Kalshi said on Monday it will institute automated trading restrictions designed to stop certain insiders from wagering on markets where they have a direct connection. The prediction markets platform said the new systems will preemptively block political candidates from placing trades on their own campaigns and will also bar people involved in college and professional sports - including athletes, team personnel and referees - from betting on markets associated with their sports.
The company made the announcement as scrutiny mounts over whether prediction markets could be used for manipulative or insider-driven trading. Kalshi has attracted sharp criticism from Democrats on Capitol Hill and other skeptics who argue prediction markets - platforms where users place wagers on outcomes spanning sports, entertainment, politics and economic events - present clear opportunities for manipulation.
That scrutiny intensified after Kalshi came under fire for markets that allowed wagers on the ouster of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. That episode prompted Democratic lawmakers to call for bans on wagers tied to military actions that might generate profits for officials with privileged information.
Prediction markets have grown in prominence since the 2024 U.S. Presidential election, a period when their real-time probability estimates outperformed polling in forecasting Donald Trump's victory, according to observers. Separately, earlier this month the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission began soliciting public comment ahead of a regulatory proposal it said would define government oversight of event contracts and prediction markets.
Kalshi is also pursuing private capital. The firm has reportedly been valued at $22 billion in an ongoing financing round in which it is seeking $1 billion of new funding.
Contextual note on investor tools included in the original report: The original article included a promotional passage about investor research services and AI tools that aim to combine institutional data with analysis to identify investment opportunities for 2026. That passage described such tools as providing data and AI-powered insights to assist investors in finding potential opportunities.