Prediction market platform Kalshi announced enhanced surveillance measures days before the Super Bowl. The firm formed an independent advisory committee and partnered with Solidus Labs and Wharton’s Daniel Taylor to detect insider trading and market manipulation. The move comes amid increasing regulatory scrutiny of prediction markets and as the platform seeks approval to offer margin trading.
Kalshi is expanding surveillance on its prediction markets platform through an independent advisory committee and new partnerships. The company stated the committee will give quarterly reports to outside counsel and publish statistics on investigations into suspicious activity.
It is partnering with crypto trading surveillance platform Solidus Labs and Daniel Taylor, director of the Wharton Forensic Analytics Lab, to address market abuse. The announcement comes three days before Super Bowl 60, with more than $168 million in bets already placed on Kalshi for the event.
Regulators and Congress are closely scrutinizing prediction markets. Federal lawmakers introduced a bill last month to restrict trading by government insiders after a Polymarket user profited from bets tied to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Kalshi is among prediction markets targeted by US state regulators who claim sports event contracts constitute illegal gambling. The company and others have rejected this claim. The new surveillance committee includes Lisa Pinheiro, a managing principal at Analysis Group, and Kalshi‘s lawyer, Robert DeNault, was appointed head of enforcement.
Brian Nelson, a former US Treasury official, was also hired to advise on trading surveillance and compliance. According to a report, Kalshi is seeking regulatory approval to offer margin trades in the US. People familiar with the matter said the approval is part of a move to open up to more institutional investors.
Margin trades on event contracts could reportedly be structured like traditional futures contracts. Kalshi has been in talks with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for several months to enable this type of trading.
