Kalshi Blocks 100+ Potential Insider Trades As New Safeguards Roll Out

Kalshi is rolling out a new market-integrity package after blocking more than 100 potential insider trades, opening more than 150 investigations and referring more than 20 cases to law enforcement this year.

The federally regulated prediction market also reported five disciplinary actions, adding new pressure to a sector already facing scrutiny over whether event contracts can be protected from users with nonpublic information.

The update introduces three main safeguards: risk scoring for markets, employment verification for higher-risk contracts and expanded whistleblower tools. The risk-scoring framework evaluates whether a market could be exposed to insider trading, manipulation, national security concerns, corporate nonpublic information, outcome concentration or regulatory risk.

Employment checks will apply to selected markets with heightened insider or manipulation risk. Traders may need to provide employer, industry and job-function details before participating, giving Kalshi a way to screen out users who may have material nonpublic information before a trade is placed.

Prediction Markets Face A Trust Test

The new controls arrive after prediction markets became a bigger part of crypto and macro trading culture. Traders now use event contracts to price elections, legislation, sports, economic data, company outcomes and crypto policy odds. That growth creates a sharper market-integrity problem because some contracts can depend on decisions or information known to a small group before the public.

The issue has already reached Washington. House Oversight opened a probe into Kalshi and Polymarket over identity checks, suspicious trading detection, geographic restrictions and safeguards against users exploiting nonpublic information.

The CFTC’s prediction markets advisory also put enforcement focus on the misuse of nonpublic information in event contracts. That gives Kalshi’s latest safeguards more weight because prediction markets are trying to prove they can scale without becoming insider-information trading venues.

Whistleblower Tools Expand Market Surveillance

Kalshi is also adding reporting tools directly on market pages, letting users flag suspicious activity from the same place they watch public order books. A dedicated surveillance team will review submissions and monitor trading activity around the clock.

That design turns public market data into part of the enforcement layer. Prediction markets already expose prices, order books and volume in real time. If unusual trades appear before a private decision, product announcement, military action, company event or political outcome becomes public, users can now send tips directly into the platform’s surveillance workflow.

The broader challenge is still difficult. Insider trading in prediction markets can look different from insider trading in stocks because the relevant nonpublic information may come from campaigns, companies, agencies, sports teams, content studios or people close to a decision-maker. Some users may not fit traditional financial-market insider categories, but they can still have unfair information about a contract’s outcome.

Compliance Becomes Part Of Kalshi’s Growth Story

The new safeguards come as Kalshi expands beyond political and macro event contracts into crypto-linked products. The exchange recently launched LINK perpetual futures and has been gaining attention as regulated prediction and derivatives markets move closer to mainstream trading infrastructure.

That growth raises the cost of weak enforcement. Larger volume, broader market coverage and more sensitive contracts make surveillance, KYC, employment screening and whistleblower handling core infrastructure rather than optional compliance features.

Kalshi’s next test is whether the new controls reduce suspicious trading without making legitimate participation too slow or invasive. The platform now has a clearer enforcement stack: risk scores before listing, employment checks before trading, user reports during market activity and law-enforcement referrals when suspicious cases cross the line.