Kalshi and Polymarket both announced on Monday new measures that the companies said are aimed at curbing the potential of insider trading on event contracts.
Following an initial report from Axios, Kalshi confirmed that it is moving to implement “new technological guardrails” to block athletes and politicians from trading on sports and politics markets that relate to their own activities.
Meanwhile, Polymarket said it has updated its market integrity rules across both its global platform and its Commodity Futures Trading Commission-regulated U.S. exchange.
Kalshi cites long-term work with IC360
Kalshi said in a press release on March 23 that it has introduced what it calls “preemptive sports screening”, intended to preemptively ban any individual involved in college or professional sports (including athletes, team personnel and referees) from trading on markets “associated with sports they are involved in.”
The company stated that such trades have always been banned, “but in the past, we needed to investigate after trades were placed.” Now it says it has the technological capabilities to be more proactive rather than reactive.
Kalshi said that the new policies are a result of its existing partnership with Integrity Compliance 360 (IC360), the monitoring and compliance technology firm that works with a range of state-regulated sports betting platforms, gaming regulators and sports leagues to limit wagering and identify suspicious betting patterns. Kalshi announced almost exactly one year ago, in March 2025, that it had begun working with IC360.
“After months of collecting and developing screening lists for both collegiate and professional sports leagues, and in partnership with our partners at IC360, known athletes, officials, and employees will be blocked from trading in associated markets,” said the company’s release.
The company did not confirm exactly what constitutes an “associated” market in these instances. Many sports leagues have explicit bans on players and other team and league staff wagering on any games involving that respective league.
Political insider trading also in the spotlight
Meanwhile, Kalshi has also introduced “preemptive politician screening” that will attempt to block political candidates from trading on their own campaigns. It stressed that while it already blocked elected officials from doing so, that ban will now extend to candidates.
That change comes after Kalshi reported in February that it had banned former California gubernatorial candidate Kyle Langford after he was found to have publicly posted about trading on his own candidacy. Langford posted on X about the trading activity back in May 2025. Kalshi referenced that incident, without naming Langford, in Monday’s post about its new political trading rules.
Kalshi stated that its revised sports and politics trading policies are an attempt to proactively address both the new CFTC guidance for event contracts and the various Congressional legislative proposals aimed at preventing insider trading.
The numerous pieces of federal legislation targeting prediction markets include, but are not limited to:
- New York Rep. Ritchie Torres’s Public Integrity in Financial Prediction Markets Act, which aims to prevent elected officials, political appointees, and executive branch employees from trading event contracts related to government policy or action
- Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Jeff Merkley’s End Prediction Market Corruption Act, which would prohibit U.S. Presidents, Vice Presidents, members of Congress, and other public officials from using their access to insider information to trade on prediction markets
- The BETS OFF Act, filed last week, which proposes prohibiting prediction markets from offering event contracts on government actions, terrorism, assassinations and wars.
- The brand-new Prediction Markets Are Gambling Act, which intends to ban prediction markets from offering sports event contracts or contracts that resemble “casino-style games”, similar to Rep. Dina Titus’s Fair Markets and Sports Integrity Act
“All markets have bad actors, and we believe that staying ahead of bad actors means developing new technology and policies,” said Kalshi. “We are committed to banning people who try to cheat.” The company also said it is adding a whistleblower functionality with the intent of making it easier for users and observers to flag potential violations.
Polymarket announces three new rules
On the same day as Kalshi’s announcement, Polymarket stated publicly that it has introduced new rules designed to clamp down on insider trading that will apply to both its global blockchain-based platform and its CFTC-regulated U.S. exchange.
The rules list three categories of prohibited insider trading:
- Trading on stolen confidential information, wherein users may possess confidential information about the likely outcome of the traded event
- Trading on illegal tips, wherein a person may have been provided with confidential information passed to them by someone whom they have reason to know would be prohibited from trading on it themselves
- Trading by those who can influence the outcome, wherein a person has “a position of authority or influence” sufficient to affect the outcome of the traded event
Polymarket has come under scrutiny for suspicions of insider trading, mostly on its global platform. In one particularly high-profile incident, a user made more than $400,000 trading on whether Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro would be ousted, just hours before it was announced he had been captured by U.S. forces. Trading on the Iran war has also raised suspicions of insider activity.
