Kalshi reveals insider trading case against editor for MrBeast

NPR News · Feb 25, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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An editor who worked for YouTube creator MrBeast, whose legal name is James Donaldson, has been suspended by Kalshi after the platform says the editor traded on insider information. Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press hide caption toggle caption Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press An editor who works for YouTube's biggest creator, MrBeast, has been suspended from the prediction market platform Kalshi and reported to federal regulators for insider trading, Kalshi officials said on Wednesday. It's the first time the company has publicly revealed the results of an investigation into market manipulation on the popular app. The MrBeast employee, who Kalshi identified as Artem Kaptur, traded around $4,000 on markets related to the streamer, the company said. Kalshi investigators discovered that Kaptur had "near-perfect trading success" on bets about the YouTuber's videos with low odds, making the wagers appear suspicious, according to company officials. Many people place wagers about MrBeast on Kalshi. People bet hundreds of thousands of dollars on what he will say in his next video. There are markets on the number of subscribers he will bring on this year. And people are betting on when exactly MrBeast will get married. But Kalshi investigators say Kaptur was using proximity to the streamer as a way of trying to make quick cash. Using confidential information to manipulate markets is prohibited by Kalshi's rules and could violate federal law. "We investigated and found that the trader was employed as an editor for the streamer's show and likely had access to material non-public information connected to his trading," said Robert DeNault, the company's head of enforcement. Kalshi said the company froze the account in question, so Kaptur was not able to withdraw any profits. He was fined $20,000 and suspended from the platform for two years. Kalshi also said the case was reported to regulators at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, which oversees prediction markets like Kalshi. A spokesman for Beast Industries, MrBeast's company, said it has "no tolerance" for insider trading. "We have a longstanding policy in place against employees using proprietary company information in order to safeguard the highest standards and ethics throughout our organization," the spokesman told NPR, adding that employees are banned from trading on prediction markets in MrBeast-related markets. The MrBeast-related trades "potentially violated" federal laws against misusing confidential information to manipulate commodity markets, otherwise known as insider trading, according to a statement from the CFTC. Another trading case involved a former political candidate Kalshi also unveiled a case against a former longshot Republican candidate in the California governor's race, Kyle Langford, who posted on X in May that he bet on himself to win the statewide contest. He encouraged others to do the same. While it appeared to be a social media stunt, Kalshi says it banned Langford for five years from its platform and handed him a $1,000 fine. "As a candidate in a race, you can (and probably should) follow and use Kalshi's market forecast, but you should not trade on it," Kalshi's DeNault said. Kalshi did not reveal Langford by name. But details of its investigation, including references to the video posted on social media and the $200 bet on himself, line up with publicly available information on Langford. Langford did not return a request for comment. How prediction markets are booming Online prediction market platforms, such as Polymarket and Kalshi, have seen a surge in popularity during Trump's second term. People can place bets on these platforms on wide-ranging issues such as what words people say at events, the outcome of elections or how much snow will fall in New York City. The explosive growth of the industry is in part driven by the use of what observers many consider a legal loophole, which the Trump administration supports. Instead of falling under the purview of state gambling laws, prediction markets are regulated in a more obscure way, as a type of "futures contract," overseen by CFTC, which typically regulates bets on the future production of things like soybeans, corn and crude oil. The Biden administration fought prediction market apps from listing most types of contracts. It argued there was little public interest value in most of them, not to mention that they invite speculators to manipulate markets through insider trading. Trump officials, however, have broken down barriers to allow the industry to thrive, dropping multiple federal investigations into the industry and vowing to battle states that have sued Kalshi for allegedly operating as nothing more than an unlicensed gambling operation. Until recently, regulators had allowed a few dozen markets a year for futures trading. Now, there are more than 200,000 active prediction markets. Prediction markets stirring increased insider trading fears The burgeoning and controversial industry has run headlong into global affairs. In January, a trader made $400,000 in profit on Polymarket by placing a successful bet on the capture of the Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro before there was any public indication that would happen. Earlier this month, Israeli authorities arrested several people and charged two on suspicion of using classified information to place bets about upcoming military operations in Iran on Polymarket. Insider trading on Polymarket and Kalshi is prohibited by each platform's rules, and is illegal under federal law, but experts say each company's internal systems can only catch so much insider activity, which can take place by word of mouth or other means outside the prediction market apps. Still, Kalshi says in the past year it has opened 200 investigations into insider trading, 12 of which are still ongoing. Kalshi said both instances of suspected insider trading revealed on Wednesday have been reported to the CFTC. The company said the fines paid by the two traders will be donated to a non-profit that provides consumer education about derivatives markets. "No system is perfect. No financial exchange is immune from bad actors. Not stock exchanges, not banks, not prediction markets," said Kalshi's DeNault."We're committed to deterring and finding the bad actors, manipulators, and those who willingly cheat."