Is Crypto.com legal in Illinois?

The Board's letter runs one page under the subject line "Suspected Illegal Sports Wagering by Crypto.com." It went by email to Crypto.com's chief executive and its president, at 1 Raffles Quay in Singapore, over the signature of the Board's administrator.

Its reasoning moves in three steps. First, Illinois defines sports wagering broadly, "by any system or method of wagering," and lists "exchange wagering" among the forms it covers (230 ILCS 45/25-10). Second, nobody may run a sports wagering operation in the state without a Board license, and running a website that takes wagers on a sport, game, contest or election without one is unlawful under the Criminal Code. Third, the Board says it "is aware that Crypto.com is engaged in sports wagering activity in Illinois over the Internet and on mobile devices" and has not licensed it.

From there the Board concludes the activity "constitutes illegal gambling" and directs "Crypto.com and anyone affiliated with its operations" to cease and desist, warning of "civil or criminal penalties." Copies went to the State Police's statewide gaming command and the attorney general's office. The letter sets no deadline and names no hearing.

The Board's cease-and-desist page, read November 4, 2026, still lists "Crypto.com (04/01/2025)" and shows no later letter to it and no withdrawal. In the record we read, we found no lawsuit by Illinois against any Crypto.com company.

Not clearly the same one, on the face of the papers. The Board's letter names only "Crypto.com", with no corporate suffix. The court's captions name North American Derivatives Exchange, Inc., "d/b/a OG", as an intervenor plaintiff. The CFTC's amended designation order of September 29, 2025 calls that same corporation a designated contract market doing business as Crypto.com | Derivatives North America (p.1).

So the exchange that lists Crypto.com's prediction contracts is in the Chicago case, while the letter's addressee is a brand at a Singapore address. We could not determine from public documents why the Board addressed it that way, and we found no public reply to the letter from any Crypto.com company.

Three suits against Illinois and its officials are before Judge Martha M. Pacold: Coinbase's (No. 1:25-cv-15406), the federal government's (No. 1:26-cv-03659) and Kalshi's (No. 1:26-cv-07363). Crypto.com's exchange is in the middle one, beside the Coalition for Fair Markets, as an intervenor on the side of the United States and the CFTC.

On October 2, 2026 the court resolved the three requests in one memorandum opinion. The motions of the United States and the intervenor plaintiffs were "granted in part and continued in part" with the others (pp.2, 28). The analysis is built on Kalshi: the court found Kalshi is a designated contract market, that "its core sports-related contracts are 'swaps,'" and that "Much of Illinois law likely conflicts with the Commodity Exchange Act" (p.25). It says nothing specific about Crypto.com's contracts.

The opinion held back Illinois's fees for more argument, noting that most of them "have only been briefed in a significant capacity by the intervenor plaintiffs" (p.24).

On October 30 the court granted the motions, adopted the parties' proposed order (minute entry) and entered the preliminary injunction. Its operative paragraph covers four Illinois provisions: Article 25 of the Sports Wagering Act, the Criminal Code's 720 ILCS 5/28-1(a), 230 ILCS 10/18(a)(1) and the Board's rule at 11 Ill. Admin. Code 1900.1210(a). Every one of them is also cited in the Board's letter to Crypto.com.

Its reach is wider than sports. The bar runs "as related to the trading of swaps, including sports event contracts," listed on or available through exchanges and futures commission merchants the CFTC regulates. It covers licensing, fees, taxes, criminal or civil enforcement and subpoenas (p.2). It binds the defendants, who include the Board's administrator who signed the letter (joint status report, p.2). The paragraph names no company and does not say which contracts count as swaps.

The order is preliminary and was in force as entered. A joint status report proposing next steps is due November 12, 2026, and any appeal would go to the Seventh Circuit. We did not read the docket after the injunction, and court records online lag the court's own system, so we found no ruling on any appeal or stay.

Illinois added a transaction tax on "exchange wagers" in 2026, after the February argument (opinion p.3). As the parties quote it, subsection 25-90(d-20) charges 1.75% of each exchange wager for a licensee's first five million in a fiscal year and 3.5% after that (joint status report, p.3). The statute and its dates are on Kalshi in Illinois.

On October 8 every party, Illinois's officials and Crypto.com's exchange included, told the court those taxes "only apply to activities conducted by licensees" (p.2). The October 30 injunction lists taxes among what officials may not enforce as related to those swaps. We found no Board action assessing the tax against any Crypto.com company. It is a charge on an operator, not on a customer's gains.

Illinois. Its Board treats exchange wagering on sports as sports wagering that needs its license. In court, the state also argued that unregulated sports wagering is "particularly addictive and especially attractive to young people" (opinion p.27).

The United States and the CFTC. They sued Illinois, and the October 8 report records the parties' reading that the court's preemption ruling will keep Illinois from applying its licensing rules to "CFTC-registered entities like Coinbase, Kalshi, OG" (p.2). That is the parties' description.

Crypto.com. Its prediction page calls each contract "a derivatives product offered by Crypto.com | Derivatives North America (CDNA), a CFTC-regulated exchange." Its help page says "it is legal to trade Sports event contracts on a CFTC-regulated exchange like Crypto.com | Derivatives North America." Those are the company's statements, not findings.

We could not confirm it from a primary document. Crypto.com's Sports Event Trading help page, read November 4, 2026, says the feature "is currently available in the United States only" and names no state.

Neither the letter nor the injunction mentions balances, deposits, withdrawals or open positions, and no order we found restricts Illinois accounts. The other Illinois pages follow Kalshi, Coinbase and Robinhood, whose letter came the same day. Every other state is on the Crypto.com legal page.

The Board's letter and the injunction decide who may offer sports wagering in Illinois, and a state gambling ruling is not a ruling on federal income tax. How the common ways people file event contracts work, with no IRS guidance on them, is in the prediction market tax guide.