Prediction market company Polymarket is strengthening its market-integrity controls ahead of the 2026 U.S. midterm elections, as regulators and lawmakers raise concerns about insider trading, election integrity and national security risks. Shana Bautista, the company’s new global head of investigations and intelligence and a former Coinbase analyst and FBI investigator, told Reuters that Polymarket has systems in place to detect anomalous trading activity when election markets heat up.
Polymarket’s international platform uses blockchain technology to settle trades, making transaction activity publicly visible even though traders remain anonymous. Bautista said the company is leveraging machine learning, blockchain analytics, trade surveillance, open-source intelligence and third-party information to identify potentially malicious activity. Polymarket also plans to publish more details about its market-integrity program and how it works with law enforcement.
The company says it has referred more than 100 cases to law enforcement, including suspected insider trading involving sensitive military information. At the same time, Polymarket is working to prevent U.S. users from accessing its international platform, following a 2022 settlement with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that required it to bar U.S. users. The company later re-entered the U.S. market through the acquisition of a U.S.-registered exchange, adding another layer of scrutiny as prediction markets expand ahead of the midterms.
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