Asked for comment on the paper’s report, the White House did not deny that its staffers had been warned to bet on prediction markets about Iran, but noted that all federal employees are prohibited from trading or betting on inside information.
“Any suggestion that administration officials are involved in such activity without evidence is baseless and irresponsible reporting,” White House press secretary Davis Engle said in an email to CNBC on Friday.
“President Trump wants a strong and profitable stock market for everyone, but he has made clear that members of Congress and other government officials should be prohibited from using nonpublic information for economic gain,” Ingle said.
With the growing popularity of prediction markets such as Calci and Polymarket, questions about appropriate regulation and the possibility of insider trading are also increasing.
Rep. Richie Torres, D-N.Y., sent a letter earlier this week to Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul Atkins and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Michael Selig, asking for an investigation into irregular market activity ahead of President Trump’s March 23 announcement.
“What kind of trader would bet billions of dollars and make a huge, unhedged trade at 6:49 a.m., 15 minutes before a market-moving presidential announcement?” Torres asked in an interview with CNBC on Wednesday.
“The only plausible answer to that question is insider traders,” Torres said. “No other option is statistically possible.”
Calci and Polymarket both announced in separate statements released on the same day in March that they would be tightening rules around insider trading on their platforms.
