Coinbase agrees to halt sports event contracts in Michigan

Coinbase has agreed to stop offering sports event contracts in Michigan, the Michigan Gaming Control Board announced on Wednesday.

Under the agreement, Coinbase will not list any new sports markets and must close out all open sports trades by midnight Eastern Time on 10 October. In exchange, the state will hold off on enforcement action while Coinbase's appeal continues before the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said the arrangement showed the state's efforts were having an effect on "the executives of the illegal sports betting industry", adding that Michigan intends to bring "all sports betting into compliance with the law", whether through agreement or court order.

SBC Americas, which first reported the agreement, said it had contacted Coinbase for comment but had not received a response.

Coinbase becomes the third major platform to pull back from sports event contracts in Michigan this year. Robinhood struck a similar deal with the MGCB in September, committing to remove its sports markets from the state by 9 October. A state court judge separately ordered Kalshi in early September to halt sports trading and advertising in Michigan and to geoblock the state through a licensed geolocation provider.

MGCB Executive Director Henry Williams said the pattern of operators stepping back reflected the legal risk of continuing to offer the contracts in the state, noting that companies are halting the activity because they "face significant legal consequences for continuing to offer them" there.

The board stressed that the agreement does not settle the broader legal question of whether Michigan has authority to regulate event contracts offered through exchanges registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Coinbase's move follows a setback in federal court. The company sued the MGCB and Nessel in December 2025, seeking to block state enforcement action, arguing that the Commodity Exchange Act's definition of swaps preempts Michigan's gambling laws. A federal judge denied Coinbase's request for a preliminary injunction in August, rejecting both the preemption argument and the claim that Coinbase would suffer irreparable harm without the ability to offer sports contracts in the state.

Coinbase appealed to the Sixth Circuit, though that appeal is currently stayed pending related cases involving other prediction market operators. Its prospects look uncertain: in a separate dispute in late September, Sixth Circuit judges unanimously found that Kalshi's sports event contracts do not qualify as swaps under federal commodities law and do not override Ohio and Tennessee's sports betting statutes.

Shortly after that ruling, the Ohio Casino Control Commission sent cease-and-desist letters to ten prediction market operators it said were offering sports event contracts illegally in the state, including Coinbase.