The U.S. House Oversight Committee has expanded its inquiry to Hyperliquid, Crypto.com and Aristotle Exchange, the owner of PredictIt, asking how the platforms verify customers and flag suspicious trades. The probe centers on a reported crypto short position opened before President Donald Trump announced new tariffs on China. The wallet’s controller has not been confirmed, and trader Garrett Jin denies using inside information.
Large short position preceded tariff announcement
The trade under scrutiny dates to October 10, 2025. Trump said that day he would impose 100% tariffs on Chinese goods, prompting a sell-off in crypto markets. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said a Hyperliquid user opened a short position before the announcement became public, bringing the platform into a congressional inquiry into insider trading on online prediction markets.
Comer wrote to Hyperliquid CEO Jeff Yan but did not identify the trader in the letter. He said the position was established before the tariff announcement and that the committee is examining whether people are using nonpublic information to profit as online prediction platforms grow in popularity.
On-chain analysis has identified a roughly $1.1 billion short position in bitcoin and ether on Hyperliquid that was tracked that day. The wallet reportedly increased its short exposure about one minute before Trump’s post and made more than $150 million after prices fell. About $19 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated across the market that day.
On-chain investigators have linked the wallet to Garrett Jin, the former CEO of BitForex. Jin has denied insider trading, saying he was trading on behalf of clients. Hyperliquid’s transaction records are public on the blockchain, making wallet addresses visible, but that does not establish who controls an address in the real world.
Three platforms asked for customer and trading records
Comer’s letters to Hyperliquid, Crypto.com and Aristotle Exchange seek information about their know-your-customer (KYC) procedures and how they detect and handle suspicious activity. Crypto.com offers U.S. users regulated prediction-market services covering politics, sports and the economy. PredictIt has operated prediction markets tied to political events since 2014.
The inquiry previously included Kalshi and Polymarket. Comer opened the investigation in May, and the two platforms have submitted nearly 1,000 documents to Congress. The expanded inquiry is focused on how platforms verify who is actually using an account and identify bets that may rely on nonpublic information.
The committee’s scrutiny follows several controversies involving prediction markets. In April, a service member was charged with allegedly making about $400,000 from trades tied to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro using inside information. Kalshi also imposed a lifetime trading ban on former U.S. Representative George Santos after he bet on whether he would attend the State of the Union address.
Public information does not establish that the committee has found the Hyperliquid trade unlawful, and the wallet’s actual controller has not been disclosed. The platforms’ responses on customer verification and suspicious-trade monitoring are expected to be central to the inquiry.