The Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued Utah on Tuesday, Oct. 27, seeking to block the state from using its laws to regulate prediction-market company Kalshi. The federal agency argues that Kalshi is a federally regulated financial exchange and that Congress gave the CFTC exclusive authority over the markets it operates. Utah sued Kalshi the previous week, alleging the company was running an illegal gambling business in the state. Kalshi rejects that characterization. The CFTC’s case against Utah is its 10th lawsuit against a state seeking to curb prediction markets, but the first involving a state with a Republican governor. The dispute is part of a wider fight over whether these platforms should be treated as financial exchanges under federal oversight or as gambling businesses subject to state law. “Utah seeks to shut down prediction markets across a wide variety of markets,” CFTC Chair Michael Selig said in a statement. He said Congress had entrusted the commission with sole responsibility for overseeing the markets and that the agency would defend its jurisdiction. Kalshi spokesperson Jacki McGavick said the company “answers to federal law, and no single state should have a veto over it.” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Attorney General Derek Brown said the office had no comment while the case is ongoing. Cox has previously called the idea of CFTC oversight “a joke.” The conflict has spread across the country as states challenge prediction-market operators and the CFTC asserts federal authority. The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing a request from New Jersey officials to take up the broader dispute, which could clarify how much power states have over the platforms.