Polymarket · Wired · The Information · Joe Biden · Wired
The US Government Rolled out 3 Previously Unreported Investigations of Polymarket Trades
Compiled by KHAO Editorial — aggregated from 3 sources. See llms.txt for citation guidance.
✓ KHAO Verified
The US government launched at least three previously unreported investigations into trading on the prediction market Polymarket, according to documents obtained by WIRED through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Key facts
- The CFTC fined former US representative George Santos $35,000 for his behavior related to a Kalshi contract about whether he would attend Trump’s 2026 State of the Union address
- As with the Biden pardon documents, the investigation order did not provide details, but it came two weeks after 60 Minutes aired a report on a network of suspicious Polymarket accounts that made
- The company, which had its flagship platform banned from the United States in 2022, was permitted to launch a US-regulated version with a narrower set of markets in late 2025
- The documents obtained by WIRED did not specify which trades were under suspicion, but the order came several weeks after an NPR report on a suspicious Polymarket trader who netted over $300,000
Summary
Voting records from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that regulates prediction markets, shed new light on how the government approaches these investigations. The documents obtained by WIRED did not specify which trades were under suspicion, but the order came several weeks after an NPR report on a suspicious Polymarket trader who netted over $300,000 on pardon-related markets in the final days of the Biden administration. At the end of May, Selig approved another investigation order. “If these investigations are being prompted solely by press reports of potential violations of the Commodities Exchange Act, that’s a significant sign of weakness in this regulatory scheme,” says Joseph Konizeski, a former chief trial attorney in the CFTC’s division of enforcement.