The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission has begun reviewing mention markets — contracts tied to specific words or phrases in public speeches. The trigger was an investigation into White House teleprompter operator Gabe Perez, who made around $100,000 on Kalshi by betting on President Donald Trump's remarks.
Perez placed more than a dozen trades using insider information about speech content. Kalshi's monitoring flagged the activity and froze $90,000 of his winnings. The operator reported the breach to the CFTC. Trump placed Perez on unpaid leave; press secretary Karoline Leavitt called his conduct disgraceful.
Mention markets saw heavy use this year at major sporting events, including the World Cup, where trading volume reached millions of dollars. Kalshi has since pulled all sports mention markets. Neither the CFTC nor Kalshi offered official comment.
New rules for incentive programmes
On 12 August the CFTC published guidance on self-certification of incentive programmes for prediction markets. The regulator noted a rise in filings with procedural and substantive flaws. The document requires licensed Designated Contract Markets to maintain transparency in fee structures and bars VIP access without disclosure to market participants.
JPMorgan severed ties with Polymarket
JPMorgan Chase ended banking services for Polymarket in 2025 over regulatory risk, the Financial Times reported. Polymarket, which is seeking a valuation near $20 billion, settled CFTC charges in 2022 for operating an unregistered platform. Last September the company received permission to launch a separate venue for US traders. Polymarket said it maintains active relationships with the bank through other legal entities.
