Kalshi accuses MrBeast video editor of insider trading

An editor for the popular YouTube creator MrBeast has been fined and suspended by prediction market platform Kalshi over suspected insider trading. 

The company’s disciplinary committee found that Artem Kaptur violated its policies when Kaptur placed bets in August and September related to the YouTube channel where he worked. 

“Specifically, the Committee found reasonable cause to conclude Kaptur traded while employed by or legally affiliated with a Source Agency for “Mr. Beast” contracts, and that he traded on material, non-public information he obtained because of this employment in violation of Kalshi Rule 5.17(y),” the committee wrote in its report. “Further, the Committee found Kaptur failed to cooperate with the investigation, in violation of Kalshi Rule 3.6(a).”

Kalshi fined Kaptur more than $20,000 and issued a two-year suspension from accessing the platform. The fine includes $5,397.58 in profits from the alleged insider trades and $15,000 in penalties. 

The trading platform allows users to bet on a wide range of topics, including the men’s college basketball champion, which Democratic candidate will win the Texas Senate primary race and the highest temperature in New York City on a given day. 

Kalshi’s site hosts several trades related to MrBeast, a YouTube channel started by Jimmy Donaldson, which has the most subscribers among all individual accounts on the platform. Kalshi users can place bets on when Donaldson will get married, the length of his next video and his content’s viewership numbers. 

A spokesperson for Donaldson’s company, Beast Industries, told NPR it has “no tolerance” for insider trading, saying the company has rules against trading on markets related to MrBeast content. 

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), an independent agency that regulates the U.S. derivatives markets, said in a Wednesday report that Kaptur “potentially violated prohibitions on misappropriation of confidential information in breach of a pre-existing duty of trust and confidence to the source of the information,” also known as insider trading.

The CFTC noted that it “has full authority to police illegal trading practices,” including insider trading violations. The commission also noted another enforcement case involving a little-known GOP candidate in the California governor’s race who was fined by Kalshi for trading on his own candidacy. 

“I just bet $100 that I, Kyle Langford will be the next Governor of California, join me,” The Republican candidate said on the social platform X.

Langford received a 5-year suspension from Kalshi and was fined more than $2,000 by the platform. 

The CFTC has also come under fire for its fight against state laws that would place restrictions on prediction markets. 

CTFC Chair Mike Selig said the commission would challenge any state that sought to “challenge our authority in this space,” adding, “We will see you in court.”

“These prediction markets you are breathlessly defending are gambling—pure and simple. They are destroying the lives of families and countless Americans, especially young men. They have no place in Utah,” Utah Gov. Brian Cox (R) wrote in an X post earlier this month.