US House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer expanded an ongoing congressional investigation into insider trading on prediction markets, issuing formal inquiries to three digital asset platforms following a billion-dollar crypto trade tied to government tariff news. The committee’s scrutiny centers on whether market participants traded on nonpublic federal policy decisions, drawing new regulatory focus to platforms that allow wagers on political and economic outcomes.
Congressional Inquiry Expands to Hyperliquid, Crypto.com, and Aristotle Exchange
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer sent letters on Tuesday to the leadership of Hyperliquid, Crypto.com, and Aristotle Exchange, the parent company of PredictIt. The congressional expansion follows a suspicious short position placed on Hyperliquid ahead of an announcement by US President Donald Trump regarding proposed tariffs on China.
On October 10, 2025, President Trump stated publicly that China would face 100% tariffs, triggering a sharp decline across cryptocurrency markets. According to a committee letter addressed to Hyperliquid CEO Jeff Yan, investigators are examining transactions executed just before that policy announcement. The committee’s investigation originally launched in May, focusing initially on prediction platforms Kalshi and Polymarket following separate trading anomalies involving political and military wagers.
The 1.1 Billion Dollar Hyperliquid Short Position
On-chain analytics and financial tracking reports identified a massive short position executed on the decentralized trading platform Hyperliquid on October 10. Market analysts calculated that the transaction involved roughly 1.1 billion USD in Bitcoin and Ether. The associated wallet accumulated the short position merely one minute before President Trump’s public tariff post on social media.
The trade netted over 150 million US dollars in profit while liquidating positions using borrowed funds across the broader crypto market. On-chain investigators connected the wallet to whale Garrett Jin, a former CEO of BitForex. Jin publicly denied engaging in insider trading, stating that he executed the trades on behalf of a client. Because Hyperliquid operates on a public blockchain, transaction data remains transparent, but the identity of the ultimate beneficial owner is obscured behind an anonymous wallet address.
“This transaction, which is synchronized precisely with a nonpublic government decision and takes place on a platform that apparently does not enforce identity verification or forward reports to US authorities, reveals a pattern of insider trading that the committee is currently investigating within the prediction market sector,” Comer stated in correspondence cited by CNBC.
Regulatory Compliance Across Prediction Platforms
The three targeted entities handle user speculation under varying regulatory frameworks:
- Hyperliquid: A platform operating without standard identity verification or direct reporting channels to US authorities, utilized in the 1.1 billion USD Bitcoin and Ether short.
- Crypto.com: A regulated service providing US users access to wager on political events, economic indicators, and sports.
- Aristotle Exchange (PredictIt): A political prediction platform operating since 2014.
Prior congressional actions exposed similar vulnerabilities in the sector. In April, a soldier used inside knowledge of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to generate approximately 400,000 US dollars in profit on prediction wagers. In a separate compliance breach, Kalshi permanently banned George Santos from its platform after Santos placed bets on his own appearance during a State of the Union address.
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