The prediction platform company Kalshi has announced a series of measures to prevent insider trading following allegations of market manipulation on its platform and rival websites, including requiring some users to disclose their employment information.
Kalshi, which allows users to wager on future events from sports, elections, to war, said on Tuesday that it has begun collecting employment information for markets assessed as high risk for manipulation in order to screen users with non-public knowledge.
The New York-based company said its new “market integrity measures” also include a scoring system to determine the risk level of different markets and a dedicated 24/7 channel for receiving whistleblower reports.
Kalshi said it implemented these measures based on the findings of the Independent Oversight Audit Committee, established in February.
“By rolling out these new integrity measures, we continue to lead the industry on market integrity among federally regulated prediction markets,” said Robert DeNault, head of enforcement at Kalshi, in a statement.
The announcement follows a series of high-profile cases of alleged insider trading on Kalshi and its cryptocurrency-based rival Polymarket.
The U.S. Department of Justice in April charged a U.S. special forces soldier with betting on the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Polymarket before the operation was launched.
A month later, U.S. prosecutors charged a software engineer at Google for exploiting access to company information to place trades on Polymarket regarding search engine outcomes.
Kalshi announced in April that it had penalized three U.S. political candidates with fines and account suspensions for betting on their own campaigns.
Kalshi also referred former Republican Congressman George Santos to U.S. authorities after he placed bets on his attendance of 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 centered around betting on future outcomes since their respective launches in 2021 and 2020.
Combined monthly trading volumes on the platforms reached $24 billion in April, up from under $5 billion in September last year, according to an analysis from the Pew Research Center using data from The Block, a cryptocurrency intelligence firm.
Kalshi also released data on enforcement efforts in the first three months of the year, stating it conducted over 150 investigations, blocked more than 100 potential insider trading cases, and referred over 20 cases to law enforcement agencies.
