Taiwan Blocks Kalshi and Coinbase Over Suspected Election Betting Six Weeks Before Local Polls

A New Taipei court order sought by the Criminal Investigation Bureau has taken both platforms' websites offline in Taiwan ahead of the 28 November local elections. Kalshi says it does not allow trading there, but its own market data shows open contracts on Taipei's, New Taipei's and Kaohsiung's mayoral races.

• The New Taipei District Court has authorised Taiwan's communications regulator and internet registry to block domestic access to Kalshi and Coinbase, according to the ruling as reported by Bloomberg and carried by the Taipei Times; Coinbase's website has been unreachable in Taiwan since 14 October
• The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB), which sought the order, said the sites are suspected of breaching the Public Officials Election and Recall Act and that it acted to protect election integrity and prevent "overseas interference"
• Article 103-1 of the act, added in 2023, sets a sentence of up to six months for betting on an election result, including online, and up to five years for running such betting for profit
• Kalshi told Bloomberg it does not allow trading in Taiwan and its member agreement lists Taiwan as a restricted jurisdiction, yet its public market data shows open markets on the 28 November mayoral races in Taipei, New Taipei and Kaohsiung
• Polymarket is already blocked in Taiwan, and the move follows South Korea's pursuit of Polymarket traders and Czechia's block on Kalshi

A Criminal Court Order Takes Two US Platforms Offline in Taiwan

Taiwan has blocked domestic access to the websites of the prediction market Kalshi and the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase under an order of the New Taipei District Court, granted at the request of the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the National Police Agency. The ruling authorises the communications regulator and the internet registry to bar access from Taiwan, according to Bloomberg News, which saw it; the Taipei Times carried Bloomberg's report on 16 October. Some Coinbase users in Taiwan reported being unable to reach the site from Wednesday 14 October.

The Taiwanese crypto outlet BlockTempo tested the block on 14 October and found that coinbase.com redirected to a block page. The page states that the domain is suspected of breaching the Public Officials Election and Recall Act and was blocked on the order of the New Taipei District Court under criminal ruling No. 55 of 2026 in the court's seizure docket (115 Sheng-Kou No. 55). BlockTempo confirmed the block on the main domain, and said there was not enough public information to say whether the Coinbase app, its API or other subdomains were affected.

The CIB told Bloomberg that the websites were suspected of violating the election act and that it had requested the restrictions to protect election integrity and prevent "overseas interference", without giving further details. Authorities have separately warned that money from mainland China could be used to influence elections, Bloomberg reported, but have not alleged that Coinbase or Kalshi handled funds from China. No charge against either company has been reported, and a blocking order is not a finding that either broke Taiwanese law.

Article 103-1 of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act, according to the Ministry of Justice's laws and regulations database, punishes anyone who bets money or property on the result of an election or recall, including through telecommunications or the internet, with up to six months in prison, short-term detention or a fine of up to NT$100,000 (approximately $3,100). Anyone who, for profit, provides a venue for such betting or gathers people to gamble on an election result faces up to five years, with an optional fine of up to NT$500,000 (approximately $15,400). The article was added in the amendment promulgated on 9 June 2023.

Kalshi Bars Taiwanese Traders on Paper and Lists Taiwan's Races

Kalshi told Bloomberg that it does not allow trading in Taiwan, while Coinbase said it was aware that some users in Taiwan had access problems and was investigating, according to Bloomberg's updated report as relayed by Inside Asian Gaming and Bitcoin.com News.

Kalshi's member agreement does name Taiwan among its 55 "Restricted Jurisdictions", whose residents may not trade event contracts. The same clause says the restriction applies "solely to the trading of Event Contracts" and does not, in itself, prohibit membership on the platform or non-trading access to it, and that Kalshi keeps the discretion to admit members in a restricted jurisdiction on conditions it sets.

Kalshi's public market data on 19 October showed open markets on Taiwan's 2026 local elections: who will win the Taipei, New Taipei and Kaohsiung mayoralties, and which party will win the most mayoral and magistrate races. About 266,000 contracts had traded in the Taipei market across its six candidates. Kalshi also lists the 2028 presidential election, a market that names Taiwan's Central Election Commission as its settlement source. BlockTempo noted that Coinbase's Kalshi-powered predictions product displays that presidential market, while describing any link between it and the block as speculation.

Polymarket has also been blocked in Taiwan. BlockTempo reported that a block page seen in May cited a ruling of the Miaoli District Court under the same act. In April the Miaoli District Prosecutors Office said it had caught a bettor surnamed Huang who staked cryptocurrency on Polymarket's market on which party would win the most county and city mayoralties, and referred him under Article 103-1, according to the Central News Agency (CNA). Prosecutors called election betting a tool for outside forces to interfere in elections. The Central Election Commission announced on 20 August that the 28 November vote will fill 11,051 local offices, CNA reported.

A Restricted-Jurisdiction Clause Is Not a Geofence

Kalshi's defence is that Taiwanese residents cannot trade, and its member agreement supports that. But the CIB has not targeted traders; it has targeted the listing. Taiwan's law punishes providing a venue for election betting for profit, and a public market on the Taipei mayoralty, reachable from Taipei, is the obvious candidate for what investigators treated as that venue, although the CIB has not said so. The member agreement itself leaves membership and non-trading access open in restricted jurisdictions, so the clause does less to keep Taiwan out than Kalshi's statement suggests. The Czech Ministry of Finance listed kalshi.com as unlicensed gambling on the same logic, without asking who was trading. For an exchange that lists elections around the world, every foreign race invites the same response.

Distributing Kalshi's Contracts Means Sharing Kalshi's Exposure

Coinbase is a crypto exchange first, and its whole domain has gone dark in Taiwan. The most visible link between Coinbase and Taiwan's elections is the Kalshi-powered predictions product, although neither the CIB nor the court has said that is the reason. If it is, that is the cost of carrying another venue's contracts: the distributor inherits the jurisdictional exposure of every market it displays, and a DNS block cannot remove one product from a website. The same exposure has surfaced in the United States, where Coinbase agreed to stop Michigan sports contracts under state pressure. Whether the app still works, which BlockTempo could not establish, will decide how much the block costs Coinbase in Taiwan.

Election Integrity, Not Gambling Policy, Is Driving the Block

The CIB framed its request around election integrity and foreign interference, not consumer protection or licensing, and Miaoli's prosecutors used the same language in April. Brazil's Attorney General is weighing action against Polymarket's election markets on similar grounds. That framing gives the authorities a criminal statute and a security rationale, and it is a criminal court, not a gambling regulator, that issued the order. A DNS block is easy to evade with a VPN, and Taiwan, like South Korea, has also gone after individual bettors. Election contracts are among the prediction market industry's most prominent products, and in Taiwan they are the ones carrying criminal exposure.

Taiwan has used a criminal court order to take two US platforms offline six weeks before a nationwide vote. Kalshi's restricted-jurisdiction clause did not keep it out of that order, and its Taipei market was still open on 19 October.