As prediction markets explode in popularity, Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour is drawing a hard line against insider trading.

In a detailed statement on X, released on Thursday, Mansour addressed a controversial topic in the prediction market space: the role of insider information. 

“Some say insider information can make prediction markets more accurate. But the same argument can be made for stock markets, where insider trading is banned,” Mansour stated.

He argued that the long-term health of an exchange relies on fairness, as “insider trading erodes trust.”

Meet ‘Poirot’: How Kalshi Polices Trades

Mansour revealed details about Kalshi’s proprietary surveillance system, nicknamed “Poirot”.

The system mimics surveillance used by the NYSE and Nasdaq, utilizing a three-step process: detect, investigate, enforce.

Mansour disclosed that in the past year alone, Kalshi has run over 200 investigations, resulting in account freezes.

Of those, over a dozen became active cases, with several referred to law enforcement.

Major Upgrades And Strategic Hires

To bolster these efforts, Kalshi announced five major strategic moves aimed at institutionalizing its compliance framework.

Kalshi tapped Daniel Taylor, Director of the Wharton Forensic Analytics Lab, to advise on complex investigations.

Brian Nelson, the former Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, joined as counsel on financial compliance.

An independent committee, including experts like Lisa Pinheiro, will provide quarterly reports and publish statistics on market integrity.

Kalshi is integrating Solidus Labs to deploy institutional-grade behavior monitoring tools.

Robert DeNault, a former white-collar criminal attorney with a background in financial crime, joined as Head of Enforcement.

A different approach?

Kalshi is CFTC-regulated, while most offshore prediction markets sit outside U.S. oversight.

That gap is why Mansour is pushing back on a core crypto belief: that "insider trading" is just faster price discovery.

Coinbase (NYSE:COIN) CEO Brian Armstrong has previously argued that if the goal of a prediction market is to determine the absolute truth, you effectively “want” insiders to participate.

Armstrong has cited the example of a ship captain betting on the Suez Canal reopening—arguing that their “inside” knowledge makes the market price a more accurate reflection of reality for everyone else.

Unlike Kalshi's Wall Street-style prohibition, rival platform Polymarket has historically taken a more ambiguous stance.

In a recent interview with 60 Minutes, CEO Shayne Coplan suggested that insider activity is a feature, not a bug, noting that the platform “creates this financial incentive for people to go and divulge the information to the market.”

The insider-info debate flared again after high-profile trades on offshore platforms raised questions about traders profiting from non-public information — including the widely discussed Polymarket "Maduro" wager that triggered fresh calls for tougher guardrails.

“All industries have bad actors and no system is perfect, Kalshi’s included,” Mansour concluded. “But we are committed to improving daily.”

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