Taiwan court blocks Coinbase and Kalshi over suspected election betting

A New Taipei District Court on October 15 authorised Taiwan's communications regulator and internet registry to block domestic access to the websites of Coinbase Global Inc. and Kalshi Inc. over suspected illegal betting on Taiwanese local election outcomes. The order was sought by Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau under the Public Officials Election and Recall Act. Taipei Times, carrying a Bloomberg-sourced copy of the ruling, and Crypto Briefing both carried the story.

What the court ordered

• Issuing court: New Taipei District Court, authorising the National Communications Commission and the local internet registry (TWNIC) to bar domestic access.
• Platforms blocked: coinbase.com and kalshi.com. Visitors in Taiwan are redirected to a notice citing the court orders; Coinbase's mobile app was still reachable for some users at time of reporting.
• Legal basis: The Public Officials Election and Recall Act, which bans profiting from gambling on election or recall outcomes. A 2023 amendment set penalties of up to six months in prison for bettors and up to five years for operators.
• Betting markets implicated: Reportedly contracts tied to Taiwanese local races on Kalshi; Coinbase offers Kalshi-powered prediction markets to its US users.
• Timing: User access complaints began around October 14; the court-authorised block took effect on October 15. Nov. 28, 2026 is Taiwan's local election date — mayors, city councillors and village chiefs.

The Criminal Investigation Bureau told the court the sites were suspected of violating the election act and framed the move as protection against "overseas interference," without naming a foreign actor or alleging that Coinbase or Kalshi handled any such funds. Taiwanese authorities have warned that money from mainland China could enter the island through underground financial channels to influence electoral outcomes.

Coinbase and Kalshi had not commented at the time of the Taipei Times and Crypto Briefing reports. China's Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond either.

Precedent

• Polymarket, Kalshi's main rival, has already been blocked in Taiwan under the same law.
• The November 2024 US presidential cycle saw Kalshi win its CFTC fight over election contracts in a Washington, DC federal court, but foreign jurisdictions have not followed the US ruling.
• Several US states — Nevada (preliminary injunction against Coinbase's event contracts) and Washington (declared prediction markets "unauthorized activity") — have moved against Kalshi and Coinbase-powered prediction markets in 2026.
• Taiwan now joins the list, with the twist that it is both the first Asian jurisdiction to specifically block Coinbase's prediction-market front end, and the first to tie the block to a specific upcoming local vote (Nov. 28).

What to watch

1. Scope of the Coinbase block. The court's order names coinbase.com. Whether the Coinbase app, API endpoints and the broader on-chain Coinbase product set (Base, Coinbase Wallet) are included or only the website is the first clarification needed.
2. Kalshi's own entity exposure. Kalshi operates under CFTC-registered status in the US; it has no Taiwanese entity. The court order's enforcement reach is likely limited to DNS-level blocking, not actions against the companies themselves.
3. Platform-side response. Whether Coinbase geofences prediction-market offerings for Taiwanese IPs, or disables election contracts region-wide, is the operational signal.
4. Election day. (Nov. 28, 2026). The order's framing is specifically tied to the local-election window. Whether the blocks persist beyond that date, or are a time-limited measure, is open.

Context

Taiwan's move slots into a broader 2026 pattern: jurisdictions targeting prediction markets specifically where crypto rails make them harder to geofence. The US side of this story has run through CFTC-vs-Kalshi, Nevada and Washington state. The international side now has Taiwan and, earlier, Polymarket blocks across multiple countries. The pattern that matters for operators: an on-chain or quasi-on-chain prediction market faces local election law directly, regardless of its US CFTC posture.