Kalshi CEO Backs Torres Bill: A Game-Changer for Crypto Insider Trading Crackdown
Another day, another regulatory push—but this one's got teeth. The Torres bill just landed a heavyweight endorsement from Kalshi's CEO, signaling a rare moment of unity between prediction markets and lawmakers. Insider trading enforcement might finally get the upgrade it desperately needs.
The Regulatory Chessboard
For years, crypto's wild west reputation thrived on regulatory gray areas. The Torres legislation aims to slam that door shut by extending traditional market abuse laws to digital assets. No more hiding behind technological novelty—if it trades, it's covered.
Why Kalshi's Support Matters
When a prediction market platform backs stricter rules, pay attention. Kalshi's business model thrives on transparent pricing and fair access. Their endorsement suggests the bill might actually work—not just create more paperwork for compliance departments to ignore.
The Enforcement Question
Legislation alone won't stop determined bad actors. The real test comes down to resources and willpower. Will regulators actually pursue complex crypto cases, or just chase easy wins while the big fish keep swimming? History suggests caution.
A Cynical Take
Let's be real—Wall Street perfected insider trading long before Bitcoin existed. The finance industry treats regulation like a tax: another cost of doing business. Whether this bill changes behavior or just creates new loopholes for lawyers to exploit remains to be seen.
The bottom line? This endorsement signals growing institutional pressure for clearer rules. Whether that leads to cleaner markets or just more sophisticated cheating—well, place your bets.
Torres cites Polymarket bet as the bill targets insider trading risks
The US Representative’s new bill was submitted earlier this month. This regulation prohibits federal elected officials, political appointees, and executive branch employees from participating in bets related to government policy, government action, or political outcomes on prediction market platforms.
Torres made this suggestion after reports revealed a scenario in which an anonymous user placed a bet that the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, WOULD be demoted from his position by the end of January on the world’s largest prediction market, Polymarket.
After the bet was placed, reports said US authorities captured Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, with prosecutors alleging the pair was involved in a cocaine-trafficking conspiracy. They had ties to cartels designated as terrorist organizations.
As a result, the user collected a total of around $400,000. This incident raised concerns, as the government illustrated a likelihood that some insiders have direct access to confidential information.
Meanwhile, to illustrate Mansour’s strong commitment to fostering change on prediction market platforms, the industry executive noted in his LinkedIn message his intention to reduce Kalshi’s connections with other prediction market platforms involved in insider trading cases. However, the CEO did not unveil the names of these prediction market platforms.
Concerning the news about firms facing insider trading accusations, Mansour argued that there is a possibility that some recently released announcements from reports have confused unregulated and regulated prediction markets that operate outside the United States. “What non-American, unregulated platforms do has no connection to what regulated American platforms do,” he said.
When asked to outline the strategy Kalshi applies to its operation, Mansour began by stating that Kalshi is a federally regulated platform. Afterwards, he highlighted that the prediction market platform strictly adheres to the same insider trading regulations as the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, which restrict users from conducting trades when they are suspected of having access to confidential information regarding a market.
Kalshi solidifies its position as the leading prediction market
Mansour declared that Torres’ new bill only impacts US-based firms that are regulated, not those that are unregulated and situated outside the US. According to him, these unregulated companies located outside the US encounter significant challenges.
In the meantime, data from a reliable source highlighted that key prediction market platforms, Kalshi and Polymarket, recorded new highs as of December 2025. Kalshi reached a peak of $6.26 billion, while Polymarket achieved a new record of $2.28 billion.
Following these results, analysts conducted research and discovered that Kalshi solidified its position as the largest prediction market exchange in terms of volume, surpassing Polymarket since March 2025.
Apart from Kalshi and Polymarket, other notable players in crypto and sports betting include Crypto.com, Gemini, and DraftKings. Notably, these firms have also expanded their presence in the prediction markets sector.
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