On Oct 22, 2026, United States Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a directive prohibiting all Pentagon staff from leveraging undisclosed information to bet on upcoming military actions. The ban explicitly targets prediction market platforms, including Kalshi and Polymarket.
Hegseth warned that placing wagers based on non-public military details could reveal active operations to adversaries. Reporting by Felix Ng and editor Yohan Yun coincided with broader asset prices, including Bitcoin at $81,156.86, Ethereum at $2,386.40, Solana at $103.57, and XRP at $1.30.
For traders holding perpetual futures positions on Bitget, Bybit, MEXC, or OKX, this regulatory action changes nothing directly. The restriction applies strictly to defense personnel using prediction markets, leaving perpetual swap funding rates, trading fees, and market liquidity unaffected.
Source: cointelegraph — Pentagon bans US forces from using military info to bet in prediction markets