Taiwan has blocked domestic access to the websites of Coinbase and Kalshi over suspected election betting, according to Bloomberg News in a report published on October 15, 2026 and cited by crypto.news on October 16, 2026 and AMBCrypto on October 15, 2026. Bloomberg said it reviewed a New Taipei court ruling authorizing the restrictions, which land six weeks before Taiwan holds local elections on November 28, 2026, according to crypto.news.
The order followed a request from Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau, which said the platforms were suspected of violating the Public Officials Election and Recall Act, according to crypto.news. The court authorized Taiwan's communications regulator and its internet registry to restrict access to both websites, AMBCrypto reported, making this a network level block rather than an app store removal or a venue's own geofence.
The first signs came before the ruling was reported. Some Coinbase users in Taiwan reported losing access to the website on October 14, 2026, according to AMBCrypto, and Coinbase confirmed it was aware of the problem and investigating, without giving a timetable for restoring access, according to crypto.news. Kalshi said separately that its trading services are not available to customers in Taiwan, crypto.news reported, and neither report said authorities had announced criminal charges against either company.
The law behind the request is specific to elections. Article 103-1 of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act covers wagers placed over the internet and other electronic communications on election and recall results, according to AMBCrypto, which cited the text published by Taiwan's Ministry of Justice. Amendments adopted in June 2023 set penalties of up to six months in prison for people placing prohibited election wagers and up to five years for operators running election gambling for profit, according to crypto.news, with fines of up to NT$100,000 for wagers and up to NT$500,000 for operators.
The bureau said it sought the restrictions to protect election integrity and prevent overseas interference, according to crypto.news. The bureau did not publicly identify specific transactions on either platform, and AMBCrypto reported it provided no evidence that Coinbase or Kalshi handled funds from China. Taiwan has acted against election markets before: Polymarket was previously blocked in the jurisdiction over election gambling concerns, according to crypto.news, and in April 2026 the Taoyuan District Prosecutors Office said it was investigating public use of cryptocurrency to wager on Taiwanese local election outcomes on Polymarket, according to AMBCrypto.
Coinbase is in the order because of its distribution deal with Kalshi, not because it runs its own election exchange. Coinbase expanded Kalshi powered prediction markets across all 50 United States states in January 2026, covering contracts on economic data, sports and other events, according to crypto.news. That United States rollout does not establish that the same contracts were offered in Taiwan, crypto.news noted. The November 28 vote will choose mayors, city councilors and village chiefs, and it is the first island wide electoral test since President Lai Ching-te took office in May 2024, according to crypto.news.
Analysis: the striking fact is that Kalshi says it already did not serve Taiwan, yet Taiwan blocked the website anyway. That is a regulator choosing a network block it controls over a venue's own geographic controls, the same enforcement logic as the Norway DNS block this site covered on October 12, 2026, and it extends the risk to distribution partners: Coinbase lost its whole Taiwan website, not just a prediction market page, because the underlying contracts sit inside its main product. What to watch is whether the bureau ever discloses the specific activity that triggered the request, whether access is restored after the November 28 vote, and whether other jurisdictions with election gambling bans adopt the same network block during their own election windows. Until the bureau publishes its evidence, the core claim in this story remains reported, not adjudicated: no court has found that either company broke Taiwanese law.