Experts warn Kalshi and Polymarket could enable insider trading in US midterms
Experts warned Monday that Kalshi and Polymarket could enable insider trading during the U.S. midterm elections as suspicious trades surged across both platforms. The concerns, raised ahead of the November contests, center on whether the two largest prediction market platforms have adequate safeguards against market manipulation by actors with nonpublic information. The warnings come as election wagering volumes have grown sharply, testing platform surveillance capacities during a cycle with thousands of simultaneous races. No specific enforcement actions or regulatory responses were detailed in the initial reports.
Polymarket and Kalshi must now prove their surveillance systems can detect and self-report insider trades by public officials in real time, or risk co-defendant exposure when DOJ-CFTC parallel actions land.
Joins a five-day cluster of intensifying compliance pressure on Kalshi and Polymarket that already includes Senate document demands, a charged Google engineer, and a DOJ insider-trading probe involving George Santos.