According to BlockBeats, on September 12, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) had previously secretly approved at least three insider trading investigations into Polymarket transactions, involving contracts related to Biden's pardon, the Iran war, and Google-related events. The relevant investigation documents were obtained by WIRED through the Freedom of Information Act.
In May, CFTC Chairman Michael Selig approved an investigation into contracts related to Biden's pardon, after a trader had profited more than $300,000 in the relevant market. In the same month, the CFTC also approved an investigation into contracts related to the Iran war, after a group of suspicious accounts were exposed for profiting $2.4 million with a win rate of about 98%.
In July, the CFTC launched a further investigation into Google's Polymarket contracts, focusing on individuals who may have used non-public information about Google's 2025 search rankings for trading. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York is also conducting a parallel investigation.
It cannot yet be confirmed whether the aforementioned accounts are linked to individuals previously investigated. Polymarket stated that it will forward the matter to law enforcement and cooperate with the investigation. As prediction markets rapidly expand, U.S. regulators are significantly intensifying their scrutiny of insider trading and market manipulation.