Polymarket has announced a French court challenge five days after regulators ordered internet providers to block the platform over gambling-loss and market-manipulation concerns.

Reuters reported on July 22 that the crypto-based prediction market intends to contest the National Gambling Authority’s decision through France’s legal system.

“We are disappointed by the French gaming authority’s (ANJ’s) sudden decision to unilaterally block our website — we intend to challenge this decision through the legal process in France,” Polymarket stated.

ANJ President Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin issued the order on July 16, directing French internet service providers to restrict access to Polymarket. According to ANJ’s statement cited by Reuters, the website attracted a large French audience while offering gambling and betting services that the regulator considers illegal under national law.

A spokesperson for ANJ told Reuters that the block would remain until the regulator considers Polymarket compliant with France’s gambling rules. Polymarket’s planned case will now test whether the authority can continue restricting the website under its current classification of the platform.

Unlike conventional sportsbooks, Polymarket lets users trade contracts tied to outcomes in politics, economics, sports, weather and armed conflicts. Traders buy positions representing possible results, with contract prices changing as market expectations move.

French regulator focuses on losses and manipulation

ANJ linked its intervention to the amount users could lose and the design of certain contracts available through Polymarket. The regulator warned that some of those markets could be manipulated and expose customers to substantial gambling losses.

Weather contracts received particular attention in ANJ’s statement. The regulator reported that users had wagered on weather outcomes and raised suspicions that some participants might have traded with inside information.

Polymarket did not provide details about its legal arguments or state when it would file the challenge. Its statement only confirmed that it would use the French legal process to oppose the restriction.

While ANJ targeted Polymarket in its July order, French authorities did not announce an equivalent block against rival platform Kalshi in the same statement. Spain took a different approach in May when its government temporarily prohibited both companies from operating, crypto.news reported.

The French action has arrived as prediction platforms handle increasingly large sums. A person familiar with Polymarket’s finances told Reuters in June that the company’s annualized revenue had exceeded $1 billion.

Trading across the sector has also climbed around major sporting events. Dune Analytics data cited by Reuters showed that users wagered about $19.04 billion through Polymarket and Kalshi during the recently completed soccer World Cup.

Those figures have increased the stakes in disputes over whether event contracts should be treated as financial instruments, gambling products or a separate class requiring its own rules. French authorities have applied gambling law to Polymarket, while regulatory arguments in the United States remain divided between federal derivatives oversight and state betting laws.

U.S. scrutiny targets sports markets and informed trading

Across the Atlantic, the U.S. House Agriculture Committee has examined customer protection and market integrity in sports prediction markets. Its Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development Subcommittee heard from legal specialists and representatives of the American Gaming Association and Indian Gaming Association.

Both gaming groups have pressed Congress to stop platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket from offering sports event contracts. According to the associations, those products function like ordinary sports bets but can bypass state gambling controls, tribal gaming rights and established responsible-betting requirements.

Prediction-market supporters have argued that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission already has authority over event contracts. The CFTC supported federal jurisdiction in disputes involving state regulators and released draft rules for the prediction-market industry in June.

State courts have not consistently accepted that federal authority prevents local enforcement. On July 21, a Washington judge granted the state a preliminary injunction against Kalshi, finding that its contracts likely violated state gambling laws. Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada and New York had also secured orders restricting the company’s activities.

Alongside disputes over sports products, possible informed trading has brought another source of scrutiny. Polymarket has referred nearly 100 suspicious crypto wallets to law enforcement while increasing its monitoring of possible insider activity, according to information provided in the additional reporting.

A Bloomberg analysis of Polysights data identified about $200 million in Polymarket trades from the first half of 2026 that carried traits associated with potential insider activity. Much of the flagged volume involved geopolitical contracts connected to Iran and Venezuela.

The findings did not establish that every identified trade involved unlawful conduct. They instead quantified the activity selected for closer examination as regulators assess whether prediction platforms can protect customers and prevent traders from exploiting nonpublic information.

Polymarket’s French challenge now places those concerns before a national court. Whatever the outcome, the case will determine whether ANJ’s website block stands while regulators in Europe and the United States pursue separate approaches to event-contract oversight.

“I don’t have any real political insights, but I expect that there is sufficient momentum behind this,” said Paul via WhatsApp. “And I believe that since this is now in the remit of the HM Treasury, Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority, it doesn’t require much political intervention to proceed. If anything, I think this might support increased demand for U.K. debt at a convenient time for the U.K. government.”

Changing capital flows

Paul said moving sovereign debt onchain changes how capital flows through the financial system, making it more than a back-office adjustment. Natively digital bonds allow market participants to settle trades instantly and move collateral between venues without the delays of traditional market infrastructure.

This programmability alters the dynamics of intraday repo markets, a change that market participants believe could free up tens of billions of dollars in idle liquidity. Currently, the U.K. gilt market sees aggregate daily trading volumes exceeding 45 billion pounds.

However, one key obstacle remains: the lack of a standardized onchain payment method.

“Santander issued a tokenized corporate GBP-denominated bond way back in 2019, so we have been demonstrating that bonds can be tokenized for nearly seven years,” said Jannah Patchay, founder of Markets Evolution. “The challenge then, as now, was how to settle that bond on-chain using a counterparty risk-free settlement asset, and we do not yet have a compelling solution.”

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has signaled that one of decentralized finance’s fast-growing sectors could face greater regulatory scrutiny.

In a statement Wednesday, Commissioner Hester Peirce said crypto vaults and onchain lending strategies may fall under federal securities laws depending on how they are structured and managed.

While many crypto activities lie outside the SEC’s jurisdiction, she cautioned that moving them onto blockchain rails does not automatically change their legal status.

“Tokenized securities are still securities,” Peirce said, echoing her earlier remarks. “That principle holds for vaults.”

“If you do headstands, backflips and other gymnastics to read the law so that it does not apply to crypto assets and activities that are well within the scope of the federal securities laws, you will have a painful fall,” she added.

Her comments rippled across the crypto market. MORPHO$1.9604, one of the largest providers of vault infrastructure, fell roughly 5% following the statement, underperforming the broader crypto market.

Vaults have become one of DeFi’s fastest-growing products by allowing users to deposit crypto into smart contracts that automatically allocate capital across lending markets and other yield-generating strategies. Users receive returns while the vault’s rules, or in some cases professional managers known as vault curators, determine where funds are deployed.

“Today’s draft is a meaningful step toward the Senate vote on the Clarity Act we’ve been calling for,” said Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone in a statement. “We’re encouraged, and we’re ready to keep working until the bill reaches the president’s desk.”

One thing that may land as a significant relief for the decentralized finance (DeFi) corner of the industry is that the section known as the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act remains intact, meaning developers that don’t control users’ assets won’t be treated under the regulatory regime as “money transmitters,” with all the compliance burdens that would come with that. The draft also includes new language on federal preemption, provisional registration procedures and commodity pool operators — all still being furiously studied by the experts.

Miller Whitehouse-Levine, the CEO of Solana Policy Institute, outlined a few points in the bill, including that it would provide a “clear regulatory treatment for tokens and token fundraising, establish regulation for exchanges, give financial institutions the green light to use public blockchains, direct the federal agencies to create a regulatory pathway for tokenized securities and futures markets onchain and, most critically, establish robust consumer and developer protections.”

Last week, several Senate Democrats gathered for a press conference explaining their opposition to the Clarity Act, and warning of the crypto sector’s rapidly growing influence in Washington.

• XRP holds above the $1.13 breakout level.
• Whale selling drops as large holders increase accumulation.
• XRPL daily payments surpass 500,000 transactions.

XRP recently moved above the $1.13 level, a price zone that many traders had been watching as a major resistance area.

Holding above this level has shifted attention toward higher resistance levels, with market analyst Dark Defender identifying $1.22, or approximately $1.2269, as the next upside target using Elliott Wave analysis and Fibonacci extension levels.

XRP a clear break and expected to complete the 5 Wave structure we set on 30 Jun. I will add it as a second post for you to check!

$1.13 is the KEY. $1.22 is in sight. (NFA)

Enjoy your day!#XRPArmy #ripple pic.twitter.com/gPCyQQgfzO

— Dark Defender (@DefendDark) July 21, 2026

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Dark Defender’s analysis suggests that maintaining support above the breakout zone remains critical for the bullish structure to stay intact.

A sustained move above the current range would strengthen the technical setup, while a drop back below the breakout level could trigger another test of lower support.

Golden cross and breakout strengthen XRP’s technical picture

Another development attracting attention is the appearance of a golden cross, a chart pattern that occurs when a shorter-term moving average crosses above a longer-term moving average.

This signal has historically been associated with improving medium-term momentum.

Although a golden cross does not guarantee higher prices, it is widely regarded as one of the stronger confirmation signals when it appears alongside a confirmed breakout.

The combination of a resistance breakout and a golden cross has created a stronger technical backdrop than either signal would have provided independently.

Focus is now on whether XRP can build enough momentum to challenge the next resistance area identified by Dark Defender.

Whale accumulation replaces heavy selling pressure

On-chain data has also shown a noticeable change in the behaviour of large XRP holders.

Recent blockchain metrics indicate that whale selling pressure has dropped to its lowest level recorded since 2025.

Earlier in the year, hundreds of millions of XRP were regularly transferred by large holders to exchanges, increasing potential selling pressure.

Those exchange inflows have since declined sharply, suggesting that major holders are becoming less active sellers.

At the same time, blockchain data points to accelerating whale accumulation, indicating that some large investors are increasing their XRP positions instead of reducing them.

Normally, buying activity from large wallets reduces immediate selling pressure on the market.

Even so, whale accumulation alone does not determine future price direction. A sustained rally still depends on broader market demand and continued buying interest across both institutional and retail participants.

XRPL network activity reaches important milestone

Beyond price action, the XRP Ledger has also recorded stronger network usage.

Daily payment activity on the XRPL recently climbed above 500,000 transactions, marking one of the strongest levels of network utilisation in recent months.

Payment volume is one of the key indicators used to measure blockchain activity because it reflects how frequently the network is being used for transfers and settlement.

The increase in payment activity comes alongside growing development across the XRPL ecosystem, including projects focused on integrating artificial intelligence with blockchain infrastructure.

While these initiatives are still developing, they point to broader activity taking place beyond simple token trading.