair of derivatives traders from Sydney want you to short the Blackhawks. The CME just handed them the keys.
CHICAGO, IL (JLN) — September 3, 2026: On a hazy afternoon in a South Loop conference room, a group of Rhodes19 sailboats on Lake Michigan drifted past the windows like ticks on a slow market tape. Inside, seated side by side, were two Australians interviewed on video by John Lothian News, with the patience of men who have done this a hundred times, about why a hat trick should have a price.
Leigh Taylforth and Rhett Dinsdale are the co-founders of FutureSports, a Chicago-by-way-of-Sydney startup that has spent four years convincing skeptical league executives, a very interested CME Group, and a somewhat bewildered Commodity Futures Trading Commission that the box score is, in fact, a part of a futures contract waiting to happen. On Sept. 28, pending regulatory review, the CME will begin trading the world’s first NHL team futures, tied to indexes the two men built one scarce statistic at a time. The puck drops the next night. The following evening, Taylforth and Dinsdale fly to Houston for the HOOD Summit, as in Robinhood, because when you are trying to turn hockey into a hedge, sleep is a luxury good.
CFTC’s New AI Playbook: Industry Titans Push for ‘Compute’ Derivatives, Seek Clarity, Warn Against Over-Regulation
ELMHURST, IL (JLN) — August 28, 2026: In a setting worlds away from the litigation-heavy atmosphere of the previous administration, industry leaders and regulators gathered at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission headquarters last week, signaling a sharp pivot in how Washington intends to govern the coming “AI supercycle.”
During the inaugural meeting of the CFTC’s Innovation Advisory Committee (IAC), moderated by FIA Chairman and CEO Walt Lukken, a former CFTC acting chairman, the discussion shifted from the defensive, victim mentality and persecution posturing that defined recent years to a proactive policy dialogue buoyed by the support of an administration with skin in the game.
DTCC’s Tom Sullivan: Tokenization Service Aims to Bring Blockchain Speed Without Sacrificing Investor Protections
After a landmark July 15th trial testing near-real-time settlement, collateral mobility and multi-chain interoperability, DTCC’s Thomas Sullivan tells John Lothian News how the clearing giant plans to fuse traditional securities infrastructure with blockchain rails ahead of a full production launch later this year.
WILLIAMS BAY, WI (JLN) — August 28, 2026: The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, which has spent five decades building the plumbing that keeps US securities markets settling smoothly, is betting that blockchain technology can keep assets moving efficiently as trading speeds up and demand grows for round-the-clock liquidity.
Welcome to the Beltway Bucket Shop: “Fake News,” Floral Mishaps, and Prediction Market Fireworks
From 2,500 unchallenged self-certifications to Michael Selig cutting off the CEO of the world’s largest derivatives exchange, the inaugural CFTC Innovation Advisory Committee meeting was peak political theater.
WILLIAMS BAY, WI (JLN) — August 21, 2026: Welcome to the wild world of Washington derivatives politics. Yesterday, I reviewed the video of CFTC Chairman Michael Selig kicking off the CFTC’s Innovation Advisory Committee Meeting and the full meeting chaired by FIA President and CEO Walt Lukken. I might need to spin up whole new MarketsWiki categories to track the sheer volume of political theater. How about [[Category:Regulatory Pandering]], or [[Category:Gensler Rent-Free Zone]]? ([[Category:Regulatory Boogie-Man]] might be added too.)
Tuesday’s Promise at 25: A New Name, an Unbroken Vow to the Families of 9/11 and Their Military Successors
ELMHURST, IL (JLN) — August 19, 2026: Some charities mark their 25th anniversary with a gala, a press release, and a slightly nicer version of the same logo. And then there is Tuesday’s Promise, the organization born out of the worst Tuesday morning in American memory, marking its 25th anniversary by doing something much harder. It is making a public, permanent promise to the families it has been walking beside since September 11, 2001, and to a second generation of American families who have paid the price for what happened that day: the survivors of the post‑9/11 military era.
On June 11, 2026, Tuesday’s Children officially became Tuesday’s Promise. The Manhasset‑based nonprofit has spent nearly a quarter of a century providing “support, connection, and hope to individuals and families impacted by traumatic loss,” and its leaders decided, after more than a year of work with staff, board directors, family members, and long‑time supporters, that the name needed to catch up with the mission. Thank you to my friend Silvia Davi for being part of that mission for the last eight years, highlighting the name change and new mission, and mentioning the upcoming 25th anniversary and plans for this year’s gala.
DealFlow Follows Wall Street Into Prediction Markets with Predict 2026 Conference
Steven Dresner sees a fragmented institutional future as DealFlow shifts its information business toward a live, networking-first forum
ELMHURST, IL (JLN) – August 14, 2026: DealFlow Events is bringing its live-event model to prediction markets, with Predict 2026 in New York on October 6 and 7, after watching the market’s traditional financial services gatekeepers move in. For Steven Dresner, the company’s CEO, that was the clearest market structure signal available: major investment banks, large law firms, and the corporate sponsors that support DealFlow’s other programs were forming teams to explore the business.
“We followed the money,” Dresner said in a July interview with John Lothian News. “We are a tools provider on Wall Street, and what I have found to be very helpful in navigating new markets is to just stay in tune with what our clients are doing.”
Correction: CFTC Invokes Emergency Powers Twice in 30 Days in Support of Kalshi, Six Times in Total
WILLIAMS BAY, WI (JLN), August 12, 2026: A correction is necessary. I wrote that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission had never invoked its emergency authority under Section 8a(9) of the Commodity Exchange Act before July 14, 2026. That was wrong.
The CFTC has exercised that authority six times since its creation: four times between 1976 and 1980 and twice during the past 30 days. The accurate and still remarkable point is that the commission allowed its emergency power to remain dormant for 46 years before Chairman Michael Selig revived it twice, both times in support of Kalshi.
Why the CFTC Used Its “Nuclear Option” to Protect Kalshi
CFTC Invokes Emergency Powers Twice in Last 30 Days in Support of Kalshi
Publisher’s Note: A correction to this story was subsequently published reflecting that the CFTC has used its emergency authority a total of six times, including twice recently for Kalshi. Our apologies for the error.
WILLIAMS BAY, WI (JLN) – August 12, 2026: How many times has the CFTC invoked its emergency authority before July 14, 2026? Zero. That’s right, not during the Hunt Brothers’ silver market corner, or during the Maine Potato default, or during 9/11 or the financial crisis, or any other time.
Section 8a(9) of the Commodity Exchange Act is the CFTC’s nuclear option. It allows the commission, upon finding an emergency, to order a registered exchange to take whatever action the CFTC considers necessary to maintain or restore orderly trading. The merits of that emergency determination are generally insulated from judicial review.
And there is the legal strategy of CFTC Chairman Michael Selig: use the nuclear option to assert CFTC preemption over the states, avoiding any ambiguity about conflicting Federal court decisions on the CFTC’s authority, which I wrote about yesterday.
The Chairman’s Op-Ed Skips the Parts He’d Have to Litigate: Markets Price Uncertainty. Selig’s Essay Ignores.
The CFTC chairman makes a defensible case for innovation but undermines it by editing out unresolved questions.
WILLIAMS BAY, WI (JLN) — August 11, 2026: CFTC Chairman Michael Selig chose The Economist to publish “The New Era of Finance Needs Innovation More Than Consensus.” That matters because The Economist serves a sophisticated international readership accustomed to ambiguity, competing legal interpretations and the complexities of global markets. Its readers expect contested claims to be identified, evidence to be supported and serious counterarguments to be confronted rather than written out of existence.
An Old Answer to a New Wager
A 1745 British law against wagering on maritime disasters offers the CFTC a precedent for banning wildfire event contracts.
WILLIAMS BAY, WI (JLN) — August 7, 2026: Nine Democratic senators, led by California’s Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla and Oregon’s Jeff Merkley, wrote to CFTC Chairman Michael Selig this week demanding that the commission rein in prediction markets offering event contracts on wildfires. Their letter cites more than $1.2 million in bets on Polymarket’s offshore platform surrounding the Palisades and the Eaton fires that killed 31 people in Los Angeles in January 2025, and it relays a blunt warning from state and local fire officials: contracts that pay out on destruction invite someone to supply the destruction.
Old Downtown Chicago Trading Hub Becomes New AI Data Center
First Read Hits & Takes John Lothian & JLN Staff The former Cboe Global Markets trading headquarters at 400 S. LaSalle Street is undergoing a $300 million to $400 million conversion into a 33-megawatt AI data center by Legacy Investing and GI Partners, Natalie...
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The Spread
Introducing “Auditions” – A JLN Topic Page for Market-Related Entertainment Content Creators
John Lothian News announces the upcoming launch of “Auditions,” a new space on johnlothiannews.com and the John Lothian Newsletter for entertainment content creators to introduce to the JLN audience their market related TV scripts, movie scripts, documentaries, short stories, books and poems. The official launch date is not set, but is coming soon.
Mogator Media Capital (Mogator Media Capital), along with writers Daniel F. Sullivan (Pencils with Erasers Podcast) and John Nuckel (JohnNuckel.com), are presenting the first audition, a script for a feature film titled “The Front Runner.” Based on a true story from the Chicago Board of Trade, the film chronicles a man’s attempt in 1992 to corner the 30-year U.S. Treasury bond futures market, albeit for a brief 15 minutes.
Hyperliquid Won Perpetuals. After $536 Million of Options Traded in September, Can It Win Options Too?
OBSERVATIONS Gensler to Supreme Court: “I Was There,” and Dodd-Frank Didn’t Make the CFTC a Sports Book WILLIAMS BAY, WI (JLN) — October 9, 2026: Gary Gensler was often a burr under the futures industry’s saddle while he ran the CFTC. Now he is TradFi’s best friend,...
