Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour has publicly endorsed new legislation from U.S. Representative Ritchie Torres that seeks to explicitly ban insider trading on prediction market platforms. The proposed Public Integrity in Financial Prediction Markets Act of 2026 would prohibit federal elected officials, political appointees, and executive branch employees from placing bets on markets tied to government policy, government action, or political outcomes.
The legislative push follows a high-profile incident on the decentralized prediction platform Polymarket, where a single account reportedly profited $400,000 by betting that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro would be removed from office by the end of January. The bet paid out after Maduro was captured, reigniting debates about the potential for misuse of non-public government information on such platforms.
In a LinkedIn post, Mansour stated Kalshi's support for the bill, arguing it affirms practices the company already has in place. "Kalshi is supportive of the bill Ritchie Torres is looking to introduce to affirm the ban on insider trading on prediction markets," Mansour wrote. "Why? Because we already implemented it." He emphasized that Kalshi, as a federally regulated U.S. exchange, applies insider trading standards similar to those of the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, barring users who possess material, non-public information.
Mansour used the opportunity to draw a sharp distinction between regulated U.S. platforms like Kalshi and offshore, unregulated operators like Polymarket, where the alleged insider trading concerns have surfaced. "This should be obvious, but some recent reporting has been conflating regulated prediction markets with unregulated, offshore prediction markets," he noted, adding that the proposed bill would only apply to regulated American companies.
The debate unfolds as prediction markets experience record growth. In December 2025, Kalshi reported a monthly trading volume of $6.26 billion, while Polymarket reached $2.28 billion. Since March 2025, Kalshi has steadily extended its lead as the largest prediction market exchange by volume. The sector's expansion has attracted new entrants, including Crypto.com, Gemini, and DraftKings, increasing both competition and regulatory scrutiny.
Torres' bill reflects a broader shift among lawmakers to treat prediction markets more as financial instruments requiring oversight for conflicts of interest and public trust, rather than as novelty products.
