House Oversight expands prediction market insider trading probe to Hyperliquid, Crypto.com and PredictIt

On Tuesday, 29 September 2026, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer expanded an insider trading investigation into prediction markets, requesting records from Hyperliquid Labs, Crypto.com, and PredictIt owner Aristotle Exchange. The probe, which began in May 2026 with Kalshi and Polymarket, focuses on user verification and trade surveillance. Lawmakers highlighted a suspicious $1.1 billion short position placed on Hyperliquid shortly before an October 2025 tariff announcement.

Expansion of the insider trading probe

• ▪Letters sent by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer on Tuesday, 29 September 2026, set an October 13, 2026 deadline for Hyperliquid Labs, Crypto.com, and Aristotle Exchange to respond
• ▪On Tuesday, 29 September 2026, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer expanded the committee's investigation into prediction market insider trading by requesting records from Hyperliquid Labs, Crypto.com, and PredictIt owner Aristotle Exchange

Demands for identity and trading controls

• ▪House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer raised concerns that Hyperliquid has apparently no identity verification or mechanism to refer responsible parties to U.S. law enforcement
• ▪House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer requested records from Hyperliquid Labs, Crypto.com, and Aristotle Exchange detailing their user identity verification, Know Your Customer procedures, and how they detect, investigate, and prevent suspicious trading

Suspicious October 2025 Hyperliquid trade

• ▪House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer's inquiry to Hyperliquid Labs focused on a large leveraged short position opened shortly before President Donald Trump announced new tariffs on China in October 2025
• ▪Former BitForex CEO Garrett Jin, linked by onchain sleuths to the $1.1 billion Hyperliquid short position from October 2025, denied any ties to Donald Trump or insider trading, stating he traded for a client
• ▪Public blockchain data showed a trader opened approximately $1.1 billion in leveraged Bitcoin and Ether shorts on Hyperliquid about 30 hours before President Donald Trump's October 2025 tariff announcement, profiting over $150 million

Platform-specific record requests

• ▪House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer asked Crypto.com for records on internal restrictions preventing employees with confidential information from trading related event contracts
• ▪House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer asked Aristotle Exchange for records on PredictIt trades tied to elections, nominations, and other government actions involving current or former officials

Prior investigation of Kalshi and Polymarket

• ▪The House Oversight Committee's prediction market investigation began on May 22, 2026, with letters sent to Kalshi and Polymarket requesting documents on identity verification and suspicious trading controls
• ▪By Monday, 28 September 2026, the House Oversight Committee had received nearly 1,000 documents and five briefings from representatives of Kalshi and Polymarket

Past insider trading incidents on platforms

• ▪In May 2026, federal prosecutors charged a Google engineer with allegedly using confidential company data to make about $1.2 million through Polymarket wagers
• ▪Kalshi permanently banned and fined former U.S. Representative George Santos for placing bets on his own State of the Union appearance
• ▪In April 2026, federal prosecutors charged U.S. Army Master Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke with allegedly using classified military information to make approximately $400,000 in prediction market profits on Polymarket

Debatable claims

• ▪The congressional probe into prediction markets is an overreach
• ▪Anonymity on decentralized trading platforms poses an unacceptable risk to market integrity
• ▪Congress should ban government officials from trading on prediction markets
• ▪The forecasting value of prediction markets outweighs their insider trading risks