Kalshi Tightens Surveillance and Enforcement Ahead of Super Bowl 60

Kalshi expands surveillance and enforcement ahead of Super Bowl 60

Kalshi has announced a series of expanded surveillance and enforcement measures for its prediction market platform as trading volume in Super Bowl 60–related markets tops $160 million. The steps are designed to strengthen market integrity, reduce insider-trading risk, and align event-contract oversight with practices common in regulated financial markets.

Key actions and infrastructure enhancements

• Daily public trade reporting to the CFTC and adherence to federal regulation of event contracts.
• Enhanced Know-Your-Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) checks applied to every user prior to trading.
• Formation of an independent surveillance advisory committee that will provide quarterly analysis to external counsel and publish statistics on suspicious-activity investigations.
• Strategic surveillance partnerships with Solidus Labs and the Director of the Wharton Forensic Analytics Lab to augment trade monitoring and forensic analysis.
• Appointment of a Head of Enforcement to coordinate investigations into insider trading and market manipulation and to work with the advisory committee on enforcement strategy.
• Consultation with a former Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence to advise on market integrity, trading surveillance, and financial compliance.
• Creation of consumer-facing hubs offering resources on responsible trading and market integrity.

Surveillance scale and enforcement activity

Kalshi reports that in the past year it ran more than 200 investigations and froze relevant accounts linked to suspicious activity. Of those investigations, over a dozen have become active cases and several have been referred to law enforcement entities for further action. These figures demonstrate an operational enforcement workflow that moves cases from automated detection to active investigations and, when warranted, to external prosecution channels.

Surveillance methodology and market controls

The platform has stated it uses pattern-recognition models and trade-surveillance methodologies modeled on systems used by major exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. Core controls in place include:

• Automated pattern recognition to flag anomalous trading sequences.
• Account-level AML/KYC verification gates prior to market access.
• Market-listing limits that exclude high-risk or insider-sensitive contract types.
• Internal enforcement procedures that can freeze accounts and escalate matters to regulators.

These controls are intended to mitigate common threats to prediction markets: insider trading tied to event-specific nonpublic information, coordinated market manipulation, and wash or spoofing activity designed to distort prices.

Regulatory context and investor implications

Event contracts on prediction platforms are federally regulated instruments in the U.S., and the CFTC has jurisdiction over these products. Daily trade reporting to the CFTC and formal AML/KYC procedures are core elements of a compliance framework expected by institutional counterparties and regulators.

For professional traders and institutional investors, the immediate implications are:

• Heightened surveillance means higher detection risk for manipulative strategies and for trading on material nonpublic information.
• KYC/AML processes increase onboarding friction but reduce counterparty and regulatory risk for institutions using the platform.
• Public reporting of suspicious-activity statistics and quarterly advisory reviews improve transparency and provide data points institutions can monitor to assess platform integrity over time.

Why these changes matter for market integrity

Prediction markets trade on discrete, event-based outcomes (for example, which companies will run Super Bowl ads). The unique vulnerability of these markets is the proximity of nonpublic, event-specific information to tradable contracts. By combining exchange-grade surveillance logic, third-party forensic partnerships, and an independent advisory layer, the platform is positioning itself to detect and deter: insider trading, coordinated manipulation, and other abuses that could undermine price discovery.

Practical guidance for trading professionals

• Ensure institutional compliance teams understand the platform's KYC/AML requirements and account-level controls prior to allocation of capital.
• Incorporate monitoring of platform-published investigation statistics into vendor risk reviews and compliance dashboards.
• Treat event-based contracts with elevated information-risk profiles; consider limits on position sizes or liquidity exposure for markets tied to corporate advertising, earnings leaks, or other confidential events.

What to watch next

• Quarterly advisory reports and published statistics on suspicious-activity investigations will be the first objective measures of the effectiveness of the expanded program.
• Enforcement referrals and any subsequent regulatory or criminal actions will set precedents for how event-contract markets are policed.
• Ongoing integration of third-party surveillance vendors and forensic analytics labs will influence the evolution of industry best practices.

Conclusion

The expanded surveillance and enforcement measures add multiple layers of compliance and detection to prediction-market trading, especially in high-profile event markets such as Super Bowl 60. For institutional traders and market operators, these changes raise the bar for operational integrity while increasing the regulatory compliance demands of participating in event-driven markets. The combination of KYC/AML gates, exchange-style pattern-recognition surveillance, independent advisory oversight, and third-party partnerships creates a more robust compliance posture intended to protect price discovery and investor confidence.