Metals
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.
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.
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.
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.
Trading Technologies Says Its Systems Are Ready for 24/7 Markets
TT executives see clearing automation, margin analytics and AI reshaping post-trade operations
LONDON (JLN) – August 5, 2026: Trading Technologies is technologically prepared for the derivatives industry’s shift toward round-the-clock trading, though expanding operational support across weekends will require a more gradual transition, two company executives said.
“Twenty-four-seven is obviously coming,” Maxime Jeanniard du Dot, executive vice president at Trading Technologies, said in an interview at the FIA International Derivatives Expo. TT already supports European power markets that operate on extended schedules, giving the company experience with the technology required for continuous trading, he said.
IG Group keeps trying to predict prediction markets
ELMHURST, IL (JLN) — July 31, 2026: IG Group has been trying to predict the prediction market business for nearly two decades. Its record looks like that of a trader who gets in early, loses conviction, sells, buys back, sells again, and then discovers that the market has gone limit-up without him or her.
Now IG is getting back in, this time with both feet, several licenses and up to $1.3 billion.
The story begins with HedgeStreet, the wonderfully named California exchange founded in 2004 to offer small, easily understood derivatives to retail traders. The products were called “Hedgelets,” which sounds like either a financial instrument or something served with mustard at a British garden party.
The Call Is Coming from Inside the White House: Senate Democrats’ Forum Lays Out the National Security and Retail-Investor Case Against the CLARITY Act
WILLIAMS BAY, WI (JLN) — July 29, 2026: On Capitol Hill on Monday, Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) convened a Senate Democratic forum broadcast on YouTube on what they’re calling the “cryptocorruption” flowing out of the Trump White House and into the pending CLARITY Act, the digital-asset market-structure bill now working its way toward the Senate floor. They were joined by Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and they took testimony from five witnesses: actor-turned-crypto-investigator Ben McKenzie Schenkkan; North Carolina scam victim Lori Flowers; former SEC Internet Enforcement chief John Reed Stark; Democracy Defenders Action ethics counsel Virginia Canter; and Transparency International U.S. deputy executive director Scott Greytak.
CME’s Innovator’s Dilemma: Read the Book, or Become the Case Study
Perpetual futures are the classic low-end disruptor. The only question is whether CME builds the exchange that eats its own margins — or waits for a consortium to build it first.
WILLIAMS BAY, WI (JLN) — July 27, 2026: CME Group is living in a Clayton Christensen case study and doesn’t even have to buy the book to see how it ends. The lesson is already in its own stock chart, its margin profile, and the shadow cast by perpetual futures. The only question is whether CME wants to be the incumbent in the book…or the disruptor in the sequel.
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,...