France’s gambling regulator has ordered internet service providers to block access to Polymarket, escalating a wave of restrictions aimed at prediction platforms operating outside local authorizations.

In a Friday press release, the Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ) said prediction websites fall under illegal gambling rules if they are not authorized, adding that advertising or promoting such sites is a criminal offense punishable by fines of up to 100,000 euros.

Key takeaways

• France’s ANJ has ordered ISPs to block Polymarket, citing lack of authorization and illegal gambling promotion risks.
• The regulator argues Polymarket’s features resemble regulated gambling, but without “protective mechanisms” found in the legal market.
• ANJ also raised concerns about possible outcome manipulation, including allegations involving weather-related contracts.
• Polymarket has already been geoblocked in multiple regions, according to its own documentation.
• Regulatory scrutiny is not limited to Europe: similar legal disputes have played out in the US between state actors and federal authorities.

France moves to block Polymarket

The ANJ’s order targets access to Polymarket through internet service providers, framing the platform as an unauthorized gambling offering. According to the regulator, Polymarket’s operations are not authorized in France, and the advertising of gambling sites without permission constitutes a criminal offense.

The decision comes as prediction markets continue to gain mainstream attention. Polymarket, in particular, has grown rapidly over the last two years, with trading volume reaching billions of dollars, even as regulators worldwide question whether its event contracts are gambling products, unlicensed offerings, or something closer to financial instruments.

France’s action also reinforces a broader pattern of country-by-country enforcement. Polymarket access has been blocked in places including Singapore, Poland, Portugal, Hungary, Ukraine, Brazil, and Indonesia, while at press time Polymarket said it was geoblocked in 36 regions, based on its published API documentation.

ANJ cites “addictive” mechanics and missing safeguards

Beyond the authorization question, the ANJ’s reasoning focuses on how prediction products are experienced by users. The regulator said Polymarket offers “addictive features” that are comparable to those of legally regulated gambling, but it claims those features are “amplified by the absence of the protective mechanisms found in the legal gambling market.”

This distinction matters for investors and users because it goes to how regulators classify the product. When a platform resembles regulated gambling mechanics but lacks corresponding protections—such as consumer safeguards and oversight—authorities are more likely to pursue takedowns, advertising restrictions, and access blocking, even if the platform markets itself as a different kind of market.

Outcome manipulation concerns and investigation status

The ANJ also pointed to the risk of outcome manipulation in certain event contracts. It cited alleged rigging, including a specific example: bets tied to weather outcomes where the regulator said weather sensors may have been hacked.

“Some of the bets offered on this platform appeared to be rigged: for example, bets on the weather revealed that weather sensors may have been hacked.”

In addition, the cybercrime unit of the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation in May 2026 and, according to the article’s account of the regulator’s findings, identified a lack of identity verification safeguards such as Know Your Customer checks.

For participants, this kind of enforcement pressure highlights a key operational fault line: regulators are not only focused on contract structure, but also on platform controls—especially around participant verification and the reliability of the information used to settle outcomes.

France builds on earlier warnings, while US regulators escalate

This is not France’s first move. Earlier coverage noted that the ANJ shared plans in November 2024 to block Polymarket after the platform allegedly failed to comply with national gambling laws, and the Friday decision follows through with the required ISP-level blocking.

The French action arrives amid an ongoing legal fight over prediction markets in the United States. On June 17, Kentucky sued five prediction market platforms, including Kalshi and Polymarket, alleging they were operating unlicensed sports betting platforms—according to the earlier reporting cited in the article. Additional states have followed suit. Separately, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has sued New Mexico, arguing that state-level interference encroached on the federal regulator’s exclusive authority over federally regulated event contracts, as reflected in the referenced CFTC dispute.

Taken together, the US and France developments underscore a persistent regulatory tension: prediction markets sit at the intersection of gambling law, securities and commodities frameworks, and consumer protection rules. Even when platforms frame themselves as market infrastructure for forecasting rather than wagering, regulators appear willing to treat them as gambling-like products when participation mechanics and consumer risk resemble traditional betting.

As France implements the ISP blocking order, the next question for readers and market participants is how Polymarket and other affected platforms will adjust compliance, identity verification, and settlement-risk controls—and whether the broader trend shifts from geoblocking to more formal legal resolutions in major jurisdictions.

Ethereum has risen 1.8% to $1,845 after Rep. Bryan Steil raised hopes for a Senate vote on the CLARITY Act next week, while ETF inflows and firm chart support kept traders cautiously bullish.

Steil, who chairs the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Digital Assets, told FOX Business that the bill could reach the Senate floor in the coming week. Passage could place ETH under a digital commodity framework and establish federal rules for its trading and oversight.

During a July 17 hearing, Steil urged lawmakers to complete the legislation as the Senate prepares to consider it. “Let’s pass CLARITY,” he stated in remarks published by the House Financial Services Committee.

Polymarket traders raised the probability of the bill becoming law in 2026 to 39% from 30% on July 17. However, unresolved disputes over ethics rules and stablecoin yields have kept the odds below 50%.

Institutional flows have also improved. SoSoValue data showed that spot Ethereum ETFs attracted $105 million between July 13 and July 17, their strongest weekly inflow since April.

Ethereum’s decentralized finance activity has grown alongside the ETF demand. DeFiLlama placed the network’s total value locked at about $40.5 billion, up from roughly $36 billion at the start of July. The network also processed $978.9 million in decentralized exchange volume and 2.46 million transactions over the past 24 hours.

Ethereum must clear $1,854 to reopen the path toward $1,947

Ethereum’s daily chart shows a double-bottom structure formed around $1,511, with the neckline near $1,847. ETH briefly climbed to $1,947 before returning to test the neckline, which now overlaps with the 0.786 Fibonacci retracement at $1,853.82.

A daily close above $1,854 would place the recent $1,947 high and the 100-day exponential moving average near $1,939 back in play. The double-bottom structure has a measured target near $2,180, while crypto analyst Michaël van de Poppe expects $2,200 to $2,400 if the $1,780 support remains intact.

Daily momentum still favors buyers, although the pace has slowed. The MACD line stands at 35.57, above the 21.69 signal line, while the positive histogram has contracted to 13.88. The relative strength index sits at 57.15, leaving ETH below overbought territory.

On the 4-hour chart, Ethereum (ETH) remains inside an ascending channel that has guided the recovery since late June. Its lower boundary and the previous Supertrend support meet around $1,830, while the upper boundary extends toward $2,040. Chaikin Money Flow remains positive at 0.07, but the active Supertrend resistance at $1,908 must fall before buyers can retest the July high.

CoinGlass’ 48-hour liquidation heatmap places the nearest dense leverage cluster between $1,860 and $1,870. More positions sit around $1,900, while downside liquidity has accumulated near $1,810 and $1,790.

According to analyst Ted Pillows, the $1,820–$1,850 region will decide ETH’s next move.

“If Ethereum holds above it, expect another uptrend towards $1,950–$2,000.”

A break below $1,780 would weaken Ethereum’s recovery

Ethereum would lose its 4-hour channel if sellers force a close below $1,830. Such a move would expose the 50-day EMA near $1,812 and could trigger leveraged long liquidations around $1,810.

A deeper decline below the 61.8% Fibonacci level at $1,780.64 would weaken the double-bottom setup and open the 50% retracement at $1,729.24. Pillows also cited the escalating U.S.-Iran situation as a risk to the $1,820–$1,850 support zone.

Political uncertainty remains another invalidation risk. Failure to resolve the CLARITY Act’s ethics and stablecoin provisions could delay a Senate vote, remove the immediate catalyst behind ETH’s rebound, and place the $1,780 support under renewed pressure.

Kaspersky has uncovered a new malware framework targeting cryptocurrency investors.

Dubbed “OkoBot,” the malware initiates an infection chain that starts with social engineering tactics such as ClickFix, which tricks users into running malicious commands, or trojanized GitHub apps that deliver a backdoor to infected devices, the cybersecurity company wrote in a Wednesday report.

The malware can harvest crypto wallet files, browser data and user credentials, inject malicious extensions and capture wallet application windows to steal assets. Kaspersky said it identified multiple attacks involving this malware family since January 2026.

Kaspersky added that the malware framework evolved from “TookPS,” a malware campaign first identified in 2025 that distributed a Trojan downloader through fake software websites, and that it opens the door to copycat attacks.

It differs from prior campaigns by orchestrating all 20 malicious payloads via an SSH tunnel, which enables the remote transport of data from infected computers to remote machines controlled by attackers.

Original OkoBot infection chain. Source: Kaspersky

Fake LinkedIn recruitment campaigns target Web3 developers with malware

Separately, a new malware campaign is seeking to infiltrate the devices of Web3 developers via fake LinkedIn recruitment opportunities, according to SlowMist.

Attackers contact blockchain developers via LinkedIn, posing as Web3 recruiters. They then send fake GitHub repositories to victims, claiming they contained the minimum viable product that needed to be tried before the interview, the blockchain security company said in a Saturday report.

The workflow closely resembles a legitimate technical interview where developers pull code, install dependencies and launch a project, which makes it difficult to notice the attack, according to SlowMist.

Related: UK sentences 2 hackers tied to $115M crypto ransom scheme

The malware aims to deliver a complete “remote access trojan” that infects devices, enabling attackers to steal project keys, cloud credentials, or wallet extension data from these developers.

“This attack is not an isolated case,” wrote SlowMist, adding that recent incidents illustrate that “attackers are increasingly leveraging scenarios such as recruitment, code reviews and project collaborations to trick developers into actively running malicious repositories.”

The report came a day after SlowMist warned of a separate malware campaign targeting macOS users, aiming to steal their credentials and hijack their Telegram sessions to ultimately trick investors into entering their wallet recovery phrases through fake websites.

Magazine: Does Botanix’s failure prove Bitcoiners don’t care about DeFi?

Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest has bought $18.3 million of SpaceX shares after the stock fell 5.43% to a new post-IPO low, according to the firm’s July 17 trading report.

According to ARK’s daily disclosure, four of its actively managed exchange-traded funds purchased a combined 147,623 SpaceX shares as the stock closed Friday at $123.99. During the session, shares dropped as low as $122.12.

The ARK Innovation ETF made the largest purchase, adding 95,129 shares worth about $11.8 million based on Friday’s closing price. ARK’s Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF bought 30,464 shares valued at $3.78 million, while its Space Exploration & Innovation ETF added 12,611 shares worth around $1.56 million.

Completing the purchase, the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF acquired another 9,419 SpaceX shares valued at approximately $1.17 million, according to the same disclosure.

France’s national gambling regulator has ordered internet service providers to block access to Polymarket, arguing that the platform operates like illegal gambling in the country. The Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ) said Polymarket’s services are not authorized in France and warned that promoting unapproved gambling sites can trigger criminal penalties.

The move underscores how prediction and “event contract” platforms continue to run into regulatory friction across Europe and beyond—particularly over whether these products should be treated as gambling, unlicensed financial instruments, or something else entirely.

Key takeaways

• The ANJ directed French ISPs to block Polymarket, saying its prediction contracts amount to illegal gambling under French law.
• The regulator cited “addictive” mechanics and the absence of protective safeguards common in regulated gambling markets.
• ANJ also pointed to concerns that certain outcomes could be manipulated, including references to hacked weather sensors.
• France joins a growing list of jurisdictions that have restricted Polymarket access.

France orders ISP-level blocks

In a Friday press release, France’s Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ) said it considers online prediction platforms to be illegal gambling when they are not authorized through the regulated framework. Based on that determination, the regulator ordered internet service providers to block access to Polymarket.

The ANJ stated that Polymarket’s operations are not authorized in France. It also highlighted that advertising gambling services without authorization is a criminal offense, with fines that may reach 100,000 euros (about $114,000), according to the regulator.

For investors, traders, and users, the practical impact is straightforward: even if markets can still be accessed through other means, ISP-level blocking raises friction, reduces discoverability, and increases the likelihood that marketing and distribution channels are disrupted inside the country.

Regulatory concerns: missing safeguards and possible manipulation

Beyond the authorization question, ANJ argued that Polymarket’s user experience resembles regulated gambling offerings, but without the protective mechanisms found in the legal market. The regulator described the platform as having features that can be “addictive,” while emphasizing that France’s authorized gambling environment includes safeguards that are not present on Polymarket.

ANJ further said some event contracts raised manipulation risks. In particular, the regulator referenced cases suggesting bets may have been “rigged,” including weather-related markets where weather sensors allegedly could have been hacked.

“Some of the bets offered on this platform appeared to be rigged: for example, bets on the weather revealed that weather sensors may have been hacked.”

The regulator linked the concerns to findings tied to an investigation by the cybercrime unit of the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office, which reportedly began in May 2026. ANJ also said investigators identified a lack of identity verification measures, such as Know Your Customer (KYC) checks.

That combination—gamification-style incentives plus weak identity controls plus questions about how external data is validated—has become a recurring theme in regulators’ critique of online prediction products. If identity and data integrity remain unresolved, platforms face higher odds of being treated as gambling rather than as a form of regulated markets activity.

France follows a broader crackdown pattern

France is not alone. According to the article being rewritten, multiple countries have already moved to block or restrict access to Polymarket, including Singapore, Poland, Portugal, Hungary, Ukraine, Brazil, and Indonesia.

At the time of writing, Polymarket indicated it had implemented geoblocking in 36 regions, pointing to the reality that regulatory compliance often arrives as region-by-region access controls. Still, an ISP block order like the one announced by France changes the enforcement posture: instead of relying only on platform-side geofencing, the regulator targets the local internet access layer.

France’s action also fits with its earlier warning signals. The ANJ previously shared plans to block Polymarket in November 2024, citing failures to comply with French gambling rules. The new ISP order therefore represents a formal escalation from planning to execution.

Global pressure from US regulators

Regulatory scrutiny around prediction market platforms is not limited to Europe. In the United States, multiple legal challenges have centered on whether these platforms operate as unlicensed sports betting, and whether states can regulate them without conflicting with federal authority over certain event contracts.

According to earlier coverage referenced in the source material, on June 17 Kentucky sued five prediction market platforms—including Kalshi and Polymarket—arguing they were operating unlicensed sports betting. The same reporting states that at least 17 other states joined similar actions.

The source also notes that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) sued eight states, arguing they interfered with the agency’s exclusive authority over federally regulated event contracts. Taken together, these US developments show a fragmented regulatory landscape where platforms can face lawsuits on both sides of the jurisdiction question: whether they should be classified as gambling/sports betting under state frameworks, or as instruments governed by federal commodities and derivatives rules.

For readers trying to gauge what comes next, the key variable is classification—how regulators decide whether prediction contracts are gambling products requiring licensing, or market instruments subject to a different compliance regime. France’s ANJ decision makes one side of that argument explicit.

As France moves to block Polymarket at the ISP level, market participants should watch for how Polymarket responds in practice—whether it can modify compliance to address authorization, identity verification, and data integrity concerns—and whether other European regulators follow France’s lead with similar enforcement steps.

Noxa has halted token launches after generating more than $12 million in fees and helping Robinhood Chain reach $4 billion in cumulative decentralized exchange volume within two weeks.

crypto.news reported that the launchpad stopped operating on July 11 after becoming the main platform behind Robinhood Chain’s early memecoin activity. Noxa had supported more than 60,000 token launches and accounted for about 75% of all deployments on the network.

During its peak, Noxa’s daily protocol fees exceeded those of Solana-based Pump.fun for five straight days, according to crypto.news. The rapid activity helped push Robinhood Chain, which launched on July 1, into one of the busiest new venues for speculative tokens.

CASHCAT became Noxa’s most successful launch, reaching a peak market capitalization of $226 million. crypto.news reported that the token helped attract 267,642 unique wallets to Robinhood Chain during its opening weeks.

Noxa initially blamed bot spam and a flood of low-quality tokens when it suspended new launches on July 11. Two days later, its website became unavailable, with the team attributing the outage to a Cloudflare problem.

Rather than restoring its previous business model, Noxa later announced that all continuing trading fees would go to token creators. The decision removed the platform’s share of future revenue, although Noxa did not provide a detailed explanation of its long-term plans.

CASHCAT leads the post-Noxa selloff

CASHCAT fell more than 33% within 24 hours as traders reacted to Noxa’s exit, according to crypto.news. Other Robinhood Chain tokens, including FOX and HOODIE, also declined after previously recording strong weekly gains tied to activity on the launchpad.

Vlad.fun added to the uncertainty when the rival platform went offline several days later. According to its team, an internal integrity issue prompted the shutdown.

Reaction among crypto users remained divided. Some social media users treated Noxa’s decision as a rejection of bot-driven token speculation, while others described the departure as a soft rug.

Trader 0xAvast, who reportedly followed CASHCAT from a market value of around $10,000 to $230 million, dismissed concerns surrounding the collapse as “irrelevant FUD.” However, crypto.news’s data showed Robinhood Chain DEX volume falling after reaching a record $878 million on July 12.

Before Noxa disappeared, crypto.news reported that Robinhood Chain had overtaken Base to rank second by Uniswap deployment volume. The report linked part of that expansion to memecoin launches and Pump.fun integration.

Rival launchpads compete for displaced activity

Despite the drop in trading volume, crypto.news reported that Robinhood Chain’s total value locked has remained close to $200 million. Platforms including flap.sh, trensh.today and bankr have since sought to capture activity previously handled by Noxa, while Pons has also entered the market.

None of those platforms has yet matched Noxa’s token-launch record or produced a memecoin with CASHCAT’s reach.

The memecoin boom has also dwarfed Robinhood Chain’s tokenized real-world asset sector. crypto.news placed the market capitalization of those assets at $12.66 million, while CASHCAT alone had been worth about 12 times that amount at its peak.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev declared that “Robinhood Summer is here” on July 8. Within a week of that post, the chain’s largest launchpad had stopped accepting new token launches, leaving competing platforms to test whether Robinhood Chain can maintain activity without Noxa.

The value of global semiconductor stocks plummeted after the release of the Kimi K3 AI model by Moonshot AI, driving the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index into bear territory. As per Coin Bureau on X, the index slumped by over 20% compared to the high in June, while the benchmark index of Taiwan fell by 6% and the Japanese market was down by 4%. The post also said chip stocks had wiped out around $3.3 trillion from their market value since June 22. Meanwhile, the graph posted alongside the article highlighted a sudden surge in the asset linked to the Kimi K3 release.

Coin Bureau Reports Broad Semiconductor Selloff

Market update for X was given by Coin Bureau after Moonshot AI announced the Kimi K3. In the update, the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index is said to be more than 20% lower than its record level in June, thus qualifying as a bear market.

It was also reported that Taiwan’s benchmark share index fell by more than 6%, while Japanese stocks declined by 4%. Coin Bureau went on to report that the total drop has resulted in a loss of $3.3 trillion worth of market capitalization for global semiconductor shares since June 22. The drop is attributed to the release of the Kimi K3, as per Moonshot AI.

Kimi K3 Launch Draws Attention Across Ai Markets

Moonshot AI announced the launch of the next generation of its open-source artificial intelligence model by naming it Kimi K3. This launch is taking place amid intense competition within the AI development sector where developers keep enhancing their models.

The statement received an immediate reaction from the financial world. Traders kept track of the announcement as the stock prices of chip makers underwent severe selloff. The Coin Bureau article made the connection between the falling semiconductor stock prices and the Kimi K3 release, but other factors remain under consideration in the marketplace.

Chart Shows Rapid Rally Before Profit Taking Emerges

The chart attached to the post showed a continuous rising trend, followed by a breakout that pushed prices even higher to a new level. This happened after a series of highs and lows, reflecting buying pressure.

The candle with the biggest increase was the green candlestick, which took the price almost to the 14,000 level. The red candle that followed was the moment when traders decided to take profit from the big increase. Despite the fact that volatility increased, the price remained above the previous breakout levels.

Markets Watch Ai And Semiconductor Developments

However, semiconductor firms are still closely associated with the development of artificial intelligence infrastructure. The creation of AI models is always significant since it tends to affect market expectations.

Stock prices of semiconductors will keep being watched by investors along with any moves made by Moonshot AI and other companies in the realm of artificial intelligence. This might become clear once more trading sessions take place.