Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said yesterday (7 January) that the company supports proposed legislation to prohibit government officials from engaging in insider trading on prediction market platforms.
The bill, introduced earlier this week by New York Rep. Ritchie Torres, would impose restrictions on government employees participating in prediction markets in any areas where they have access to non-public information.
Following its introduction, Mansour clarified on LinkedIn that insider trading is banned on Kalshi and has always been prohibited under the platform’s rules, following recent controversies with rival operators.
His statement pushes back against what he described as persistent confusion between regulated US prediction markets and unregulated offshore platforms.
He stated that trading based on material non-public information is treated as a financial crime on Kalshi, regardless of whether the trader is a government official, policymaker, corporate executive, or another individual with privileged access.
He added that the company’s compliance framework is modelled on standards used by the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, a point he highlighted to underscore the platform’s regulatory posture.
According to Mansour, the bill would formalise restrictions that Kalshi already enforces internally, reinforcing a regulatory paradigm that aligns prediction markets more closely with traditional financial exchanges.
He argued that policymakers and regulators must distinguish between compliant, regulated domestic platforms and offshore operators that fall outside US oversight.
Kalshi pushes for clearer regulations
The renewed focus on insider trading follows heightened scrutiny of prediction markets after a high-profile wager on rival platform Polymarket reportedly generated more than $400,000 in profit shortly before the capture of former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.
The timing of the trade elicited criticism from market participants who questioned whether it relied on inside information.
Following subsequent criticism of the sector, Mansour warned that conflating regulated American prediction markets with unregulated platforms risks exacerbating the very problems critics seek to address.
He said that holding compliant US exchanges responsible for activity on offshore markets could inadvertently strengthen those foreign operators while undermining legitimate domestic companies operating under federal supervision.
In his view, clearer regulatory boundaries would help alleviate public scepticism and prevent policy responses that unintentionally reward non-compliance.
VIP programme incoming
Separately, Kalshi has begun notifying high-volume users about a new loyalty initiative called Kalshi Platinum.
The programme offers selected traders access to branded merchandise, referral incentives, tickets to in-person events and dinners, and support from a dedicated account manager available for extended daily hours.
The company said the initiative was developed after months of internal planning and outreach to customers and partners, reflecting efforts to deepen engagement with its most active users.
Kalshi has also projected $100bn in annualised trading volume, a figure that has drawn scepticism from industry observers.
According to Dustin Gouker in his The Event Horizon newsletter, Kalshi recorded $1.98bn in volume over the seven days ending 4 January.
To get to the $100bn estimate, he explained, the company multiplied that total by 52, even though the period coincides with the last week of NFL regular season games and the College Football Playoff quarterfinals.
Douker called this an “unserious” way to crunch the numbers.