Comer expands prediction-market probe to Hyperliquid, Crypto.com, and PredictIt
By Crypto Wire
September 29, 2026
House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) widened Congress’s prediction-market insider-trading probe on Tuesday, September 29, sending fresh document requests to Hyperliquid Labs, Crypto.com, and Aristotle Exchange, Inc.—the operator of PredictIt. The committee’s official release says the letters ask how each platform verifies account owners, checks geographic location, and detects or prevents trading on nonpublic or classified information. Secondary wraps including Bitcoin.com and CNBC put a records deadline of October 13 on the three firms. This is unused Plain English Policy tape—not a silent edit of the New York Polymarket suit LN (9832).
What Comer’s own statement locks in. “As online prediction platforms grow and become more mainstream, some bad actors have exploited the platforms to make thousands of dollars by placing bets based on nonpublic information,” Comer said in the release. The committee is testing whether platforms are “fulfilling their legal obligations and doing enough to identify and prevent insider trading before it happens,” and whether identity, geo, and surveillance controls are strong enough that “Americans deserve to know that these platforms are taking steps to prevent insider trading.” The May 2026 inquiry that started with Polymarket and Kalshi remains open: the same release says the committee has already taken nearly 1,000 documents and five briefings from those two firms’ representatives.
Why Hyperliquid is named beside prediction desks. Bitcoin.com’s wrap of the letters cites a reported $1.1 billion leveraged short across bitcoin and ether perpetual contracts opened about 30 hours before President Trump’s October 2025 tariff announcement, with the trader later booking more than $150 million in profit. CNBC quotes Comer’s letter to Hyperliquid co-founder Jeff Yan describing a substantial leveraged short timed to a presidential tariff announcement that was “not publicly known at the time the position was established,” and arguing the timing “mirrors a pattern of insider trading the Committee is investigating across the prediction market sector.” Congress has not established that the trader held advance knowledge—treat the letter’s framing as the committee’s allegation of pattern risk, not as a proven insider case.
Crypto.com and PredictIt get their own ask lists. The Crypto.com letter, addressed to founder and CEO Kris Marszalek, presses identity-verification differences between the international exchange and Crypto.com Derivatives North America (CDNA), plus records on employees trading ahead of corporate announcements and government officials betting on crypto-regulatory outcomes, per Bitcoin.com’s letter summary. PredictIt co-founder and CEO John Aristotle Phillips faces questions on political-event trading, suspicious-activity reporting, and the removal of the platform’s per-contract trader limit under CFTC Letter No. 25-20—including whether that change affected liquidity, trading scale, or insider-trading detection—and a staff-level briefing demand. Record window cited in secondary coverage reaches back to January 1, 2024.
How this sits beside the Polymarket criminal allegation already in the wraps. The letters cite an April 24 federal indictment alleging U.S. Army Master Sgt. Gannon Ken Van Dyke used classified intelligence about Operation Absolute Resolve—the operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro—to place Polymarket wagers generating more than $409,000. Those are indictment allegations; the soldier has pleaded not guilty, and no conviction is claimed here. Keep that criminal thread distinct from New York’s civil unlicensed-gambling suit and Polymarket’s same-day countersuit covered in 9832—today’s wire is the House Oversight expansion to three additional platforms, not a docket update on the NY case.
Why NFT and crypto desks still care. Prediction markets and crypto perps are adjacent leisure-and-risk venues for the same retail wallets that bid NFT floors; when Congress asks Hyperliquid, Crypto.com, and PredictIt for KYC and SAR-style surveillance, the compliance tax can spill into how aggressively platforms onboard U.S. users and how freely event contracts or leveraged books stay open. A probe that already collected ~1,000 Polymarket/Kalshi documents and now sets an October 13 clock on three more firms is a near-term custody-and-access risk for collectors who trade event markets beside NFT bids—not a claim that any of the three firms has been found liable.
What this tick is not. It is not Bitget’s USDT reopen (still 08:00 UTC September 30), not Metaplex MPL-3643 (10341), and not Monday’s ETF cool-down (10343). Attribute platform non-response notes in secondary press as of publish time; do not invent that Hyperliquid, Crypto.com, or Aristotle have replied on the record in this LN.
What changes for bids: until the October 13 production window closes—and any follow-on hearing or bill text lands—treat event-market and Hyperliquid-adjacent U.S. access as under active Oversight scrutiny, so size prediction-market and leveraged crypto exposure as compliance-sensitive rather than as settled free-flow rails.
Bottom line: Comer’s Oversight committee expanded its prediction-market insider probe on September 29 to Hyperliquid, Crypto.com, and PredictIt with an October 13 records clock—on top of ~1,000 Polymarket/Kalshi documents already in hand—so U.S. event-market and adjacent crypto rails stay under active congressional scrutiny.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute financial, investment, legal, or trading advice. The NFT market is highly volatile, and past performance is not indicative of future results. Readers should conduct their own research and consult qualified professionals before making any decisions related to digital assets. The cover image for this article may have been created using artificial intelligence (AI).
