Wall Street banks tighten trading restrictions on employees’ participation in prediction markets to guard against insider trading risks.

Against a backdrop of rising concerns over insider trading in prediction markets, multiple Wall Street investment banks are tightening trading permissions for their employees on prediction market platforms. Reports indicate that Goldman Sachs has banned employees from trading contracts related to the bank itself, financial markets, macroeconomics, elections, and geopolitical events. Morgan Stanley has also formulated trading policies for employees on prediction markets, while Bank of America is rolling out new trading restrictions for its staff. Earlier, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) disclosed that a Google software engineer profited roughly $1.2 million on Polymarket by using non-public information obtained through his work, further stoking insider trading concerns in the market. Meanwhile, Polymarket is seeking to expand its U.S. operations. Its affiliate, Coming Home GBA LLC, has applied to the U.S. National Futures Association (NFA) to become a Futures Commission Merchant (FCM), with plans to offer margined prediction trading services to U.S. users in the future. However, the business still requires CFTC approval. A related affiliate of rival Kalshi obtained the relevant qualification back in March this year. Data shows that Polymarket hit a single-day trading volume record of $713 million on June 20; Kalshi’s June monthly trading volume also reached nearly $9.4 billion. Driven by the 2026 World Cup, prediction market trading activity continues to rise.