Prediction Firms Are Flagging Insider Traders. Many Will Not Face Charges.

Experts have long warned that the evermore popular prediction markets would be a magnet for insider traders. New numbers suggest they are right.

In the three months ending in June, Kalshi, a leading prediction market, referred 32 possible insider traders to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the small federal agency that oversees the industry. And Kalshi is but one of 13 firms that allow people to wager on how specific events will unfold.

The trading commission has as many as 20 ongoing investigations based just on Kalshi’s evidence, according to people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe confidential inquiries.

by NYT > Business

Ex-Fashion CEO Compared to Elizabeth Holmes as US Seeks Sentence

Prosecutors compared the founder of the fashion-rental and technology company CaaStle Inc. to Elizabeth Holmes as they sought a 12 1/2 year prison sentence in the $300 million securities fraud case.

Prosecutors claim Christine Hunsicker duped hundreds of investors, lying about the company’s value and using faked financial statements beginning in 2019. Hunsicker portrayed the company as a runaway success despite knowing that CaaStle was in dire financial trouble, according to the government.

The sentence would be longer than the 11 1/4 years Holmes was given — later reduced by a year — in a far more high-profile case related to her blood-testing startup, Theranos Inc. While Holmes was accused of defrauding more than 30 investors of more than $800 million, prosecutors in Hunsicker’s case said in a filing Tuesday that both of the former executives “destroyed more wealth than most people could imagine.”

by Bloomberg Law

Digital gold, copper and uranium: prospectors stake bets on metals-crypto fusion

Mining and technology groups are developing crypto tokens linked to metals including gold, copper and uranium, as executives look to capitalise on ballooning metals prices and fuse investor excitement about the crypto and minerals worlds.

The projects are being billed as an easier way for retail investors to gain exposure to physical metals than traditional commodity trading, as a route into the metals sector for crypto enthusiasts looking to diversify into “real world” assets and as a novel way to fund mining projects. [...]

But some experts say the complexities of tokenisation and of the mining industry present risks for non-specialists and note that tokenising metals is in its early stages.

“The trend for tokenised gold is far more about the trend for trying to launch tokenised gold than it is about the demand,” said Adrian Ash, director of research at online trading platform BullionVault. “We’ve seen dozens of gold-backed tokens come and go. There just isn’t the appetite.”

by FT