Kalshi suspends congressional candidates for ‘insider trading’

Prediction market platform Kalshi said Wednesday it had suspended and fined three candidates for Congress from Minnesota, Texas and Virginia for “political insider trading” activity on their own campaigns.

Kalshi said in a statement that all three candidates “were flagged because of our newly released safeguards to block political candidates from trading on their own elections.”

The sanctioned candidates were Mark Moran, who had been a candidate in Virginia’s Democratic primary for the Senate before deciding to seek the seat as an independent; Minnesota Democrat Matt Klein, who is running the primary for that state’s 2nd Congressional District; and Ezekiel Enriquez of Texas, who ran in the Republican primary for the state’s 21st Congressional District.

Kalshi said that Moran “traded in two markets related to his campaign.” “The first was a market on individuals who would run for public office in 2026,” Kalshi said. “This person placed a trade on himself in this market. Then, once the trader announced himself as a candidate for the Democratic Primary election for Virginia U.S. Senate, he again traded on his own candidacy.”

Moran, when contacted by Kalshi, initially acknowledged being a candidate and violating the rules, but later stopped communication with the company’s team, according to Kalshi.

Kalshi fined Moran $6,229.30 and suspended him for five years from the trading platform, the company said.

Klein and Enriquez both cooperated with Kalshi’s probes, according to the company.

Klein, who had “traded a small amount on the outcome of his own election” also “acknowledged that the trading activity violated Kalshi exchange rules, agreed to pay a fine of $539.85, and to a suspension from Kalshi for a period of 5 years,” the company said.

Enriquez, who traded a “slightly larger amount” on his own election than Klein did, “was fully cooperative with the investigation and agreed to settle acknowledging the rule violation, paying a fine of $784.20, and accepting a 5-year suspension,” Kalshi said.

Moran, in a statement on X, said, “I traded $100 on myself, knowing this would happen (also knowing that I wouldn’t be vying for the democratic nomination) and the attention it would create to highlight how this company is destroying young men and as Senator I will go after Kalshi and impose significant penalties on them – 25% – a vice tax – to pay down our national debt.”

“Also ironic timing given that on DC subways, Kalshi has to run ads that they are a fair and legal betting market, bc they know heat is on them and the admin already chose their winner with polymarket… They know they’re f—ed and trying to do the same thing the tobacco companies did,” Moran wrote.

Klein’s campaign and Enriquez did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Disclosure: CNBC and Kalshi have a commercial relationship that includes a CNBC minority investment.