LEAD

Kraken Focuses on Europe in Rolling Out Options
Shanny Basar – Markets Media
Kraken, the cryptocurrency platform, has launched options outside Europe and the U.S. and is aiming to expand into Europe. On 16 July 2026 Kraken said in a statement that it is launching European-style, cash-settled options on bitcoin and ether for eligible professional and institutional clients on Kraken Pro.
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Judge blocks Minnesota’s first-in-nation prediction markets ban
Nate Raymond – Reuters
A federal judge on ​Monday blocked Minnesota from enforcing a newly enacted law that made the state the first nationally to ‌outright ban prediction markets like those run by Kalshi and Polymarket. U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez in Minneapolis issued a preliminary injunction at the behest of Kalshi, Polymarket and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission after finding that federal law likely preempted the state law, which was set ​to take effect on Saturday.
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Cboe’s Mandy Xu talks risk aversion trends she is seeing in the market
CNBC (Video)
Cboe’s Mandy Xu joins ‘Fast Money’ to talk signs of risk aversion in the market.
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Leveraged ETFs are booming in 2026. But they’re also being shut down at a record pace.
Christine Idzelis – MarketWatch
Exchange-traded funds designed to allow traders to place magnified bets on stocks and other assets have seen a surge in investor interest in recent years. But as the pace of new product issuance continues to broadly boom in the ETF industry, the number of these so-called leveraged and inverse funds that are being quietly shut down is on track for a record, too.
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Zacks Industry Outlook Highlights CME Group, Intercontinental Exchange, Nasdaq and Cboe Global Markets
The Globe and Mail
A compelling and diversified product portfolio helps drive the revenues of Zacks Securities and Exchanges industry players. A rise in trading volumes, product expansion through prudent acquisitions and the increased adoption of a greater number of crypto assets are expected to benefit CME Group, Intercontinental Exchange, Nasdaq Inc. and Cboe Global Markets. Increased focus on accelerating their non-trading revenue base, which comprises market technology, listing and information revenues, infuses dynamism in the business profile of the industry players. The industry is also witnessing increased retail trading. However, alterations in investment patterns and priorities and compliance with regulations pose challenges. With the increasing digitization of financial markets, cyber threats and data breaches continue to pose serious risks.
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Binance Launches TradFi Perp Futures Tied To US Treasury Bonds, ProShares Bitcoin ETF
Kritika Mehta – CoinGape
Binance Futures has launched three new USDⓈ-M perpetual futures contracts based on the U.S. Treasury bond ETFs and the ProShares Bitcoin ETF. It is looking to add to its growing list of tokenized traditional finance derivatives. The contracts started being rolled out on July 27 as per Binance Exchange Rule 17.
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Man Group Assets Soar to All Time High After Bumper First Half
Liza Tetley and Nishant Kumar – Bloomberg
Man Group Plc hit a 16 year high after the company’s assets jumped to a record in the first half of the year as clients poured money into the firm’s long-only investment strategies and strong performance gains helped drive growth. Assets under management at the world’s largest listed hedge fund firm soared to $253.6 billion in the first half of the year, according to a statement Tuesday. That’s up from $228.7 billion at the end of the first quarter, and beat company-compiled analyst estimates by a wide margin, which had anticipated assets under management to reach $245.1 billion.
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The future of Prime Brokerage: How buy-side demands are creating opportunities for new entrants
Acuiti
Today Acuiti, in partnership with TS Imagine, releases the report – The future of Prime Brokerage: How buy-side demands are creating opportunities for new entrants. The report is based on a survey of senior executives at hedge funds and asset managers and explores demand among the buy-side for Prime Brokerage offerings. The report finds that the prime brokers have become more selective in their offerings to hedge funds since the implementation of Basel III. This has come at a time of an acceleration in hedge fund launches leaving some firms without sufficient access to leverage.
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****** The future is bright, if I am reading things right.~JJL

Perpetual Futures: The Engine Behind Crypto’s Derivatives Dominance
CryptoNews – CryptoNews
The world’s most traded crypto instrument isn’t spot bitcoin or ether. It’s a derivative that didn’t exist before Arthur Hayes and his co-founders shipped BitMEX’s original perpetual swap in 2015. According to CoinDesk, these “perps” have since grown into one of the most exchanged financial products globally, and their design has spawned an entire shadow banking system for digital assets. Understanding perps is not just about knowing a futures contract without an expiry date. It’s about grasping the synthetic leverage machine that now sets the tempo for crypto price action across exchanges.
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Exchanges

Fanatics Buys CFTC-Registered Exchange in Prediction Markets Land Grab; The deal for BGC’s Water Street Labs and CX Clearinghouse lets Fanatics list and settle its own event contracts, echoing DraftKings and FanDuel as sports-betting giants scramble for a foothold in the sector.
Decrypt Agent
Fanatics is buying its way deeper into prediction markets, striking a deal to acquire a federally regulated exchange and clearinghouse from brokerage giant BGC Group as sports-betting heavyweights race to stake out ground in the fast-growing sector. The sports platform said Monday it will purchase Water Street Labs, a CFTC-registered designated contract market, and CX Clearinghouse, a registered derivatives clearing organization, from Nasdaq-listed BGC. Terms weren’t disclosed.
/jlne.ws/44OT5AL

CME’s Debut of 24/7 Gold Futures Trading Met With Strong Demand
Yvonne Yue Li – Bloomberg
CME Group Inc. said the debut weekend of 24/7 trading for its one-ounce gold futures saw stronger-than-expected demand with deep liquidity despite subdued volatility. Nearly 15,000 one-ounce gold futures contracts, representing about $60 million in notional value, traded during the inaugural weekend of the new all-hours trading schedule, according to a statement Monday. The smaller-sized gold contract was launched in January 2025 to cater to retail investors.
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****** There is nothing like being able to trade the ultimate currency default swap 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.~JJL

SGX partners with MSCI to bring up to 100 new equity derivatives contracts to market
Natasha Cocksedge – The TRADE
SGX Group has entered a licensing agreement with MSCI to launch up to 100 new equity derivatives contracts. Loh Boon Chye The move is set to bolster SGX’s current global derivatives franchise, and the firm has confirmed that it initially plans to unveil approximately 40 futures and options contracts spanning major developed and emerging markets economies. Specifically, the product suite will cover MSCI’s global developed market benchmarks, key APAC single-country indexes and emerging markets Asia sector indexes.
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REGULATION

Consumer Protection Groups Urge the CFTC to Ban Gambling on Elections
Better Markets
Better Markets, Public Citizen, and 14 other organizations filed a comment letter today with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in response to the agency’s proposal to unleash nationwide gambling on American elections: With prediction markets usage exploding and congressional midterm elections coming later this year, it’s increasingly important that the CFTC follow the law and ban contracts that allow bets on our sacred democracy: Statement from Ben Schiffrin, Director of Securities Policy, Better Markets: “Americans are rightfully concerned about the impact of election gambling on free and fair elections in this country. The CFTC should listen to the American people and ban gambling on elections in its final rule. There is no reason that the CFTC, which regulates the trading of financial derivatives, should sanction gambling of any kind, especially gambling that could threaten our treasured democracy. The states should continue to regulate gambling, and the CFTC should focus on its core mission: regulating the $500 trillion derivatives market.”
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Kalshi, Polymarket win pause against Minnesota’s prediction market ban; A federal judge ruled that Minnesota’s law criminalizing prediction markets would probably violate the federal Commodity Exchange Act.
Nikhilesh De – CoinDesk
A federal judge ruled that Minnesota’s law banning prediction markets likely runs afoul of the Commodity Exchange Act, granting a preliminary injunction against the law to Kalshi, Polymarket and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
/jlne.ws/4fHnw0I

TECH

tastytrade Launches Prediction Markets, Giving Active Traders a Direct Way to Trade Real-World Market Events
Apex Marketing – Apex Fintech Solutions
tastytrade, the online brokerage firm created by traders for self-directed investors, today launched Prediction Markets, putting CFTC-regulated event contracts on the catalysts active traders already watch—Fed decisions, inflation and jobs prints, the VIX, crude, and crypto—directly inside the platform they already trade. Powered by Apex Fintech Solutions and available 24/7, it turns a view on the number, the decision, or the result into a single, defined-risk trade that settles right next to stocks, options, and futures. tastytrade is the first brokerage to launch on Apex’s turnkey FCM infrastructure.
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MOVES

Citi expands Asia FX options desk with three senior trader hires in Singapore
Reuters
Citigroup has appointed three senior traders to its foreign exchange options desk in ​Singapore as it seeks to boost its ‌regional market-making and risk management capabilities, according to a company statement on Tuesday. The Wall Street lender appointed Eric ​Poon as director on its FX emerging markets ​options trading team in Asia, reporting to ⁠Akshay Saxena, head of FX options for Asia ​Pacific.
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Strategy

Markets Stay Mixed Again; Crude Continues to Price Down
JJ Kinahan – Cboe
The markets are mixed again in early trading with the Nasdaq Composite under pressure after yesterday’s chip maker fallout that also pushed down tech shares in South Korea and Europe. In fact, it was the third worst day in Soth Korea’s KOSPI index history. Crude oil prices are also dropping as hopes of diplomacy between the U.S. and Iran grow after the two paused strikes in recent days. WTI Crude Oil prices were off by 1.8% to the lower $81 range. Yesterday, WTI crude saw its largest one-day drop in two months, ending the session at $81.77, down 8.5%.
/jlne.ws/4h2OYbA

Hedge funds reap big profits from Wall Street index shake-ups; Betting on which companies’ stock will be added or dropped has made a lucrative comeback this year
Amelia Pollard and Costas Mourselas – Financial Times
A banal strategy of profiting from changes in stock index membership is emerging as one of the hottest trades on Wall Street, as volatility and the historic SpaceX listing rippled through markets last quarter. The trade involves buying stocks set to join — or selling stocks set to be dropped from — various stock indices, before passive index-tracking funds adjust their portfolios. Last quarter saw record trading volumes, giving hedge funds that specialise in the strategy multiple chances to make money.
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Covered Call ETFs 2.0: Smarter Income, Better Outcomes
Kirsten Chang – ETF Database
Following historic inflows, momentum in the covered call ETF market continues unabated. Yet first-generation buy-write products were often viewed somewhat narrowly as high-yield income vehicles built on sacrificing equity upside for immediate cash flow. While early strategies proved the massive appetite for yield, they also exposed key advisor pain points — from steep NAV erosion in bull markets to tax-inefficient distributions.
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MISCELLANEOUS

What are perps, anyway? Everything you need to know about crypto’s hottest trading instrument; Perps, which launched on BitMEX in 2016, have become one of the most traded financial products in the world.
Oliver Knight – CoinDesk
Perpetual swaps, also called perpetual futures or “perps” for short, are the dominant trading instrument in the crypto market, processing an estimated $40 to 50 trillion a year in volume. They dwarf spot trading, and they are the product that professional traders, hedge funds and retail speculators reach for when they want leveraged exposure to the price of bitcoin or tther without owning the underlying asset. Despite their ubiquity, the mechanics that make them work are not widely understood.
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