Prediction market Kalshi has announced a major expansion of its market surveillance and enforcement structure, following recent scrutiny over insider trading allegations.
The changes announced Thursday morning include the formation of a surveillance advisory committee, a partnership with a trade surveillance company, and a new head of enforcement for the company.
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Some have questioned what protections traders have on prediction market giants such as Kalshi and Polymarket. Notably, recent accusations of insider trading following the capture of former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro came from Polymarket, which has its main exchange operating internationally. Kalshi is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Because Kalshi is federally regulated by the CFTC, it already bans market manipulation and insider trading, and has limits on the types of markets it is allowed to list. Also, it must conduct know-your-customer and anti-money laundering checks on users.
The new surveillance advisory committee will include Brian Nelson, former undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, and others, and will audit Kalshi’s surveillance and enforcement capabilities to come up with guidance that could be used across the prediction market industry.
“Solidus Labs provides trade surveillance technology to detect, investigate, and address market abuse,” the company said in a news release. “Kalshi will use its platform to augment its in-house systems to provide institutional-grade protection against sophisticated manipulation across its 4,000+ markets. Solidus’ work with Kalshi will be in collaboration with Daniel Taylor, director of Wharton Forensics Lab.”
Kalshi lawyer Robert DeNault will also be appointed head of enforcement at the company and will work with the advisory committee and company to better identify and respond to any instances of insider trading, according to Kalshi.
The changes at Kalshi come after Polymarket was in the spotlight when it appeared a bettor on the platform had foreknowledge of the Maduro raid. The user’s account was created in December 2025 and only bet on four Venezuela-related contracts, shelling out more than $30,000 and winning over $400,000.
In recent weeks, several high-profile instances of suspected insider dealing have raised complaints from officials and legislators, who say they are worried about traders getting ripped off — or even about prediction markets creating incentives for insiders to change the course of events. Now, the prospect of regulation or legislation looms for prediction markets.
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) recently introduced a bill that would specifically bar lawmakers, political appointees, executive branch employees, and congressional aides from trading prediction market contracts “tied to government policy, government action, or political outcomes when they possess material nonpublic information or could reasonably obtain such information through their official duties,” according to his office.
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Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour came out in support of the Torres legislation, drawing a distinction between his platform and other unregulated offshore platforms.
“Kalshi is supportive of the bill Ritchie Torres is looking to introduce to affirm the ban on insider trading on prediction markets,” Mansour said. “Why? Because we already implement it. However, it’s important to emphasize that this American bill only applies to regulated, American companies and not to unregulated, non-American companies, which is where the alleged issues are occurring.”
