House Oversight Chairman James Comer has requested records from Hyperliquid Labs, Crypto.com and PredictIt regarding user verification and suspicious trading activity, expanding an investigation into potential insider trading on prediction markets. The probe cites reports of a Hyperliquid short placed before an October 2025 tariff announcement.
The CFTC issued a staff advisory stating that prediction market contracts settling on whether a named person says certain words should be presumed readily susceptible to manipulation, requiring exchanges to meet a higher regulatory bar.
Prediction market platform Polymarket faced at least $10 million in fraudulent withdrawal attempts using stolen debit cards on its U.S. platform in February 2026. Payment processor Checkout.com reportedly rejected over 80% of deposits as fraudulent at one point, far exceeding typical industry rates.
An investigation reveals that Solana network validators are accepting payments starting at 10 SOL ($1,000) per month to provide quantitative traders with early access to pending transactions, enabling front-running opportunities through maximal extractable value (MEV) exploitation.
Federal prosecutors charged Hefu Chai and Huaisong Xiang with commodities fraud and wire fraud for allegedly using confidential information about upcoming Robinhood crypto listings to trade perpetual futures on Hyperliquid ahead of public announcements.
Federal regulators have launched at least three previously unreported investigations into suspicious trading activity on Polymarket, including trades related to Biden pardons, Iran war predictions, and potential insider trading at Google. A cluster of accounts also won big on companies audited by KPMG.
ESMA warned that major prediction markets Polymarket and Kalshi lack required authorization to serve EU users, stating several countries are investigating their operations and raising insider trading concerns.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network analyzed over 33,000 suspicious activity reports filed between September 2023 and December 2025, identifying $12.7 billion in suspected fraudulent cryptocurrency transactions tied to pig butchering scams operated from Asian compounds. The announcement comes as Singapore authorities separately reported preventing $9 million in crypto scam losses through a joint police and exchange operation.
A federal jury convicted Japheth Dillman, founder of Block Bits Capital, of wire fraud and conspiracy after he raised nearly $1 million from over 20 investors by falsely claiming his crypto fund used a complete, working proprietary automated trading system. The 48-year-old San Francisco resident faces sentencing for operating the fraudulent crypto trading fund.
A heated confrontation erupted at a CFTC committee meeting as CME Group Chairman Terrence Duffy questioned prediction market oversight and singled out Kalshi, sparking a public dispute with CFTC officials and Kalshi's COO over how the rapidly growing sector should be regulated. Duffy raised concerns about manipulation vulnerabilities in prediction markets.
More than 150 wallets on Polymarket may have traded on inside US military information, according to new research, while a soldier who participated in a raid that captured Maduro faces charges for trading on the platform. Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan revealed the company employs a former FBI officer to monitor traders full-time.
Stablecoin issuer Tether announced that KPMG U.S. completed its first independent financial audit, issuing an unqualified opinion on the company's 2025 financial statements. The audit, which Tether called the 'largest inaugural financial audit in history,' marks a significant milestone after years of scrutiny and promises to obtain a Big Four accounting firm review.
Researchers discovered 821 accounts that exploited Polymarket's single-price settlement mechanism to manipulate bitcoin prices in the final seconds before contract settlement, profiting $8.2 million. The prediction market has now replaced snapshot pricing with time-weighted average prices (TWAP) for short-dated crypto markets.
Prediction market platform Polymarket is replacing single-price snapshots with time-weighted average prices (TWAP) for settling short-duration crypto markets after traders exploited brief price manipulation windows to drain funds. The platform is offering $1M in rewards as part of the upgrade.
Tether, the company behind the world's most widely used cryptocurrency token, has reached an estimated valuation of $200 billion, making it one of the most valuable private companies globally despite operating with limited public transparency.
BNB Chain announced it is pursuing legal action against a former employee who allegedly bought nearly 80% of ASTEROID token supply for $10,000 using a tutorial wallet, then sold most tokens for approximately $638,000.
Industry experts and auditors are analyzing the effectiveness of Proof of Reserves mechanisms in the cryptocurrency sector, highlighting what these transparency measures reveal and what critical information they omit about exchange solvency.
Hackers compromised Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev's verified X account on July 23, 2026, using it to promote a fake memecoin called Vladhood ($VLAD) that was flagged as a potential scam. The fraudulent post falsely claimed the token was Robinhood Chain's official mascot and would be listed in the Robinhood app. On-chain monitor MLM estimated that the attacker generated around 650 ETH in proceeds, worth approximately $1.2 million to $1.3 million.
Chainlink has extended its Proof of Reserve oracle service to provide onchain reserve data across Ethereum, Base, Monad, and Ink networks, as the crypto industry continues emphasizing asset verification following the 2022 FTX collapse.
MVMT Labs, the developer behind the Movement blockchain, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware on July 15. The filing follows months of upheaval including a controversial market-making agreement, internal investigation into its MOVE token launch, and a Binance ban.
South Korean financial authorities investigated more than 40 cases of unfair crypto trading including market manipulation and fraud since the country's user-protection law took effect in 2024, referring over 30 cases to investigative agencies.
A Taiwanese court has sentenced Shi Qiren, the founder of the BitShine cryptocurrency exchange, to 22 years in prison for orchestrating a fraud and money laundering operation that caused losses exceeding NT$1.27 billion (approximately $39 million). The sentence represents one of the harshest penalties in Taiwan's crypto enforcement history.
Researchers at Stanford University and Singapore Management University found that Polymarket's five-minute Bitcoin prediction markets create incentives for traders to manipulate spot prices around settlement times, with evidence suggesting coordinated price manipulation.
An appeals court has rejected Sam Bankman-Fried's attempt to overturn his conviction for fraud related to the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and his 25-year prison sentence. The former billionaire founder of FTX had appealed both the conviction and the lengthy sentence handed down for his role in the exchange's failure.
Wall Street Journal investigation found Polymarket paid college-age creators to stage fake winning bets on copycat websites, with roughly $1.9 million in fabricated wagers shown across social media to fuel viral growth.
Prediction market platform Kalshi announced it will require users to disclose their employers before trading certain contracts involving sensitive information, such as corporate earnings and product launches. The move addresses growing concerns about insider trading on the CFTC-regulated platform.
Attackers exploited TOP token's governance system by gaining over 50% voting power with minimal token supply, using Aragon DAO to create, vote on, and execute a malicious proposal in a single transaction that minted tokens worth $1.58 million.
Syscoin halted its bridge after an attacker exploited a validation issue to mint approximately 5 billion unauthorized SYS tokens on the network's UTXO chain. The project is tracing the unauthorized tokens and investigating the breach.
Polymarket's chief marketing officer Matthew Modabber reportedly used his personal PayPal account to send at least $350,000 to content creators including Nick Shirley and Riley Gaines who promoted the prediction market platform without disclosing the payments. The allegations emerge as the company faces separate regulatory scrutiny and cuts ties with George Santos.
Britain's Financial Conduct Authority warned Premier League clubs against sponsorship deals with unauthorized crypto firms, citing legal liability and money laundering risks, while mining pool F2Pool separately issued a public warning denying partnerships with hashrate token projects.
South Korean prosecutors charged five individuals in the country's first-ever arrest and prosecution tied to a decentralized exchange rug pull, involving the Solana-based CATFI memecoin that defrauded approximately 256 investors of roughly $650,000.
Missouri's Attorney General filed a lawsuit against CoinFlip, accusing the crypto ATM operator of knowingly facilitating fraudulent transactions and charging fees up to 22% without proper disclosure. The lawsuit seeks $1.8 million in penalties.
Coinbase, Kraken, and Gemini are pushing lawmakers to eliminate provisions in the CLARITY Act that would bar listing of digital assets at risk of manipulation, seeking to ease restrictions on risky asset trading.
Blockchain investigator ZachXBT assisted in freezing $41.5 million in assets following the collapse of a crypto Ponzi scheme operating as DSJ Exchange and BG Wealth Sharing that allegedly took more than $150 million from victims.
The Federal Trade Commission secured a $4.72 billion judgment against former Celsius Network CEO Alex Mashinsky, who agreed to pay $10 million and accept a permanent ban from the cryptocurrency and financial services industries following the collapse of the crypto lending platform.
Prediction market platform Polymarket engaged blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis to monitor trading activity in real-time for insider trading and market manipulation as it seeks $15 billion valuation and CFTC approval for U.S. relaunch.
The Department of Justice's strike force restrained $701 million in cryptocurrency, seized a Telegram recruitment channel, and took down 503 fake crypto investment websites as part of an expanded enforcement operation against organized scams.
Jane Street filed a motion to dismiss Terraform Labs' lawsuit alleging the trading firm used insider information during the $40 billion Terra/UST collapse. Jane Street argues the timing doesn't support the allegations and that the case rehashes events already settled in court.
RaveDAO's RAVE token crashed from $27.33 to $1.15 on April 19, wiping out over $5 billion in market cap after surging 4,500%. Binance and Bitget opened investigations into suspected pump-and-dump activity, while blockchain investigator ZachXBT offered a $25,000 whistleblower bounty.
Web3 investigator ZachXBT flagged RAVE token as a potential pump-and-dump scheme after it surged over 4,500% with nearly 90% of supply concentrated in three wallets. Binance and Bitget have committed to investigating the token's suspicious price movement.
Crypto exchange Kraken disclosed two insider-related support access incidents and is being extorted by criminals who obtained videos of support staff accessing internal systems and limited client data. Kraken says no funds are at risk and will not negotiate.
Trump-backed World Liberty Financial's WLFI token plunged to record lows after Justin Sun publicly accused the project of hidden blacklist backdoor controls in its token contract. WLFI threatened legal action, calling Sun's claims 'FUD.'
Reuters reported that White House staff received warnings against using confidential information for trading after suspicious Iran-linked oil futures bets raised insider trading concerns, with fresh scrutiny on prediction markets.
WLFI token fell 12% to a record low after the Trump-backed project used billions of its own tokens as collateral to borrow $75 million in stablecoins on DeFi platform Dolomite, triggering concerns over insider access and depositor risks.
World Liberty Financial deposited 5 billion of its own WLFI tokens as collateral on Dolomite to borrow $75 million in stablecoins, which were then sent to Coinbase Prime. The move pushed the lending pool to 100% utilization and triggered a 12% token price drop to record lows.
Japan's cabinet approved legislation that would classify crypto assets as financial products, banning insider trading, requiring annual disclosures, and imposing penalties up to 10 years in prison and 10 million yen in fines for operating without registration. The bill could take effect in fiscal 2027 if passed by parliament.
Polymarket pulled prediction markets related to Iranian hostage rescue operations and a missing US pilot after facing widespread criticism over ethical concerns. The platform cited 'integrity standards' but did not specify which rules were violated, drawing scrutiny over inconsistent policy enforcement.
