Prediction market platform Kalshi has unveiled a broad set of market integrity measures designed to deter insider trading and manipulation across its rapidly growing platform.
The new rules, which took effect immediately, follow recommendations from an independent Surveillance Audit Committee and represent the most aggressive enforcement posture the company has adopted since launching in 2021.
Among the headline changes, Kalshi will now require certain users to disclose their employment details before placing trades on markets deemed to carry elevated insider risk.
“For markets with heightened insider or manipulation risk, we now collect employment information before traders can participate,” the company said in its announcement.
Markets tied to corporate performance, national security, and major geopolitical events are most likely to trigger the employment disclosure requirement for prospective traders.
Kalshi said it will not verify employment unless an investigation is warranted, though in some cases users may be blocked from trading specific contracts based on where they work.
The company cited a scenario involving a Google employee trading on a Google-related prediction market as an example, a situation that recently played out at rival platform Polymarket, where such a trader was charged with insider trading after allegedly using confidential Google search data to place $2.7 million in bets.
Every proposed market will now also receive a risk score before listing, weighing six factors including corporate KPI risk, outcome concentration, market importance, regulatory fit, non-traditional insider risk, and national security risk.
Markets carrying elevated manipulation risk could face tighter controls or be rejected from listing altogether under the new framework.
Kalshi also introduced whistleblower reporting tools that allow users to flag suspicious trading activity directly from individual markets, with tips routing to a surveillance team that monitors activity around the clock.
The company confirmed it has opened more than 150 investigations this year, blocked more than 100 potential insider trades using new screening tools, referred more than 20 cases to law enforcement, and taken five disciplinary actions.
Kalshi also fined and suspended three political candidates this year for trading on their own elections, conduct it described as “political insider trading.”
The measures come amid a wave of high-profile cases involving prediction markets, including the April arrest of U.S. Army soldier Gannon Ken Van Dyke, who was charged with using classified government information to profit from bets on a U.S. raid targeting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Polymarket, netting more than $400,000.
Reuters also reported last week that U.S. federal regulators are investigating whether former congressman George Santos engaged in potential insider trading on Kalshi itself.
The industry’s explosive growth has intensified scrutiny from regulators, with combined monthly trading volume on Kalshi and Polymarket reaching $24 billion in April, up from less than $5 billion last September, according to a Pew Research Center analysis.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has also released a proposed rule to determine whether certain prediction market contracts are illegal or against the public interest, targeting contracts related to terrorism, assassination, war, gaming, or conduct unlawful under federal or state law.
