Kalshi CEO on NY’s Lawsuit, A Yen-tervention, Water Cyberattacks 8/3/26

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**SPEAKER_1** (0:58)
Bring in show music, please.

**Cameron Costa** (1:02)
This is Squawk Pod, and I'm CNBC producer Cameron Costa. On today's episode, New York has sued Kalshi, alleging that the platform is quintessentially gambling, and it's seeking to avoid the financial consequences of doing so. Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour responds.

**Tarek Mansour** (1:19)
They like those talking points. They like to be able to say that prediction markets are not paying taxes. But I'm here, I'm telling you, I'm right here on Squawk.
There's a reasonable taxation that you want to impose on prediction markets. Let's have a conversation.

**Cameron Costa** (1:29)
What's at stake for the prediction market?

**Becky Quick** (1:32)
The AG's office is saying that's about $36 billion.

**Tarek Mansour** (1:35)
I mean, this is a fun headline. I mean, we're not too worried about having to pay $36 billion.

**Cameron Costa** (1:41)
Then Iran could be behind cyber attacks on water systems in seven states. Head of Cybersecurity at the Chertoff Group, Adam Isles.

**Andrew Ross Sorkin** (1:51)
It's a combination of an easier target and a motivated adversary.

**Cameron Costa** (1:55)
The newest tools in an age-old strategy.

**Andrew Ross Sorkin** (1:59)
The technology that enables the bad guys is getting better and more advanced, and we've got some catch-up work to do on the good guy side.

**Cameron Costa** (2:06)
Plus, the rest of today's news, an intervention in the Japanese yen, a possible blockbuster farmer deal, and speaking of blockbusters, a surprising summer box office.

**Joe Kernen** (2:17)
You know what killed me?

**Andrew Ross Sorkin** (2:18)
What killed you?

**SPEAKER_1** (2:18)
The dog.

**Andrew Ross Sorkin** (2:19)
Don't tell everybody the story.

**Cameron Costa** (2:21)
The Odyssey earning millions, but we swear, no spoilers.

**Joe Kernen** (2:25)
It's only been out there for 4,000 years.

**Cameron Costa** (2:29)
It's Monday, August 3rd, 2026, and Squawk Pod begins right now.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:35)
Stand Becky by in 3, 2, 1, cue it, please.

**Becky Quick** (2:40)
Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Squawk Box right here on CNBC. We are live from the NASDAQ market site in Times Square. I'm Becky Quick, along with Joe Kernen and Andrew Ross Sorkin. And here we go on this Monday morning.

**Andrew Ross Sorkin** (2:52)
The US announced that it has now intervened to prop up the Japanese yen alongside Japan's finance ministry. Speaking with reporters on Air Force One yesterday, President Trump confirming that the US took that action on Friday. It was the government's first foreign currency intervention in years.

**SPEAKER_9** (3:08)
We have a good relationship with Japan. We're very strong, very, very strong financially.
They are, you know, they have a weakening yen and they wanted a little bit of help and we're always there for Japan. Japan's been very good to us.

**Andrew Ross Sorkin** (3:24)
Treasury Secretary Scott Besson also confirming the intervention, saying the US won't hesitate to act again in coordination with Japanese financial authorities. The size of the intervention wasn't clear. Reuters photo of Besson's notepad, which is really called the photo of the day or photo of the week, had physically on a notepad on Friday's cabinet meeting saying to do by Japanese yen, five to ten billion dollars. Some speculation that number may be higher.
The other question, of course, is whether we're going to have to do this again.
It's hard to imagine, given actually some of the trials and tribulations of Japan's economy, that we might not have to do this again. And then the cost... According to your lows. And then the question that I'm always thinking about in terms of the calculus, when we bail out our foreign partners, how do US taxpayers think about that? Is it a cheap bailout effectively of ourselves? Because what's really happening, I think, is you say to yourself, if you're Scott Besson, if we don't do this, and the yen falls further, they're going to sell treasuries. That, in turn, is going to increase the price of interest rates. That's what I was saying when we were talking about the 10-year. That's the important part of the story. And you might say, if that goes up on a much more material basis, that's actually a much more expensive cost to the American public.