Crypto Roundup: NJ Challenges Kalshi at Supreme Court, Bitcoin ETFs Surge $3.52B in August

New Jersey has escalated its legal fight over prediction markets to the US Supreme Court, asking justices to determine whether states have authority to regulate sports betting contracts offered by platforms like Kalshi. Attorney General Jennifer Davenport and state gaming officials filed a petition Wednesday seeking to overturn an April Third Circuit ruling that found federal commodities law likely grants the Commodity Futures Trading Commission exclusive oversight of Kalshi's sports event contracts. New Jersey argues these contracts are effectively wagers and should remain subject to state licensing and consumer protection rules, while Kalshi maintains its products are federally regulated financial instruments that cannot operate under 50 separate regulatory frameworks. A Supreme Court decision could set a nationwide precedent for whether the CFTC or individual states govern sports prediction markets.

US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded their strongest month of 2026 in August, attracting $3.52 billion in net inflows according to SoSoValue data—a dramatic jump from just $172 million in July. Bitcoin itself gained roughly 25% during August, its best monthly performance since a 37.29% rally in November 2024, per CoinGlass. The momentum faded quickly into September, however, as ETF flows turned negative and BTC briefly slipped below $77,000, signaling renewed volatility after the summer rally.

Core DAO announced an emergency hard fork after discovering that some validators claimed more CORE rewards than the protocol intended to distribute. In an update, the project confirmed the incident had been contained and that malicious validators were identified, though full technical details on the exploit and remediation timeline remain forthcoming. The emergency response highlights ongoing governance and security challenges facing decentralized networks operating at scale.