Taiwan blocks Kalshi and Coinbase from domestic access six weeks before vote

Taiwan ordered domestic access to the prediction-market platform Kalshi and the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase to be blocked under a court order issued on 16 October 2026. The New Taipei District Court authorised the communications regulator and the internet registry to prevent access from Taiwan after a request from the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the National Police Agency, which said the sites posed a risk of violating the Public Officials Election and Recall Act ahead of the local elections on 28 November.

The blocking order and the court writ

The blocking was reported by Bloomberg and picked up by the Taipei Times on 16 October. Some Taiwanese users began reporting access problems to Coinbase from Wednesday 14 October; the crypto outlet BlockTempo verified on 14 October that coinbase.com redirected to a blocking page citing criminal writ No. 55 of 2026 in the court seizure record (115 Sheng-Kou No. 55). BlockTempo confirmed the main domain was blocked but noted insufficient public information to determine whether the app, the API or subdomains were affected. For more on the legal framing see [news](/news).

The CIB told Bloomberg the sites were "suspected of violating" the Public Officials Election and Recall Act and that it had requested restrictions to protect electoral integrity and prevent "overseas interference." The authority had not brought public charges against Kalshi or Coinbase at the time of the block; a blocking order is not a determination of guilt.

"The sites are suspected of violating the Public Officials Election and Recall Act," the Criminal Investigation Bureau told Bloomberg, adding it acted to protect the integrity of the election and to prevent "overseas interference."

The legal framework invoked

Article 103-1 of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act, incorporated in the amendment promulgated on 9 June 2023, punishes anyone who bets money or goods on an election result via telecommunications or the internet with up to six months' imprisonment, short-term detention, or a fine of up to NT$100,000 (approx. $3,100). Anyone who, for profit, provides a venue for such bets or gathers people to bet on electoral results faces up to five years imprisonment and an optional fine of up to NT$500,000 (approx. $15,400). The CIB's request was based on this article.

What the platforms showed and Kalshi and Coinbase’s responses

Kalshi told Bloomberg it does not permit trading from Taiwan and that its user agreement names Taiwan among the 55 "Restricted Jurisdictions", where residents cannot trade event contracts. Nevertheless, Kalshi's public market data on 19 October showed markets open on the 2026 local elections: who will win the mayoralties of Taipei, New Taipei and Kaohsiung, and which party will win the most mayoralties and magistracies.

On the Taipei market, Kalshi recorded roughly 266,000 contracts traded among six candidates. Kalshi also listed a market for the 2028 presidential election that names the Central Election Commission of Taiwan as the settlement source. Coinbase told Bloomberg it was aware that some users in Taiwan were experiencing access issues and was investigating the incident; reports did not establish that Coinbase managed funds related to mainland China.

Polymarket was already blocked in Taiwan before this order; BlockTempo cited a blocking page seen in May that mentioned a ruling from the Miaoli District Court under the same act. In April, the Miaoli District Prosecutors Office reported detecting a bettor surnamed Huang who had wagered cryptocurrency on a Polymarket market about which party would win the most mayoralties and referred the case under article 103-1, according to the Central News Agency.

Why authorities focused on public listings rather than just traders

The CIB's request aimed to limit access to the public listings more than to prosecute individual traders at this stage. Criminal law penalises the provision of the "venue" or the "platform" for electoral betting for profit; a public market accessible from Taiwan fits the definition of such a "venue" in the reading prosecutors applied. The argument is that distributing electoral contracts is equivalent to sharing the legal exposure those contracts create in the jurisdiction that receives them.

The Czech Ministry of Finance already included kalshi.com in its list of unlicensed gambling sites using a similar logic. In the United States, Coinbase previously folded and suspended Michigan sports contracts under state pressure, illustrating that a distributor can inherit the regulatory exposure of the product provider.

Electoral context and operational reach

The Central Election Commission announced on 20 August that voting on 28 November will cover 11,051 local posts. The blocking measure came exactly six weeks before that day. Authorities have also publicly expressed concern that funds from mainland China could be used to influence elections, although Bloomberg reported no allegations of direct links between Coinbase or Kalshi and funds originating in mainland China.

A DNS block is technically evadable with tools such as VPNs, and Taiwan has combined platform actions with procedures targeting users: South Korea pursued Polymarket bettors and the Czech Republic blocked Kalshi. In Taiwan, investigations and court rulings have prioritised the electoral-integrity and foreign-interference risk argument over gambling regulation or consumer-protection issues. For regulatory context see [regulation](/regulation).

What remains open

No formal charges have been reported against Kalshi or Coinbase in relation to this block. The CIB said the action sought to protect the integrity of the electoral process; the criminal court issued the writ authorising the communications regulator and the internet registry to execute the block. Kalshi's restricted-jurisdiction clause limits on-paper trading but does not prevent the publication of markets or the possibility that users can access without trading, which, prosecutors and judges say, reduces the effectiveness of the mere contractual clause to avoid the legal exposure that public markets generate.

The block shows that, for platforms listing international electoral markets, every foreign election can carry the same type of regulatory and criminal response from local authorities.