Kalshi announced a set of new anti-insider trading measures on Tuesday, requiring some users to disclose their employer, launching a 24/7 whistleblower portal, and introducing a risk-scoring framework that evaluates markets across six dimensions before listing. The moves come as Congress, federal regulators, and law enforcement have all trained their attention on a prediction market sector that now processes more than $20 billion in monthly volume globally.

The platform, which has processed $52 billion in cumulative event contracts as of March 2026, will require users trading on sensitive contracts to submit employer information through an online form. Verification is not triggered automatically but kicks in if an investigation is opened. Users whose employers are directly tied to a contract may be barred from trading it entirely. A Google employee, for example, could be blocked from markets related to Google. The whistleblower portal feeds into a dedicated surveillance team monitoring activity around the clock. Separately, Kalshi's new national security filter screens potential markets for national security risk before they go live.

"Prediction markets need to be safe spaces to trade. And Kalshi is committed to leading the industry on market integrity," said Robert DeNault, Kalshi's Head of Enforcement. On the national security screen specifically, DeNault explained that running a pre-listing assessment on the national security risk a market might present allows the platform to better prevent dangerous events from having a negative effect on its markets, or vice versa.

The disclosures arrive at a fraught moment for the industry. In April 2026, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed what it described as its first-ever insider trading complaint involving event contracts, charging U.S. Army Master Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke with using classified intelligence about Operation Absolute Resolve to trade on Polymarket (an offshore platform not registered with the CFTC and technically closed to U.S. persons) and netting more than $404,000 in profits. The Department of Justice filed parallel criminal charges. CFTC Enforcement Director David I. Miller characterized the case as both the first time the CFTC has charged insider trading involving event contracts and the first application of the so-called "Eddie Murphy Rule" to bring charges based on misuse of government information. CFTC Chairman Michael Selig has characterized the agency's stance as "zero tolerance." Kalshi itself has not been implicated in the Van Dyke case, but the incident accelerated regulatory pressure across the sector.

Kalshi's own Q1 2026 enforcement numbers offer a window into the scale of the problem the platform is already managing. The company blocked more than 100 potential insider trades, opened more than 150 investigations, referred more than 20 cases to law enforcement, and issued five disciplinary actions. It also fined and suspended three political candidates, Mark Moran, Matt Klein, and Ezekiel Enriquez, who had placed bets on their own campaigns in violation of Rule 5.17(z). More than 10 bills targeting prediction markets have been introduced in Congress since January 2026, including the bipartisan PREDICT Act. The Senate banned senators and staff from trading on prediction markets in May. A House Oversight Committee investigation, launched May 22 by Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), has sent document requests to both Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour and Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan. A CFTC proposed rulemaking on prediction market oversight is now under White House review.

Not everyone agrees that tighter controls on informed trading are straightforwardly positive. Economist Robin Hanson, whose theoretical work on prediction markets has been widely influential, has argued that restricting insiders undermines the core purpose of the instrument. "You want them trading. You want the most accurate prices. That's pretty clear. The purpose of the market is to inform decisions," Hanson told Fortune in April.

For users outside the United States, the picture is more complicated. Kalshi operates in 143 countries and is restricted in 52. India presents the sharpest case. Both Kalshi and Polymarket continue to onboard Indian users despite an explicit federal ban under rules that took effect May 1, 2026, and direct warnings from India's technology ministry. Local competitor Probo shut down under the same regulation. A single IPL cricket match on May 7 generated more than $27 million in volume on these platforms, approaching nearly half the volume of U.S. Major League Baseball on the same platforms. Brazil has moved further, imposing a nationwide telecom block on both platforms. Analysts note that Kalshi's new employment disclosure system is unlikely to resolve the India situation, since the core dispute there is about platform legality rather than insider trading controls, though the compliance infrastructure may strengthen Kalshi's hand in future licensing discussions as India and other markets develop formal frameworks for digital assets and event contracts.

Kalshi's compliance push carries its own complications in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the platform has a significant and growing user base. The region received $205 billion in on-chain value between July 2024 and June 2025, a 52 percent year-over-year surge. Nigeria alone accounts for $92 billion of that received value and $2.4 billion in monthly peer-to-peer volumes. Africa also leads the world in stablecoin ownership, with 79 percent of crypto-active users holding stablecoins. The new employment disclosure requirement could create direct friction in this environment: large portions of the workforce operate in the informal economy, formal employer registries are limited, and a disclosure system designed around conventional employment structures may disadvantage precisely the users the platform has gained in the region.

With the CFTC's proposed rulemaking under White House review and institutional capital now flowing into the sector (Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, committed up to $2 billion to Polymarket at an $8 billion valuation in October 2025), the window for self-regulation may be narrowing. Kalshi appears to be betting that moving early and visibly on compliance gives it a durable advantage, particularly in markets where regulators are still deciding whether to license or ban prediction trading entirely.