BlockBeats reported on July 22nd, citing Reuters, that prediction market platform Polymarket stated it will challenge the French regulator's decision to block its website through legal proceedings. Polymarket expressed disappointment at the regulator's sudden and unilateral action.

France last week asked local internet service providers to block Polymarket, citing concerns that the platform could cause significant losses to users and that parts of the marketplace are at risk of manipulation.

As prediction markets rapidly gain popularity, regulators in various countries are increasing their scrutiny. In May of this year, the Spanish government temporarily banned Polymarket and its competitor Kalshi from operating in the country; in June, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission released a new draft regulation for the prediction market industry.

According to BlockBeats, on July 22, the U.S. House Agriculture Committee's Subcommittee on Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development held a hearing to discuss how the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) can strengthen its regulation of prediction market platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket, and the potential role of the Clarity Act for Digital Asset Markets.

Carl Kennedy, a partner at the New York law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman, stated at the hearing that the CFTC is currently understaffed and struggling to effectively regulate the rapidly growing prediction market and digital asset sector. He believes that if the CLARITY Act is passed, it will grant the CFTC more regulatory authority and help it address the "explosive growth" of prediction markets.

Currently, CFTC Chairman Michael Selig argues that event contracts in the prediction market fall under the scope of swaps regulated by the Commodity Exchange Act, and therefore should be exclusively regulated by the CFTC. This position has sparked jurisdictional disputes between federal and state regulators, with several states previously filing lawsuits against Kalshi and Polymarket regarding the sports prediction market.

Market participants expect that the case may eventually be submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify the division of authority between the federal and state governments in regulating the forecasting market.

Furthermore, Republican lawmakers stated their intention to push for a vote on the CLARITY bill before Congress adjourns in August and will release the text of the bill soon. In June of this year, U.S. gaming industry organizations called for an explicit ban on contracts related to sporting events and casino betting in the CLARITY bill.

According to BlockBeats, July 21st marked a turning point for the 2026 FIFA World Cup prediction market. BlockBeats statistics show that Kalshi's total trading volume across its platform reached $54.338 billion during the World Cup, approximately 2.6 times that of Polymarket's $20.988 billion; World Cup-related event trading volume reached $13.591 billion, exceeding Polymarket's $10.356 billion by about 31%.

In terms of user growth, the Kalshi app saw 5.368 million downloads, far surpassing Polymarket's 2.136 million. The exposure from sideline advertising at the games is considered a key driver of Kalshi's widening lead. While Polymarket's website traffic led with 57.44 million visits, it failed to translate into a corresponding advantage in transaction volume and downloads.

On other platforms, Predict.fun had a total transaction volume of $1.092 billion, with $886 million related to the World Cup; Opinion had a total transaction volume of $1.137 billion, with approximately $561 million related to the World Cup; and Limitless had a total transaction volume of $446 million, with approximately $220 million related to the World Cup.

From a data perspective, Kalshi and Polymarket have formed a duopoly, together holding over 95% of the market share, while smaller platforms still lag behind by orders of magnitude in terms of absolute size. The World Cup has a significant "Super Bowl" effect on the prediction market—the industry concentration further increases during the event, and brand exposure and user acquisition efficiency are becoming the core variables determining the competitive landscape in the next stage.

According to a Bloomberg report on July 21, as prediction markets such as Polymarket and Kalshi expand, the issue of betting using non-public information or informational advantage is receiving more scrutiny. Bloomberg Businessweek analyzed approximately 34,000 potential insider trades flagged by Polysights between August 2025 and June 2026; these trades were characterized by new accounts, low-probability entry, large bets, or high concentration of trading activity, but this alone could not determine whether the traders violated rules.

Data shows that from January 1 to June 30 this year, suspicious transactions flagged on Polymarket amounted to approximately $200 million, with geopolitical and war-related markets driving a significant increase in unusual trading volume. Profits from potential insider trading were highly concentrated, with the top 1% of profitable wallets capturing more than half of the gains, and 57% of the related wallets being created less than 24 hours before the transactions.

Some traders are reducing their chances of being detected by using multiple linked wallets and splitting orders. For example, 38 linked addresses placed bets in 90 geopolitical markets related to Iran and Venezuela, achieving a 98% win rate and a total profit of $1.6 million, all of which were withdrawn through the same Coinbase deposit address.

Polymarket stated that it monitors insider trading and other illegal activities, and has to date handed over nearly 100 wallets to law enforcement agencies. Kalshi has also strengthened its identity and employment information vetting and restricted the participation of political candidates, athletes, and other individuals who could influence the outcome in the market.

According to BlockBeats, on July 20th, the prediction market AI platform insiders.bot officially announced its TGE (True Token Offering) on the Robinhood blockchain. The token name is $IN.

Insiders.bot is one of the officially authorized trading platforms of Polymarket, and was previously supported by HackQuest and Solana. In addition, the platform has announced collaborations with prediction market-related projects such as the APRO oracle and the Billioin live streaming platform, and its official roadmap will officially launch on the 21st.

Official information indicates that insiders.bot is expected to soon integrate with prediction market platforms such as Kalshi, World.xyz, Predict.fun, and Limitless.