Kalshi Suspends House Candidate Laurie Buckhout for Betting on Herself
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Another case of market manipulation has emerged, with over 500,000 fake play counts removed. Spotify has discovered that Malcolm Todd's song play manipulation is linked to Kalshi betting.
Odaily Odaily that music streaming platform Spotify has removed over 500,000 fake play counts from artist Malcolm Todd's song "Earrings." The song had previously been pushed to the top of the charts. Spotify's investigation found that the play count manipulation was linked to prediction market betting activities. Traders on the Kalshi platform wagered on which song would become the most-played song on Spotify in the US in June; this market had a trading volume of $3 million. Kalshi declared Todd the winner based on manipulated data and settled the bet before Spotify completed its investigation. After discovering the issue, Spotify requested that Kalshi and Polymarket remove their logos and clarify that they have no partnership. Kalshi stated that it is cooperating with the investigation, while Polymarket has not responded.
The Massachusetts amended complaint alleges that Kalshi offered sports betting to users under the age of 21.
PANews reported on July 1st that, according to Cointelegraph, the Massachusetts Attorney General has received court approval to file an amended complaint against prediction market platform Kalshi, adding allegations that Kalshi targeted users under 21 years of age through social media and college campus marketing and failed to take effective measures to prevent their use of the platform. Kalshi allows individuals aged 18 and over to create accounts and place bets on sports events. The case began in September 2025, with state authorities accusing Kalshi of violating state law by offering sports betting. The CFTC previously filed a submission in Massachusetts asserting "exclusive jurisdiction" over prediction markets, with Chairman Michael Selig stating that "Congress has granted the CFTC the sole power to regulate the commodities derivatives market." Kalshi has not yet responded to requests for comment.
Bernstein: Market consolidation is accelerating; Kalshi and Polymarket may become M&A targets.
According to a Foresight News report citing CoinDesk, Bernstein stated in a Monday report that the rapid consolidation of prediction market technology stacks is increasing the likelihood of a new round of mergers and acquisitions in the sports betting and financial markets sectors. The report states that in the past eight months, almost all major consumer-facing prediction market platforms have shifted towards simultaneously controlling both customer distribution channels and exchange infrastructure. The analyst team (led by Ian Moore) wrote that Kalshi and Polymarket possess exchange technology stacks but lag behind in distribution channels, making them potential acquisition targets or acquirers. The report notes a shift in the economic landscape: companies with their own exchanges are retaining revenue that previously flowed to third-party platforms. For example, Robinhood redirected its highest-volume World Cup contracts to its own Rothera instead of Kalshi, and DraftKings migrated its prediction market trading from CME and its existing infrastructure to its own DKeX at the end of June. Currently, Coinbase's annualized prediction market revenue has reached approximately $100 million, Robinhood has traded over 16 billion event contracts this year, and DraftKings disclosed an annualized consumer prediction market trading volume of nearly $3.4 billion. Analysts believe that Robinhood and Coinbase are currently the strongest competitors, possessing both a large consumer base and fully owned, regulated infrastructure. DraftKings narrowed the gap through its acquisition of Railbird. Kalshi and Polymarket, while possessing exchange technology but lacking comparable consumer-end distribution capabilities, remain reasonable acquisition candidates. The report also noted that despite the rapid growth of the forecasting market industry, it still faces regulatory and legal uncertainties—multiple state betting regulators consider sports event contracts to be unlicensed sports betting, while the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) asserts exclusive federal jurisdiction over such products, and the dispute may ultimately require a court ruling.
DoubleZero adds Kalshi election market data ahead of US midterms
The expansion gives institutional and automated traders real-time access to Kalshi’s political markets as election betting activity continues to grow.
Kalshi issues first lifetime ban for Republican politician over insider bets
The prediction platform permanently banned George Santos and issued a three-year suspension for Laurie Buckhout after investigations into using insider information on event contracts.
Kalshi's application for a preliminary injunction in the Southern District of New York was rejected by the judge, and the case will now proceed to the motion for dismissal stage.
According to Foresight News , crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett tweeted that Judge Analisa Torres, who presided over the Ripple case, has once again become the focus of a major legal dispute. In the case of prediction market platform Kalshi in the Southern District of New York (SDNY), Judge Torres rejected Kalshi's application for a preliminary injunction, arguing that New York State betting laws apply to Kalshi's sports event contracts and that this law has not been superseded by the Commodity Exchange Act. This ruling means the case will enter the "motion to dismiss" stage. Legal experts have commented that this represents a major setback for Kalshi's lawsuit in the US financial center and could have a ripple effect on other related cases, particularly those in Connecticut and other SDNY jurisdictions.