Comment Text:
I urge the Commission to adopt strong regulatory safeguards for event‑based derivatives traded on prediction markets. The rapid expansion of these markets raises significant concerns about market integrity, insider trading risks, and the growing tendency to turn sensitive real‑world events into financial instruments. Allowing contracts that hinge on military actions, foreign policy decisions, terrorism, assassination, or other government activities creates serious vulnerabilities, as individuals with access to nonpublic information could profit from decisions not yet known to the public. When people begin to suspect that governmental choices might intersect with private financial incentives, public confidence in institutions is undermined.
I respectfully request that the Commission clearly prohibit event contracts tied to military operations, acts of war, terrorism, political assassinations, and government policy decisions unrelated to financial markets, as these categories are fundamentally inconsistent with the public interest. Likewise, any contract whose outcome can be known ahead of time or influenced by a single person or small group is inherently prone to manipulation and should be presumed ineligible for approval. This includes award results, scheduled political remarks, corporate announcements, and any event where insiders possess definitive advance knowledge.
The Commodity Exchange Act gives the Commission both the authority and the obligation to establish firm boundaries around event contracts that pose risks to the public interest. I respectfully urge the Commission to bar these high‑risk categories, strengthen oversight and enforcement tools to detect insider trading, and place market integrity and public welfare above industry expansion. The increasing financialization of sensitive aspects of human life—including matters of war, mortality, and governance—should not move forward without meaningful protections. The Commission’s decisions in this rulemaking will signal whether our regulatory system prioritizes the public good or permits the monetization of events that should remain outside the scope of financial speculation.
