Prediction platform Kalshi to collect job details to combat insider trading

Prediction market company Kalshi has announced a series of measures to prevent insider trading following allegations of market manipulation on the platform and rival sites, including a requirement that some users disclose their employment details.

Kalshi, which allows users to bet on future events ranging from sports fixtures to elections and wars, said on Tuesday that it had started collecting job information for markets deemed to be at heightened risk of manipulation to screen out users with non-public knowledge.

Kalshi said its new “market integrity measures” also included a scoring system to determine the risk levels of different markets and a dedicated 24/7 channel for receiving whistleblower reports.

The New York-based firm said it implemented the measures in response to the findings of its Independent Surveillance Audit Committee, launched in February.

“By implementing these new integrity measures, we continue to lead the industry on the issue of market integrity amongst federally regulated prediction markets,” Robert DeNault, Kalshi’s head of enforcement, said in a statement.

The announcement comes after a string of high-profile cases of alleged insider trading on Kalshi and its cryptocurrency-based rival Polymarket.

The United States Department of Justice in April charged a US special forces soldier with betting on the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Polymarket before the operation was carried out.

US prosecutors charged a software engineer at Google the following month with exploiting his access to company information to make trades on Polymarket about search engine results.

Kalshi announced in April that it had sanctioned three US political candidates with fines and account suspensions for betting on their own campaigns.

Kalshi also referred former Republican Congressman George Santos to US authorities after he placed wagers on the likelihood that he would attend US President Donald Trump’s State of the Union Address in February, according to multiple news reports.

Kalshi and Polymarket have rapidly built multibillion-dollar businesses around betting on future outcomes since going live in 2021 and 2020, respectively.

The combined monthly volume of trading on the platforms reached $24bn in April, up from less than $5bn last September, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from The Block, a cryptocurrency intelligence firm.

Kalshi also disclosed data on Tuesday on its enforcement efforts during the first three months of the year, saying that it launched more than 150 investigations, blocked more than 100 potential cases of insider trading, and made more than 20 referrals to law enforcement.