The Trump administration has cautioned its staff against using their positions for well-timed betting in futures markets.
The White House Management Office disseminated the warning to all staff via email on March 24, just a day after President Donald Trump announced a five-day pause in strikes against Iran on Truth Social, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
Existing ethics rules already bar executive branch employees from gambling on federal property or using government information for personal gain. According to the report, a senior administration official described the warning as a timely "refresher" amid heightened scrutiny over unusually large bets in futures markets.
Davis Ingle, Trump's spokesperson, confirmed the authenticity of the warning to the publication. Ingle added that insider trading restrictions are standard practice, rejecting claims that officials profited at the public's expense as "baseless and irresponsible" reporting.
Insider Trading Fears Hit Prediction Markets
The warning comes in the wake of reports of over $500 million in oil market bets made minutes before Trump's Iran announcement.
This is not the first time such suspicious activity has been observed. Earlier this year, a Polymarket trader turned $34K into $436K by betting on former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro's capture by the Trump administration.
Federal prosecutors are now probing Polymarket for potential violations of insider trading and other federal laws, following lucrative bets on the platform. In an interview with Axios this week, Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour said that he supports regulatory scrutiny over fraud and insider trading risks in the prediction market.
He emphasized the need for oversight to detect and punish bad actors, calling increased regulation a natural and positive step for the industry's growth.
