insider

According to WIRED, Michael Selig, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), stated that the agency is using artificial intelligence technology to investigate insider trading in prediction markets such as Polymarket.In the past year, several traders on Polymarket have been suspected of using insider information to bet on geopolitical events such as the Venezuela raid and the Iran war, resulting in significant profits and drawing widespread attention.Previously, a U.S. Special Forces soldier was arrested for allegedly profiting from betting on the Maduro arrest using classified intelligence on Polymarket, becoming the first criminal case of insider trading in a prediction market in the United States.

The U.S. Senate Banking Committee has released the first updated complete draft of the CLARITY Act since January of this year. The new draft has made significant adjustments in several key chapters.These include: a major rewrite of Chapter 1 concerning definitions, the authority of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and other content; the addition of insider trading provisions in Section 109; updating "joint control" to "coordinated control" in Chapter 2; rewriting Section 301 to further clarify the regulatory boundaries between DeFi and CeFi; updating Section 404 to incorporate the compromise proposal from Tillis and Alsobrooks; adjusting Section 505 to narrow the scope of SEC's authority limitations in the tokenization field; and restructuring the bankruptcy and insolvency framework in Sections 701 and 702. Additionally, Section 904 is a new addition, titled the "Build Now Act."Alex Thorn also pointed out that the protective provisions for developers in the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act in Section 604 remain largely intact, with only minor modifications that do not weaken its core protective content.

Korean trader Definalist posted on social media that there are suspected wash trading activities during the listing process of WIF and VVV on Upbit. Several addresses funded by Upbit's hot wallet bought before WIF was listed on Upbit and quickly sold after the listing; similar operations also appeared with VVV.In addition, Definalist hinted that Upbit has been intensively testing STABLE tokens recently, and the suspected wash trading wallets also showed related buying activities.

With the last 225,000 ETH (approximately $528 million) transferred to Binance 5 hours ago, the whale (i.e., BTC OG insider whale) that suffered a loss of $230 million from a long position liquidation on Hyperliquid in February has transferred all of its 577,000 ETH (approximately $1.351 billion) to Binance within 4 days. Currently, it still holds 11,500 BTC (approximately $934 million) on-chain.

According to crypto analyst @SpecterAnalyst, Binance US suddenly announced the listing of the small-cap meme coin USDUC, with suspected insiders profiting over $417,000 from it.According to on-chain information, multiple wallets received funds from Kraken, MEXC, and Coinbase hours before the announcement, buying USDUC at a low price in the early session and realizing huge profits ranging from $45,000 to $137,000 through the favorable listing. Additionally, according to GMGN market information, the current market capitalization of USDUC is reported at $16.94 million, with a 24-hour trading volume reaching $24.1 million.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it has filed lawsuits against 21 individuals, accusing them of participating in a nearly decade-long cross-border insider trading scheme, allegedly profiting millions of dollars illegally by using undisclosed material information leaked by several international law firms.The SEC pointed out that Los Angeles mergers and acquisitions lawyer Nicolo Nourafchan and his partner Robert Yadgarov organized and operated this insider trading network. Nourafchan is accused of stealing significant non-public information related to more than 12 corporate merger transactions from his law firm clients and leaking it to other participants, who then profited from the trades and returned a portion of the earnings. The SEC also stated that the two recruited another corporate lawyer to continue obtaining and disseminating more merger insider information for trading.The SEC stated that this enforcement action reflects its determination to "combat large-scale insider trading networks and hold the entire leak chain accountable." Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office has filed criminal charges against all individuals involved. Regulatory agencies from multiple countries, including the FBI, the UK's FCA, and Switzerland's FINMA, are also assisting in the investigation.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, BTC OG insider whale deposited 166,023 ETH (approximately $395 million) to Binance and currently holds 381,695 ETH (approximately $907 million).

According to The Information, sources say that despite Cursor previously accepting SpaceX's conditional acquisition offer of $60 billion (which has not yet been finalized), the company currently has no plans to jointly develop coding models with its artificial intelligence agency xAI.Instead, Cursor is focusing on optimizing its self-developed model Composer. This model is partially supported by the Chinese AI model Kimi. Previously, the market anticipated that if the deal was completed, Cursor might engage in deep collaboration with xAI to develop programming models, but the latest developments indicate that the company will continue to adhere to an independent technology path in the short term.

According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin's monitoring, LAB has risen from $0.2 to $2.38 in the past month, an increase of over 10 times.A suspected insider address perfectly captured a 10-fold increase: this address accumulated 575,000 LAB before the rise, when the price was $0.2, making these LAB worth $128,000 at that time. This whale recently transferred these LAB to a CEX to take profits. These tokens are now worth $1.26 million, yielding a profit of $1.13 million.

The cryptocurrency market structure bill may advance in mid-May.This Wednesday, a key figure in the cryptocurrency bill negotiations, North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis, stated that he has requested Senate Banking Committee Chairman, South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott, to expedite the scheduling of a hearing for the bill to be revised and voted on. Additionally, another negotiator this week, Angela Alsobrooks, indicated that if lawmakers want a bipartisan vote in the Senate Banking Committee, they need to address issues of illegal financing and ethics. However, Senate Chairman Scott stated that he believes the ethics provision does not need to be reviewed by his committee. It is currently unclear where the provision will go next, whether it should be reviewed by other committees, but it will likely need to be discussed before being submitted for a vote by the full Senate.

Polymarket announced the launch of a comprehensive on-chain market integrity monitoring system solution to monitor trading behavior and enforce platform market compliance rules. This system will be built in collaboration with blockchain data analytics company Chainalysis, covering all DeFi trading processes on Polymarket, including real-time on-chain analysis of trading, holdings, and settlement data. It will identify potential violations through a multi-layer monitoring mechanism, focusing on insider trading and market manipulation.Polymarket stated that all its transactions are completed on a public blockchain. This collaboration will further amplify the advantages of on-chain transparency, allowing regulatory agencies and law enforcement to obtain verifiable on-chain evidence, thereby establishing a new compliance standard in the predictive market field. Polymarket founder and CEO Shayne Coplan stated that the platform has emphasized transparency and traceability since its inception, and this collaboration will further strengthen its positioning as a "trusted source of market information."

The latest report from the non-profit research organization Anti-Corruption Data Collective (ACDC) indicates that the prediction market platform Polymarket may have broader insider trading issues than the previously reported "Green Beret Bet on the Venezuela Raid."The research analyzed 435,000 settled markets from January 2021 to mid-March 2026, with a total trading volume of $54.4 billion, and found that low-probability bets related to government decision-making in military and defense markets had abnormally high success rates. Data shows that the average success rate for such "long-shot bets" in political markets is about 14%, while in some cases of military-related contracts, the success rate exceeds 50%. The study suggests that these markets are difficult to predict based solely on public information and are more susceptible to information asymmetry, including insider trading or professional information advantages.The report also points out that Polymarket's profits are highly concentrated. Research from the London Business School and Yale University shows that about 3% of traders contribute to most of the platform's price discovery; blockchain analytics firm Solidus Labs found that less than 1% of wallets accounted for about half of the profits. For example, in the case of the U.S. airstrike on Iran in June 2025, just hours before the attack, 19 low-probability bets totaling $164,000 concentrated on buying the ultimately realized "YES" contract, with 8 wallets collectively profiting about $1.8 million, including one wallet that made nearly $500,000.Despite the Pentagon's efforts to conceal the operation through decoy bombers and stealth fighters, a few traders accurately predicted the outcome. ACDC recommends that Polymarket strengthen identity verification, set conditional payments for suspicious bets, limit markets where results are determined by a few individuals, and reduce overly detailed contract designs. The report further calls for a broader discussion on whether the public should be allowed to bet on such events.

According to monitoring by Lookonchain, since the disclosure that the suspected APE insider trader is going long on LDO, LDO has risen over 20%.One associated wallet has closed its long position in LDO, making a profit of about $50,000; another wallet still holds 5.96 million LDO (approximately $2.65 million) in long positions, currently with an unrealized profit of about $250,000.

According to Lookonchain monitoring, a suspected insider trading address that previously made a profit of 2.27 million dollars in an APE trade is now going long on LDO.The address is using 2 wallets to go long on 5.57 million LDO (worth approximately 5.16 million dollars) with 5x leverage.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, as APE's price surged over 110% in a short period, a suspected insider trader profited over $2.27 million by simultaneously taking long and short positions.On-chain data shows that this address initially deposited 75 ETH (approximately $174,000) as margin, opening both long and short positions on APE, and then purchased 1,027 ETH (approximately $2.37 million) on the HyperLiquid platform and completed the withdrawal. Additionally, they bought another 26 ETH on-chain, totaling 1,053 ETH purchased, ultimately realizing a profit of 978 ETH, equivalent to about $2.27 million. This operation has raised widespread suspicion of insider trading in the community due to its precise timing and abnormal returns.

Polymarket stated on platform X, "Last month, we released enhanced market integrity rules to combat insider trading. When we discover users trading on government confidential information, we refer the matter to the Department of Justice and cooperate with their investigation. Polymarket does not tolerate insider trading, and today's arrests prove that this system is effective."The arrest mentioned by Polymarket refers to the U.S. federal authorities arresting a special forces soldier this Thursday who was involved in the arrest of Venezuelan President Maduro. This soldier is suspected of profiting over $400,000 by betting on Maduro's ouster. Sources say federal investigators believe this commando placed over $33,000 in bets on the prediction market Polymarket just hours before President Trump announced the capture of Maduro in January.

According to Nikkei News, Japan has approved amendments to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act (FIEA), classifying digital assets as financial instruments and prohibiting insider trading based on non-public information.

According to Theblock citing The Information, Polymarket has launched an audit targeting application startups that promise to help users track suspected insider trading activities.The report states that these copy trading applications provide customers with a list of traders on the Polymarket platform who have a good track record of profitability, or highlight some unusually large or oddly timed bets that may be based on confidential information. Customers can use bots to replicate these trades or receive notifications of seemingly good trades. These applications charge service fees.It is reported that Polymarket and its main competitor Kalshi have both been scrutinized for insider trading issues. Last month, Polymarket introduced clearer rules regarding insider trading and its enforcement.

According to Lookonchain monitoring, two wallets associated with BTC OG insider whales withdrew 59,000,000 Binance coins from Binance a month ago at a price of $0.074 each, worth approximately $4.38 million at that time. Currently, the total value of these 59,000,000 Binance coins has risen to $19.5 million, with unrealized gains exceeding $15 million.

Agent Garrett Jin from "1011 Insider Whale" pointed out in an analysis that the U.S. announcement to implement a maritime blockade in the Strait of Hormuz is one of the "most tactically wise" moves in the current conflict, but it is unlikely to achieve the goal of ending the war. This strategy has two short-term advantages: first, it directly weakens Iran's crude oil export revenue by about 1.7 million barrels per day; second, compared to occupying key facilities (such as Khark Island), the cost of a maritime blockade is lower and the risks are more controllable.However, the effectiveness of this strategy faces multiple challenges. For example, the current blockade mainly targets Iranian ports rather than completely closing the strait, and third-party transshipment routes still exist. Additionally, it undermines the U.S.'s long-term international image of maintaining "freedom of navigation," which could have far-reaching effects on global maritime order.Garrett Jin concluded that while the blockade measures may reshape the initiative in the short term, they are unlikely to force Iran to make concessions and may instead compress diplomatic space and prolong the conflict cycle. The market has accounted for the impact of the blockade itself, but has not fully priced in the potential paths for escalation that may follow.